Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, is joined by author Sally Lefton Wolfe for a deeply personal conversation about Holocaust survival, intergenerational trauma, grief, and learning to express emotions after growing up in a family where so much went unspoken.

Sally was raised by two Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia who endured multiple concentration camps. Her parents were loving, but the enormity of what they had survived was rarely discussed. As a child, Sally knew something was different. She had no grandparents, fewer relatives than many of her friends, and a mother who experienced nightmares and intense reactions connected to...

Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, is joined by Dr. Christine M. Cocchiola, DSW, LCSW, an internationally recognized expert on coercive control and its impact on adult and child victims. Dr. Cocchiola earned her Doctorate in Clinical Social Work from NYU, where she was mentored by Dr. Evan Stark, and now works as a college professor, therapeutic parenting and divorce/custody coach, advocate, author, educator, and survivor. She is the creator of The Protective Parenting Program, host of Perfect Prey: A Coercive Control Podcast, author of Every Moment of Every Day, and co-author of FRAMED: Women in the Family Court Underworld.<...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, sits down with Sheila Lowe, a certified forensic handwriting examiner with a Master of Science in Psychology and the author of nonfiction, forensic mystery, paranormal suspense, and memoir. Her book Growing from the Ashes chronicles the spiritual journey that followed the murder of her daughter, Jennifer, in 2000. 

Sheila begins with her childhood in England and her upbringing in the Jehovah’s Witness faith, a religious environment she now describes as a cult. She later married a congregation elder who was admired and trusted in public but abu...

Why can you fully understand that a relationship is harming you and still feel unable to leave?

Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, is joined by Kendall Brown, a certified Women’s Somatic Trauma & Relationship Coach and creator of The Secure Woman Era. After nearly a decade in back-to-back relationships with avoidant, emotionally abusive, and narcissistic men, Kendall began examining the childhood wounds and protective patterns that kept drawing her back into the same relationship cycle.

Kendall explains her approach to somatic shadow work, which combines an exploration of the rejected or hidden parts of the self wi...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Liz Spicer, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a certified functional medicine practitioner, and a trauma-informed coach who helps women rebuild their lives after emotionally abusive relationships.

Liz spent twenty years in a marriage marked by emotional abuse before leaving at age fifty and beginning the difficult process of rediscovering herself. Together, Jessica and Liz explore the grief that follows leaving a long-term relationship, why healing often begins only after the relationship ends, and how the "Traitor Within" can keep survivors questioning themselves long...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Kiki Mullican, a certified neuroscience coach with an undergraduate degree in psychology and more than 20 years of experience in mental health, human services, suicide prevention, case management, and community support. Kiki’s work focuses on childhood conditioning, toxic family systems, scapegoating, trauma patterns, and the ways early experiences shape adult relationships, identity, and survival strategies.

Kiki shares how her fascination with psychology began as a child in the library, reading books she hoped would help her understand and fix the painful dynamics inside her fa...

In this deeply moving episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with psychologist, author, speaker, and podcast host Dr. Louise Beaubrun-Macaluso for a conversation about unimaginable loss, trauma, resilience, people-pleasing, grief, and discovering purpose after adversity.

At just nineteen years old, Dr. Louise survived a devastating house fire that claimed the lives of five family members, including three of her younger sisters. She sustained third-degree burns over more than 70 percent of her body, underwent countless surgeries, and experienced limb amputations. Faced with overwhelming physical and emotional trauma, she made a life-changing decision: she would...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Lisa Johnson, co-founder of Been There Got Out, high-conflict divorce strategist, certified domestic violence advocate, author, and legal abuse educator.

Lisa shares her extraordinary journey through high-conflict divorce, representing herself through scores of court appearances, helping pass Jennifers’ Law in Connecticut, and having her own case published in the Connecticut Law Journal, where it is now being used as legal precedent. Jennifers’ Law made Connecticut the third state in America to expand its legal definition of domestic violence to include coercive control.

