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From Betrayal To Breakthrough

From Betrayal To Breakthrough

By: Dr. Debi Silber
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The betrayal of a family member, partner, friend, etc. can create physical, mental and emotional challenges. If left unhealed, it impacts us personally and professionally. The From Betrayal to Breakthrough podcast shares insights from the best therapists, coaches, healers, thought leaders and everyday people, combined with the findings of a recent Ph.D. study on betrayal to help you move forward and heal...once and for all.Debi Silber ©2025 Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • 469: What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

    469: What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
    Apr 13 2026
    In this reflective solo episode, Dr. Debi Silber shares an unexpected gift that came from a two-week battle with pneumonia — the forced stillness to ask herself one of life's most enduring questions: What do you want to be when you grow up? With her daughter's wedding just days away, Dr. Debi opens up about how illness slowed her down enough to take stock of what she's outgrown, what she's still settling for, and what she truly wants in this season of life. The result is a warm, honest, and deeply practical conversation about becoming more intentional — with your time, your energy, your relationships, and yourself. In This Episode, You'll Hear: Why the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" deserves a second (and third) look — at every age What a recent unprepared interview guest taught Dr. Debi about standards and saying no The "Sit in the Seat" game Dr. Debi played with her family — and what it revealed about how she actually shows up The yes/no confusion that keeps so many of us stuck — and how to start untangling it How to use your body as a meter for who and what is truly good for you The "cake ingredients" framework: what you're putting into your life, and why the outcome makes perfect sense Why we become more of whatever we already are as we age — and why that's both a warning and an invitation Reflection Questions from This Episode: What have you outgrown? What are you still settling for? What do you want your life to look, feel, and sound like now? What are you saying yes to — and what does that force you to say no to? If your highest and best self were watching, what would she say? Key Insight: "It starts with awareness. The next step is action." Connect with Dr. Debi Silber: 🌐 thepbtinstitute.com 📲 Follow on social: @DebiSilber 🎙️ Subscribe to From Betrayal to Breakthrough wherever you listen to podcasts If this episode resonated with you, Dr. Debi would love to hear from you — what do YOU want to become more of as you grow?
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    20 mins
  • 468: From Stuckness to Self-Love: A Journey Through the Stages

    468: From Stuckness to Self-Love: A Journey Through the Stages
    Apr 6 2026
    In this deeply personal episode, Dr. Debi Silber is joined by her daughter Camryn for a candid, behind-the-scenes conversation about what it really looks like to get stuck in Stage Three — not because of a betrayal by someone else, but through our own patterns, thoughts, and avoidance. Camryn's story is one of extraordinary intelligence, world travel, and deep self-awareness ultimately leading to the most important journey of all: inward. If you've ever wondered what Stage Three looks and feels like from the inside — or suspected that your coping strategies might actually be keeping you stuck — this episode is for you. Meet Camryn Holds a Master's degree with a background in psychology Multilingual and a seasoned world traveler Deep empath with a gift for feeling collective emotion Now living in Asia — a move born from genuine inner clarity, not escape Camryn has always been the kind of person who sees the world differently — comfortable in spaces of authenticity (nature, animals, children, the elderly) and deeply uncomfortable with the masks and performance of social life. As a teenager, she deleted social media entirely because of how it made her feel. That instinct, long before it was a cultural conversation, tells you everything about who she is. Key Themes & Takeaways What Stage Three Really Looks Like Stage Three — that place of surviving but not thriving — doesn't always look like suffering from the outside. Sometimes it looks like adventure. Camryn's version of Stage Three involved living in different countries, absorbing languages and cultures, sleeping in hostels, spending every dollar on experiences. From the outside: impressive. From the inside: a beautifully camouflaged method of avoiding herself. Dr. Debi draws a powerful parallel: just as some people numb with TV, alcohol, or overwork (all things that can look productive), Camryn's distraction was world travel — something that genuinely fed her AND kept her from staying still long enough to look inward. The Belief That Starts It All Dr. Debi shares one of her most-used teaching examples: a little boy with exciting news, shushed by his mother on the phone. In that moment, he might decide: "I don't matter." From there, everything confirms it — the car that cuts him off, the door that closes in his face. That core belief shapes who he dates, what he accepts, what he tolerates. The takeaway: we all carry a story. The work is finding out what story we've been telling ourselves — and whether it's true. Escaping Yourself (And Why It Doesn't Work) No matter where you go, you take your thoughts with you. Camryn describes the experience of arriving somewhere new — forced to think differently because the environment demanded it — and then slowly, inevitably, watching the same unhealed patterns creep back in. The breakthrough moment came before a planned move to New Zealand. A quiet, honest question: What do you think New Zealand is going to do for you? The answer was nothing. And that nothing was everything. The New Zealand Moment: Recognizing the Pattern This is the kind of moment that changes things. Not dramatic. Not loud. Just a pause, a look between mother and daughter, and a recognition that the pattern had been named. That's the beginning of Stage Four — when the fog lifts just enough to see what's been happening. Fear vs. Intuition: How to Tell the Difference One of the most practical and powerful parts of this conversation: how do you know if a decision is coming from your gut or from your fear? Camryn shares her process — sitting with a decision, asking whether the pull is expansive or constricting, whether it comes from the head (noisy, arguing, rationalizing) or something quieter and steadier underneath. The mind can convince you of anything. Intuition doesn't need to argue. She also shares the question she comes back to when facing a big decision: What would my oldest self have wanted? That question cuts through the noise of other people's opinions, social pressure, and fear. Honoring Others' Opinions — Without Being Ruled by Them When Camryn decided to move across the world from a close, loving family, there were feelings. Dr. Debi shares honestly that it wasn't "don't go" — it was "we'll miss you." And Camryn learned to hold that with love, express gratitude for the input, take her time, and then follow her own inner compass anyway. This is self-love in action. Not selfishness. Knowing yourself well enough to trust what you know. Being an Empath: Gift and Challenge Camryn is a deep empath — someone who doesn't just sympathize but actually feels the emotional energy of people around her, including collective pain. This explains so much: her comfort with children and animals (no judgment, no masks), her discomfort with performative social ...
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    40 mins
  • 467: Healing Betrayal Through the Subconscious Mind

