02/23/2026
**LOVE AFTER ABUSE**
I honestly didn’t think I was ready for a relationship. I was not fully healed. I had actually decided to stop dating shortly before we met to focus on friendships and healing. I had relocated to another state all by myself, it was scary, I didn’t know anyone. I had joined a singles group and a girlfriend I had met through the group introduced us, not as a set up and he wasn’t in the singles group.
My soul kept urging me to meet with him after we met, but I didn’t really understand why at first. I did share my relationship history with him in stages, with caution. I was still unraveling and trying to understand myself, and was still very much in the thick of healing.
I have used many different techniques and modalities at different stages in my healing. I had many insecurities and doubts, and occasionally tried to run away. He was patient, kind, understanding, and quietly sat beside me and held space for me every step of the way. He gave me a safe space to heal while I continued extremely difficult, deep work. He loved me unconditionally throughout all of it and continues to this day.
I believe his love transformed and healed me in ways I never expected possible. It took me a while, but I knew this was a healthy relationship by his steadfast, calm, unconditional, gentle love for me, even in the moments I was not easy to love. Even in my panic attacks and sometimes anger that was directed at him.
I love his beautiful calm nature. I love his love for others around him. I love how he never forgets to open my door even if his arms are full. I love how he walks beside me, never in front of me. I love how attentively and with love he listens to everything I do, no matter how out there it seems. I love how we have made a beautiful, peaceful home that feels like warm sunshine every time I step into it. I love that everything is fun, even grocery shopping. I love how he makes me laugh. I love how he has let me be exactly who I am every minute of every day, the good bad and the ugly.
I want every woman to know that a soft, beautiful, safe and real love IS not only possible, it is what you deserve. It can help you heal as much as other ways of healing. You don’t have to be fully healed in order to love again. It take a long time to unravel years of abuse, it’s a process give yourself so much grace in the journey of healing and don’t focus on it, but be open to the possibility that a man may cross your path and come along side you as you become the woman that you want to be in a life that feels safe and warm.
It is my passion to help other women who have been through what I have know that a beautiful safe life is possible, new love or not. That there is another side because I remember a time when I couldn’t see it at all, and I was so sad and felt so broken and beyond repair.
~ Dana