Toge...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with therapist, author, and educator Jennifer Parker, MSSW, for a powerful conversation about coercive control, intimate partner abuse, healing, and the internalized messages survivors carry long after a relationship ends.

Jennifer is the author of Coercive Relationships: Find the Answers You Seek and the creator of the Journey to Healing intervention framework. Through her work with Find Your Voice: End the Silence, she trains therapists to better recognize coercive control and support survivors of abuse with greater skill, awareness, and compassion.

Together, Jessica...

The Business Behind the Trauma: Self-Sabotage, People-Pleasing, and the Entrepreneur's Traitor Within with Nikki Heyder. 

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with psychotherapist, author, and business mentor Nikki Heyder for a powerful conversation about the psychological patterns that quietly shape our careers, businesses, relationships, and sense of self-worth.

Drawing from her unique background in both psychotherapy and business, Nikki explores the hidden reasons so many entrepreneurs struggle to execute even when they know exactly what they need to do. Together, Jessica and Nikki discuss self-sabotage, people-pleasing, perfectionism, hyper-independence, fear o...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Caroline Strawson, award-winning nervous system expert, Hay House author, speaker, and survivor of domestic abuse, coercive control, homelessness, and profound personal adversity. Caroline shares the deeply personal journey that led her from PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks, debt, and the loss of her family home to becoming one of the leading voices in nervous system healing and trauma recovery today.

Together, Jessica and Caroline explore the connection between childhood wounds, narcissistic abuse, codependency, trauma responses, and the nervous system. They discuss functional freeze, emotional regulation...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Dr. Debra Kessler, a licensed clinical psychologist, child neurodiversity specialist, and former pediatric nurse with more than 20 years of experience helping families better understand the emotional, neurological, and developmental needs of children. Together, they explore how the “Traitor Within” begins forming in childhood through messaging, modeling, attachment wounds, and family systems, and how those early survival strategies later shape adult relationships, identity, self-worth, and emotional regulation.

Jessica and Dr. Kessler discuss intergenerational trauma, nervous system regulation, neurodiversity, emotional attunement, parenting dynamics, and the ways chil...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with filmmaker Ali Schmahl and actress/producer Stefanie Schmahl to discuss their psychological drama I Love You My Narcissist, a film exploring the devastating emotional impact of narcissistic relationships and the patterns that keep people trapped inside them. Through fictional storytelling grounded in real psychological dynamics, the film follows two survivors navigating manipulation, trauma bonding, emotional confusion, and the long process of reclaiming themselves.

Jessica, Ali, and Stefanie discuss the importance of bringing narcissistic abuse “out of the darkness,” how film can help people recognize patt...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Erika Fracassa, creator of Delusional to Discerning, to explore the confusion, cognitive dissonance, and emotional chaos that often exist inside narcissistic relationships. After spending 15 years in a relationship that left her questioning her own reality, Erika now helps others reconnect with their intuition and rebuild self-trust through education, pattern recognition, and radical honesty.

Together, Jessica and Erika discuss trauma bonds, narcissistic supply, gaslighting, self-abandonment, and the role of the Traitor Within in keeping people stuck in unhealthy dynamics. They also explore the grief that...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with therapist, speaker, and author Amy Watkins to explore how childhood conditioning shapes the way we move through relationships, identity, and self-worth. Amy shares her deeply personal story of growing up in a high-control religious environment, surviving sexual abuse, and learning how the coping mechanisms that once kept her safe became the “Traitor Within” patterns that followed her into adulthood. Together, Jessica and Amy discuss trauma bonding, people-pleasing, religious shame, dissociation, narcissistic family systems, and the painful but transformative process of finally choosing yourself. They also explore what...

