How Can I Help Clients Release Abusive Cycles?

Helping clients disentangle themselves from a toxic relationship is difficult but important work, especially when powerful “trauma bonds” continuously draw them back to emotionally or physically abusive partners in an unconscious attempt to heal past wounds. How can therapists guide clients toward a conscious awareness of what’s keeping their relationship toxic and emotionally transactional? And how can we determine if a trauma-bond dynamic can be repaired in a relationship?