SpiritSong
High-Conflict Divorce and Co-Parent Coaching

Minimization slowly erodes your confidence in perceiving what’s happening to and around you. For victims of coercive control, it often happens in private, with no one else around to validate your experience.

Over time, invalidation conditions you to silence yourself, doubt yourself, or even apologize for having feelings. It slowly erodes your ability to trust your own instincts and may even leave you asking yourself if you really are going crazy.

“He was ‘just joking.’ He was ‘just teasing.’ He was ‘just stressed.’ But the truth? He was dismissing you. And dismissiveness is never harmless—it’s a tool of control.”