 In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Victoria Lynn PonTell, speaker, mentor, and creator of the 7 Keys to Unlocking Your Radiant Beauty. Together, they explore the concept of the Traitor Within and how patterns like self-doubt, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and inner criticism keep women disconnected from their true selves. Victoria shares her personal journey of overcoming these patterns and how she now helps others reclaim their confidence and self-worth. This conversation focuses on emotional resilience, mindset shifts, and the process of moving from self-betrayal to self-trust—highlighting how true transformation begins when you stop aba...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Carissa Brockman, Canadian Certified Counsellor and trauma-trained somatic therapist, to explore the deeper psychological and nervous system patterns behind trauma bonds and narcissistic relationships. Carissa shares her personal story of being in an abusive relationship while studying to become a therapist, and how cognitive dissonance, early belief systems, and the nervous system keep people stuck even when they “know” something is wrong. Together, they unpack how the Traitor Within forms, why survivors stay, and why leaving is only the beginning of the healing process. The conversation also...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Lisa Sonni, relationship coach and expert in trauma bond recovery, to explore why people stay in abusive dynamics and how those patterns form. They discuss trauma bonds, cognitive dissonance, and emotional entrapment, and how these connect to the Traitor Within—the internal pattern that overrides intuition and keeps you stuck. Lisa shares her Break & Rebuild Method and offers insight into how survivors can begin to reclaim their identity, self-worth, and clarity.

About Lisa Sonni:
Lisa Sonni is an internationally recognized re...

In this powerful episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Dr. John A. King—survivor, author, and advocate—to explore the long-term impact of childhood trauma and the patterns we develop to survive it.

Dr. King shares his deeply personal story of early abuse, memory fragmentation, and the moment his past resurfaced later in life. He speaks openly about how survival mechanisms—like emotional suppression, masking, and hyper-awareness—helped him endure trauma, but later became barriers to healing.

Together, they unpack how these protective strategies evolve into what Jessica calls the Traitor...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with psychotherapist and author Kristine Jensen to explore how childhood shame shapes the way we see ourselves—and the patterns we repeat in adulthood.

Kristine shares how early experiences of emotional neglect and feeling “not enough” can quietly turn into self-doubt, perfectionism, and a harsh inner critic. Together, they connect this to the Traitor Within—the part of us that once protected us, but now keeps us stuck in cycles of pressure, overperformance, and self-attack.

They discuss why these patterns are often misunderstood as perso...

Rewiring the Patterns That Keep You Stuck

Show Notes:
In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler is joined by therapist and relationship educator Savannah Kizzie-Rai for a powerful conversation about the patterns that quietly shape our relationships—and how they keep us stuck.

Savannah’s work centers on nervous system regulation, communication patterns, and emotional safety. Drawing from clinical psychology, family systems theory, and neuroscience-informed approaches, she helps individuals understand how fear, conditioning, and past experiences influence how we show up in connection with others. 

Together, Jessica and S...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW sits down with psychotherapist, author, and narcissistic abuse expert Chelsey Brooke Cole for a deeply honest conversation about how childhood wounds, trauma bonds, and the Traitor Within can keep people stuck in toxic relationships.

Chelsey shares her personal story of growing up with a narcissistic father, how those early patterns shaped her adult relationships, and what it was like to survive not one but two narcissistic marriages. Together, Jessica and Chelsey talk about betrayal blindness, shame, trauma bonding, vulnerable versus grandiose narcissism, and the painful reality...

Your Traitor Within: Healing the Parts That Learned to Survive with Dr. Eva Altobelli

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW sits down with Dr. Eva Altobelli, MD, addiction psychiatrist and founder of Home-LA, a holistic mental health center in Los Angeles that integrates psychiatry, psychotherapy, and ketamine-assisted therapy.

Dr. Altobelli shares how childhood experiences can shape the internal survival patterns we carry into adulthood — patterns that sometimes become what Jessica calls the “Traitor Within.” Together they explore how automatic reactions formed in childh...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW speaks with Marriage and Family Therapist Pinkal Panchal about how the emotional patterns we learn in childhood can quietly shape the way we communicate, handle conflict, and build relationships as adults.