    467: Healing Betrayal Through the Subconscious Mind
    Mar 30 2026
    From Betrayal to Breakthrough with Dr. Debi Silber | Guest: Peter McLaughlin About Peter McLaughlin Peter McLaughlin is a certified hypnotherapist and founder of Blue Sky Hypnosis. After being diagnosed simultaneously with Lyme disease and leukemia 23 years ago — and given just 10 years to live — Peter embarked on a profound healing journey that led him from Wall Street and a 50-person security company in Westchester, New York, into the world of mind-body medicine and hypnotherapy. Trained through a program founded by a former paramedic and focused on the medical applications of hypnosis, Peter also served as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, giving him a unique frontline perspective on trauma, shock, and the human response to crisis. Today he helps clients heal from emotional trauma — including infidelity, betrayal, and abuse — using hypnotherapy, havening, and subconscious reprogramming. Episode Overview In this episode, Dr. Debi sits down with Peter McLaughlin to explore the profound and often hidden role the subconscious mind plays in betrayal recovery. Peter shares his remarkable personal story of survival, and then dives deep into the tools and techniques — including hypnotherapy, the pendulum, the sway test, havening, and hypnotic regression — that can help betrayal survivors release the trauma stored in the body, update the subconscious mind, and finally break free from the cycle of chronic stress and pain. Key Topics Discussed Peter's life-altering dual diagnosis of Lyme disease and leukemia — and the journey it sparked Why the body is a feedback mechanism and how it signals unresolved trauma The subconscious mind, the autonomic nervous system, and the "safe vs. dangerous" classification system How betrayal gets lodged in the subconscious with no concept of time — and why healing requires updating that The power of epigenetics: how chronic stress upregulates dangerous genes, and how healing can reverse that What hypnotherapy is and how it differs from what most people imagine Havening: a rapid, EMDR-adjacent technique for releasing trauma — and when it doesn't work Hypnotic regression: going back to the moment of trauma to reprocess, reframe, and re-heal Working with guilt and shame as the root cause of blocked healing The pendulum and the sway test as tools for accessing subconscious wisdom How every major decision is ultimately emotional — and what that means for recovery The spiritual dimension of healing: trauma as a wake-up call, not a life sentence What it looks and feels like when you've truly healed: the body stops being hijacked Memorable Quotes "The diagnosis of leukemia wasn't the title of the book of my life. It was a chapter in there." — Peter McLaughlin "Every single decision we make is ultimately an emotional decision — and then our conscious mind steps in to justify it. The conscious mind is basically like a lawyer." — Peter McLaughlin "The subconscious mind has no concept of time. It could have happened 30 years ago and it's still treating it like a clear and present danger." — Peter McLaughlin "Toxins don't just take a physical form. They also take an energetic or emotional form. When you suffer a trauma, it gets lodged within you and begins exerting its effects." — Peter McLaughlin "You are not broken. You are already magnificence, endowed by God with a magnificence inside of you. None of this is a litmus test of your worth." — Peter McLaughlin "If I didn't go through my betrayals, I never would have entered the PhD program. The five stages would never have been discovered. That's trauma well served." — Dr. Debi Silber Key Concepts Explained Havening A therapeutic technique similar to EMDR that uses gentle touch on specific areas of the body to help release trauma stored in the nervous system. Peter finds it highly effective and fast-acting — but notes it doesn't work when a client is carrying unresolved guilt or shame, which blocks the subconscious from accepting relief. Hypnotic Regression A technique in which the therapist guides the client back — hypnotically — to the original moment of trauma. From there, the client can reprocess the event, release guilt, and even "negotiate" with the younger part of themselves still holding the pain. Often, an adult client works with their own younger self to provide the wisdom, protection, and reasoning that wasn'tavailable at the time. The Pendulum & The Sway Test Both are ideomotor tools — ways of accessing the body's subconscious signals. A pendulum amplifies micro-movements in the hand to indicate yes/no responses. The sway test involves standing and noticing whether your body leans forward (toward something safe or true) or backward (away from something negative or false). These tools ...
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    32 mins
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