008. How Do I Know What a Healthy Relationship Is for Me? Choosing a Partner After Childhood Trauma

Heal First Then Pick Your Life Partner: Relational Recovery When You Have CPTSD · Oct 24, 2026 · 25m

A listener wrote to me this week with a question I hear constantly from survivors of childhood trauma: how do I clearly choose what a healthy relationship is for me? She grew up in a home where the people who were supposed to protect her didn't, and built a life on the mantra that no one is coming to save her. Now, decades into a marriage that has been more about keeping the peace than being met, she's asking the questions so many of us ask: Did I choose this person because they felt safe, not because they were healthy? Is what I'm getting enough? And am I being walked all over?

In this…