Pinkal shares her personal “Traitor Within” story and how growing up in a household where conflict meant silence taught her that avoiding communication was the safest response. What once protected her as a child eventually began showing up in her marriage as stonewalling and emotional distance.

Together, Jessica and Pink...

In this episode, Jessica welcomes Yolanda Reshemah, a visionary and creative catalyst whose work is rooted in relationships, courage, and elevating people’s stories. Yolanda shares the “Traitor Within” pattern she recently identified in herself: waiting for permission, waiting to be seen, waiting for someone else to validate her before she fully steps into leadership, opportunity, and voice.

Together, they unpack how this pattern can show up in career decisions, speaking opportunities, and friendships that look “full” on the surface but aren’t truly reciprocal. Jessica connects the dots to how these internal patterns often begin early...

Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW is joined by psychotherapist and author Kristen Baird-Goldman to talk about why ADHD and other neurodivergent traits can make people especially vulnerable to narcissistic manipulation. They unpack the “self-blame loop,” rejection sensitivity, rumination (“my day in court”), trauma bonding, and why working with an ADHD-informed, trauma-informed therapist can be the difference between healing and being retraumatized.

About Kristen
 Kristen Baird-Goldman, LMFT, ATR, ADHD-CCSP, CIMHP is the author of The CBT Workbook for Adult ADHD and the founder/director of Baird Integrated Therapy, an integrative psychotherapy practice and ADHD center.

Find Kristen

Season 2 of Your Traitor Within opens with a powerful conversation between Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, and abuse recovery coach Beany, founder of Breakthroughs with Beany.

Beany shares her deeply personal story of surviving a decade-long abusive relationship, the trauma bond that kept her stuck, and how her “Traitor Within” — the internal voice shaped by early wounds — convinced her to endure instead of leave. Together, Jessica and Beany unpack the psychology behind narcissistic abuse, love bombing, cognitive dissonance, intermittent reinforcement, and why leaving is rarely a single moment.

This episode explores:

• How trauma bonding can feel l...

In this deeply personal episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with her longtime friend Margaret Josephs for an honest conversation about how childhood conditioning quietly shapes adult relationships — and how learning to recognize that internal “traitor” voice can change everything.

Margaret reflects on growing up parentified, learning early to normalize chaos, over-responsibility, and emotional self-silencing. She shares how those early survival patterns followed her into adulthood, influencing the red flags she excused, the control she tolerated, and the guilt that kept her staying longer than she should have. What looks like strength from the ou...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, talks with certified recovery coach Paula Devine, founder of Happiest Hour Concierge Sobriety. For over 30 years, alcohol was woven into Paula’s life — from high school and college partying to a career in the liquor industry and then into the “mommy wine culture” of early motherhood. On the outside she was high-functioning, involved, and “doing it all.” On the inside she was living with anxiety, hangovers, shame, and the quiet realization that alcohol was slowly dulling who she really was.

Paula shares how her Traitor Within showed up th...

Your Traitor Within — (@timstagramcpt)

In this episode, Jessica welcomes transformation coach and personal trainer Tim Kassouf, whose story is a striking example of what can happen when insecurity, perfectionism, and pain go unspoken for too long — and what becomes possible when someone finally turns toward the truth of their life.

Tim talks openly about the body-image wounds he carried since childhood, the pressure to perform his way into worth, and how those early messages eventually shaped a devastating addiction to Adderall and heroin. He describes the collapse of his first marriage, the...

In this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, sits down with dating and confidence coach Terri Boucher (@terri_boucher) to explore how the Traitor Within shows up in modern dating. Terri shares her story of growing up in chaos, emotional neglect, poverty, and hyper independence, and how those early wounds pushed her into survival mode, masculine energy, and relationships with emotionally unavailable men. Jessica and Terri discuss how trauma and protective parts shape our dating choices, why so many women end up chasing, settling, or abandoning themselves, and what it actually takes to step into authenticity...

