Are you spiralling out in a chaotic divorce? Are the toxic cycles causing stress, anxiety and a fear that your new future will continue to be dysfunctional?

In this short but powerful episode, Stephanie opens an old journal and shares the three boundaries that protected her sanity during a high-conflict divorce. Instead of reliving old arguments or getting pulled into emotional chaos, these boundaries gave her clarity, calm, and confidence when everything felt unstable.

You won’t just hear what the boundaries were — you’ll learn how to put them into practice. Stephanie explains why these boundaries mattered, how they protected her emotionally, and the exact phrases she used (and still uses today) to communicate and reinforce them. These phrases are simple, direct, and easy to apply whether you're navigating divorce, co-parenting, or any difficult relationship dynamic.

If you’ve ever found yourself in conversations that spin off-track, escalate quickly, or pull you back into old pain, this episode offers practical tools rooted in real experience — pulled straight from the pages of a journal kept during one of the hardest seasons of Stephanie’s life.

Whether you're in the middle of a separation, interacting with an ex who makes calm communication hard, or learning how to set boundaries for the first time, you’ll walk away with clarity and language you can use immediately.

If you’ve ever lived with someone unpredictable, manipulative, addicted, draining or chaotic — you already know the cycle. They do something destructive, you react, they flip the blame, and somehow you end up apologizing for the thing they caused.

This episode is the pivot point.
This is the moment where we stop hoping the bull will magically behave like a poodle — and start guarding the door of our own life.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

• the difference between self responsibility and self blame

• how compassion can get twisted into permission

• why trying to control their chaos keeps you exhausted

• how to stop hoping they will change (and start changing your choices)

• two boundary scripts you can use immediately

If you’ve been living in a mental loop of:
“Why does this keep happening?”
“Why am I here again?”
“Why won’t they just stop?”

…this episode will give you the clarity you’ve been missing.

This is for the woman who:

• is unlearning codependency

• grew up normalizing dysfunction

• has been the fixer, the smoother, the peacemaker

• has tried compassion, patience and love… and still got chaos

• wants peace in her own life, not permission slips for someone else’s behavior

Your life changes when you stop waiting for them to “get it” — and start controlling the one thing that is always in your hands: your access point.

You have the key to the door.
You choose what — and who — you allow into your space.

This is not about shutting people out of cruelty.
This is about protecting your heart from destruction.
This is about refusing to let chaos live rent-free in your home, in your mind, in your peace.

When you stop trying to manage the bull… and simply guard the door… everything changes.

If this episode helped you, will you share it?
There are thousands of women in cycles of chaos who think they’re the crazy one.
Let’s get these tools into the hands of the ones who need clarity — just like we once did.

www.TheClarityAdvantage.com

Leaving a toxic or dysfunctional relationship is supposed to feel like freedom… right?
So why do you still feel grief, sadness, or doubt after walking away?

In this episode of Worthy of Work, Stephanie Rivard breaks down the confusing emotional aftermath of ending an unhealthy relationship — and why your pain doesn’t mean you made the wrong choice.

You might expect to feel only relief and peace, but what you’re experiencing is grief: the emotional detox that comes from letting go of the dream you had, the identity you built, and the patterns your nervous system grew comfortable with — even if those patterns were unhealthy.

✨ In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why grief after leaving is normal — and what it’s really about

• How to tell the difference between detox and doubt

• Three practical steps to help you move through the pain and stay grounded in your decision
  1️⃣ Name the grief — “I miss the dream. I miss feeling chosen.”
  2️⃣ Stay rooted in the facts — “What do I know for sure?”
  3️⃣ Reconnect safely — Surround yourself with healthy people and spaces that support your healing

Stephanie also shares her own story of leaving her marriage — driving a 27-foot U-Haul through downtown, crying tears of both peace and panic — and what she’s learned about the emotional complexity of choosing yourself after years of codependency and chaos.

If you’ve ever thought, “If this was the right decision, why do I still hurt?” — this episode is for you.

💬 You’ll walk away understanding:

• That grief is not proof of error — it’s proof of growth.

• That your body and mind are adjusting to a new normal.

• That healing hurts, but the pain is progress.

🎧 Worthy of Work is the podcast where we unpack the relationship skills no one taught us — hosted by Stephanie Rivard, relationship clarity coach and founder of The Clarity Advantage.

👉 If this episode helped you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who’s in the messy middle of leaving. They may not have said it out loud, but they need to know this too.

#toxicrelationships #healingjourney #grief #codependencyrecovery #worthyofwork #selfhealing #relationships #boundaries #emotionalhealth #selfawareness