WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas.
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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted up,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, welcome to inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you
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to do the same.
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Kristen, Welcome, Hi doctor, How are you doing good?
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Hey, I'm excited to have you here. I think that
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your story is going to be very fascinating for people.
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And you know, like I always like, I always say,
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it's so interesting to hear someone's story and see how
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they have taken that story and become someone who is
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making a difference for others. And so what I'd love
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for you to do, is sure your story, go back
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as far as you need to, and kind of share
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your story about what brought you to this point of
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doing what you're doing.
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Yes, I would love to do that. So most recently,
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I just published a book called Be the You That's
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more You than You've ever been. And if you want
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me to circle back to the origins of that book,
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we actually have to backtrack to nineteen ninety nine. I
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wrote the book back then and subsequently got into a
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marriage that was psychologically abusive. And when you're in that
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kind of manipulation and control, you don't realize it's happening
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until you're basically nothing. So I did miraculously get out
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before I was completely gone, and it took a while
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to settle my nervous system down once I did, and
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I did that ultimately through meditation. Now meditation takes a
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lot of forms, but that's what that's what I did,
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and I started to hear, I started to connect again
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with my truth, my true self, whatever you want to
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call it. My true self told me to go find
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the book I wrote in nineteen ninety nine. I barely
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remembered I wrote it, but I'm a digital hoarder, and
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I had it digitally, so I dug it out and
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the book started with the first chapter was eight exercises,
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And as I went through the exercises, I realized that
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what they were designed to do was to and cover
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your truth, uncover connect you back to your inner voice
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that is all knowing. And I thought to myself, who
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wrote these exercises? They're brilliant, But I also use them
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to find my way back to myself. In the process
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of doing that, through going through the book that I
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originally wrote then and have now largely rewritten, but kept
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the same sort of structure goal. So through that process,
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compounded by meditation and journaling, I was advised my true self,
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as weird as that may sound, to create something called
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the Paara More Paradox ecosystem. And the basis of that
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ecosystem is the book be the you that's more you
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than you've ever been.
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Wonderful now, you know, And it's interesting what I find interesting,
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And I happen to come from a theological background, so
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forgive me if I go somewhere you don't want to go.
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But what's fascinating to me is this concept.
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Of the me and all of a sudden, this inspiration
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or whatever you want to call it that actually comes
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to us, and I think it's fascinating to know that
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it's there, it's real, it isn't something that's just made up.
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That it's true inspiration that is available to you. And
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as you say, meditation makes a huge difference with that
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because as you meditate it, it takes you away from
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all that other external stuff and allows you to kind
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of tap into that. And I think it's important for
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people to understand that you know what it's there, and
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it's there for you, and that's important.
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So let's talk a little bit about what I find
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it interesting.
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As I've interviewed numbers of people and even considered this myself.
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I got I've got four kids, okay, And you know,
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as we talk about parenting, I always wonder, and I
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do have discussion with my kids about this, but I
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always wonder what things did I do as a parent
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that I wasn't even aware of that might have had
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an effect on them and their perception to the point
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that it might not have been a positive experience for them.
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And we've discovered there are a few of those things.
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But when you talk about psychological abuse.
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And I think for a number of people that are listening,
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both women and men, because men go through the same thing,
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explain what were some of the things that were going
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on that number one, really were causing that psychological abuse
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and number two, why you didn't pick up on that's
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what was going on.
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That It brings out a deep breath in me because
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you know, when I tell you that the abuse, anybody
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who hasn't gone through it, and even some people who
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are in the midst of it, it doesn't sound like abuse, right.
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It's not the getting socked in the face. It doesn't
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leave you know, scars and bruises and cuts and swollen
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you know, parts of your body. And that is all.
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I am definitely not downplaying that. I mean, it's awful,
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it's it's terrible. That being said, it is something you
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can see, right, psychological abuse is so subtle that and
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it's designed for you not to see it happening. So examples,
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and you know, the thing is, it's not it's not
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any one thing. The things that I tell you are
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going to be seem so like stupid really, but it's
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the constant every second of the day, every second of
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the day, these things happening that whittle away at you
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so that you just don't exist anymore. So it's things
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like waking up, bringing a cup of coffee, being told
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that the coffee is not right or that it could
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be better. Don't talk until she's had her cup of coffee.
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Once she's had her cup of coffee, I'm allowed to talk,
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but I have to stop talking at five because that's
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when the TV comes on and the drinking starts. And
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we both were guilty of drinking. So it's not not
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just her. It's the Let me teach you how to
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clean a cutting board because you don't do it right.
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Let me teach you how to choose an avocado and
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then cut the avocado and then serve the avocado. Let
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me teach you how to what detergent to buy, which changed.
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When she's depressed, I have to purchase the cheapest products,
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and when she's in a different state, I have to
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to do organic, and you know know, so I could
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never get it right. You know, it's I mean, the
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list goes on, but it's all these little trivial I
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used to take pictures of products in the grocery store
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and text them to her and say, you know, which
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brand do you want in which flavor? Because if I
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got it wrong, it wasn't a yell, it wasn't a punch,
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It was a deep sign eye roll. And maybe you
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know you waste so much of our money by getting
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the wrong thing, that kind of thing constant.