Emily Colligan is a somatic trauma and narcissistic abuse recovery coach who helps women break trauma-bond cycles, regulate their nervous system, and rebuild a secure sense of self after toxic relationships. Through body-based healing, attachment work, and deep pattern rewiring, Emily guides clients out of survival mode and into the grounded, empowered version of themselves they've never been allowed to be.

Connect with Emily:
 Instagram: @emilycolligantherapy
 Website: emilycolligantherapy.com

Support the show

In honor of National Adoption Month, Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, sits down with her longtime friend and fellow adoptee, Barbara Eckert of All The Feels Healing Space, to share the parts of their adoption stories that shaped their “Traitor Within” — the protective inner voice that helped them survive but later drove people-pleasing, over-trusting, secrecy, and self-silencing. They discuss late disclosures, abandoned fantasies about birth families, the “primal wound,” somatic fallout, and practical tools for repair, including breathwork, therapy, and community. This candid conversation offers language, validation, and next steps for adult adoptees and adoptive parents alike. 

Jessica Anne Pressl...

"My brother used to openly call himself a master manipulator — he was proud of it.
And honestly, he did have a lot of people manipulated, including my parents.
The painful irony is that when he died at forty from an overdose, my father — the one who had been so controlled by him — was the most devastated. He died six months later.
My mother was already gone.
And while I can’t prove it, I’ve always believed the stress my brother caused helped take her, too.
The point isn’t the tragedy, though. The point is tha...

In Part 2, Jessica and David J. Weeks (@djweeks_) move from the facts of David’s childhood into the adult fallout—and the work of repair. David traces how early chaos trained his body to confuse intensity with intimacy, how disorganized attachment and the survival role of “the chameleon” kept him safe then but costly now, and how narcissistic partners can exploit abandonment wounds through tactics like love-bombing, power imbalance, and data mining (“gaining information to use later against you”). He also reframes trafficking: it isn’t onl...

(Part 1)

Content note: Discussion of childhood abuse and sexual assault/trafficking (non-graphic).

Summary
Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, sits with David J. Weeks—a complex-trauma survivor and Trauma & Recovery Coach—to tell the truth of his childhood and the long road back. Raised by a narcissistic mother and an antisocial stepfather, David endured years of torment. By age 14, he had experienced all 10 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). At 13, while searching for love he never received at home, he was exploited and...

Join me with Marge Sr. (Margaret Kiss, @margesr) as she reflects on fleeing communist Hungary as a child, rebuilding her life in the U.S., navigating intergenerational wounds, and choosing daily acts of love over hate—while also offering hard-earned wisdom on mental health, advocacy, and staying grounded in turbulent times.

@margesr 

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On this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler welcomes a dear friend and creative powerhouse, photographer Janet Barnett. Jessica and Janet’s friendship is rooted not only in their professional collaborations—Jessica has been one of Janet’s subjects, using her portraits across her own platforms—but also in the deep mutual respect and trust they share. That closeness gives this conversation an intimacy and candor that you’ll feel instantly.

Janet’s story begins on the Sunset Strip of the late ’80s and early ’90s, where she captured the swagger of rock stars in their n...

Jessica Anne Pressler, LCSW, and producer Anthony have a candid, non-graphic conversation about C-PTSD and Jessica’s experience surviving a suicidal crisis—naming the “Traitor Within,” how emotional flashbacks show up, and the small nervous-system tools that helped her choose to stay. Short, compassionate, and practical. (If you need help in the U.S., call or text 988.)

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On this episode of Your Traitor Within, Jessica Anne Pressler sits down with Stephanie Schultz—founder of Blue Blood Metal Jewelry
, Senior Art Consultant with SH Modern, and Pure Barre Fort Myers
instructor. Stephanie’s journey has taken her from museum fundraising to the world of fine art and one-of-a-kind jewelry, with features in British Vogue and even the Real Housewives universe.

But today, Stephanie opens up about something deeper: the “traitor within” that silenced her voice for years. Raised between two cultures, she shares how shyness, self-doubt, and fear of anger shaped her childhood—and how th...