It’s hard to know what healthy womanhood is when you’re husband is emotionally abusive. Find out why.

What Is Healthy Womanhood?

Healthy womanhood is about embracing who you are and prioritizing your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. For women, this means recognizing that your path doesn’t have to fit any mold. It’s about balancing your responsibilities with self-care in a way that feels right for you. Whether it’s finding a support group that’s right for you or eating a carrot a day, find what works best for you. Healthy womanhood is about accepting yourself and listening to your own needs. That’s why women who are experiencing emotional abuse from their husband experience ruptures in the health of their womanhood. This emotional abuse takes the form of . . .

• Being told what she should look or act like
• Being manipulated to do things that aren’t in her best interest
• Being deceived and having the truth withheld from her to control her choices and perceptions
• Being gaslighted, making her question her own reality and self-worth
• Being criticized and belittled for her thoughts, feelings, and actions
• Being isolated from friends and family

This type of emotional abuse can cause serious damage to healthy womanhood. It undermines her confidence and can lead to physical health problems such as headaches, digestive issues, and chronic pain. In order to maintain a healthy state of womanhood, it is crucial for women to recognize these signs of emotional abuse.

Healthy Womanhood Means Being True To Yourself

Abusive men often condition women to isolate themselves, ignore their own safety needs, and bury their values. Tragically, many faith communities glorify a husband’s emotional abuse and undermine healthy womanhood by counseling women to . . .

• Have sexual contact with her husband even if she feels emotionally unsafe (suggesting that sex will help the situation).
• Ignore her self-care needs to put her emotionally abusive husband’s desires first.
• Adopt her husband’s political, religious, and societal viewpoints while ignoring her own.
• Improve communication, do date nights, go to couple therapy, study religious texts together, all while she’s still being emotionally abused by him
• Do everything possible to avoid divorce.
• Support her abusive husband’s career, by taking care of everything at home, leaving her unable to be financially independent or have means to support herself.

Healthy womanhood begins when women recognize that their emotional safety is a priority, recognize emotional abuse, and begin their healing journey.

Education & Empowerment Fuel Healthy Womanhood

Emotional abusers and their enablers often discourage women from seeking education and empowerment by:

• Discouraging higher education.
• Discouraging career ambitions.
• Pushing the idea that women in the workplace is dangerous.
• Discouraging women from seeking support or trying new hobbies.

Women oppressed through covert means may face sulking, coercion, threats, or withholding behaviors from their husbands, preventing them from being empowered through education.

What’s The First Step To Coming To Yourself Again?

Empowerment through education is essential for women healing from their husband’s emotional abuse. Women can take small steps toward empowerment, such as:

• Become educated about emotional abuse, listen to the Betrayal Trauma Recovery Podcast to learn more.
• Attend an Online Support Group to meet other women who understand. We recommend Betrayal Trauma Recovery Group Sessions. Click here to see the daily Group Session Schedule.
• Re-engage in one small activity you used to enjoy.
• List childhood dreams
• Reach out to old and new friends

Healing A Wounded Sense of Self

Betrayal Trauma Recovery (BTR.ORG) is dedicated to women’s empowerment. Our mission is to help women emerge from the fog of emotional and psychological abuse and sexual coercion and live lives of peace and safety. Women deserve nothing less.

Anne Blythe, founder of Betrayal Trauma Recovery, emphasizes:

“At BTR.ORG, we know there’s no limit to what women can accomplish. We affirm every woman’s right to emotional, sexual, and financial safety.”

Victims of emotional abuse and betrayal deserve a safe place to share their stories, process trauma, ask questions, and connect with others who understand.

That’s why the Betrayal Trauma Recovery Group meets daily in multiple time zones. Attend a Group Session TODAY and meet other women who value healthy womanhood.