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How far this is what fascinates me. And believe me,
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we have all experiences me too. How far did you
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get into that relationship before you started noticing things? Or
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was this from the very get going? You just did
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not pick up on the red flags?
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So upon reflection, it was from the get go, but
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it did amplify as time went on. But the reason
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I I think I didn't see it. I actually just
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had this revelation a couple of weeks ago that she
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used my prior trauma against me. So I had been
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sexually assaulted and raped when I was young, and I
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had a lot of fear around safety, my physical safety,
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and she was a police officer, and so she created
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a life where I believed in order to be safe,
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I had to be kept safe by her, and so
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in effect she turned my abuse into the control mechanism.
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When I was fifty three, so four years ago, I
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underwent intensive trauma therapy. A lot of people have heard
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of EMDR. This was done by an EMDR therapist, but
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it's something called progressive counting, but it's the same sort
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of thing. It was eight hours a day for six days,
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and when I left his office, he said to me, now,
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for the next two years, things are going to change,
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because you've just set down a huge load. And quite frankly,
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those words scared me because I didn't want things to change.
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I mean, change is scary, right, And I also didn't
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think I had a bad marriage because we never fought.
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But what I didn't realize was we never fought because
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I was trained to never disagree right. And so over
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the next two years things did change, and I would
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have these moments of realizing that it wasn't right, but
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whenever I did, we actually would have all little conflicts
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because all of a sudden I wasn't behaving, I wasn't
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staying in line. So it started early on, it got
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intensified as time went, and certainly once she started to
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sense that the grip she had on me wasn't as solid,
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the control efforts escalated. But in a way that's good,
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because it escalated to a point where I could actually
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see it. You know, my dad calls it the frog
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in the pot, which I'm sure a lot of you
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have heard of. You know, you put a frog and
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boiling water, it hops out. You put a frog and
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water and gently increase the temperature, it boils to death,
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you know. And that's what my dad called me. It
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was the frog in the pot.
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Wow.
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And so at this point in time, what are you doing?
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What are you doing? Are you retired? Are you coaching people?
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Are you helping people?
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What? What are you doing other than bringing forth that
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book which will be published one where you broadcast this?
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Yeah? So the book is the foundation of there's sort
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of two things I'm doing. There's my big passion project,
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which is the umbrella under which everything else is housed.
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A pair more paradox. Ecosystem is made up of a book,
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a journal, an app, T shirts which sound like they
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don't belong, but they do if you look at what
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they are, a course which is still under development in
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a community. And did I mention the app? I think
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I did. That's not really my money maker, so to speak.
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And I have no idea if it ever will be.
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It exists because I was told to do it. And
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I think it will help people. The more career part
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of what I do is I'm a certified divorce coach
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and while I work with all populations, straight men, straight women, whatever,
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my specialty, my niche that I really want to speak
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to is lesbian women in psychologically abusive marriages. There are
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some special nuances to worse when you're in a gay relationship.
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I happen to be a lesbian, so it's easier for
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me to you know, zero in on that. And there
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are certainly special nuances that happen in psychologically abusive divorces,
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and so I have decided to target that group specifically
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because I think I can bring a lot of special experience.
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But I do work with you know, other people as well.
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Okay, so, and.
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You bring up an interesting point because what you're talking
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about is applicable to straight marriages, whatever, but you're focusing
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on that lesbian situation and you talk about special nuances.
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And for those that are listening that may be experiencing
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this and fit into that category, what are the nuances
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or someone who is lesbian that is experiencing that.
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Yes, And I I just realized that is a super
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important question that I'm going to answer in plenty of detail,
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but I just realized I didn't clarify a pair. More paradox,
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the full ecosystem is not gay specific. It's not divorced specific.
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It's about anybody facing that existential question of who am I?
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So people retiring, empty nesters, you know whatever. So let
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me put that to the side down to address your questions.
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So with lesbian relationships, whether they are psychologically abusive or
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perfectly healthy, we weren't allowed to marry until relatively recently.
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So for example, I've been married for twenty two years,
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but the first part of that wasn't legal marriage. We
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did wind up getting legally married, but it wasn't legal.
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A lot of women I know lesbian couples don't bother,
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didn't bother getting married formally because they'd already been in
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their marriage for ten fifteen years, Like why do we
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need the piece of paper? So, in either situation, whether
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it's a committed relationship that was never sanctioned by the
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government or whether it actually was a formal marriage, some
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of the nuances that crop up are around the asset division.
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If you aren't legally married, you know, do you really
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get the proper distribution of assets if you have a child.
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In some places, and sometimes that could be a pretty
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serious challenge, the birth mother would definitely be seen as
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the mother, and the question is whether the other partner
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is or not. In some cases yes, in some cases no.