Rooted and Rising Healing After Betrayal

#27 Betrayal Trauma and the Body: Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself with Amber Dalton

Rooted and Rising Healing After Betrayal

Show Notes

Betrayal isn’t just emotional — it’s physiological. After betrayal, many women describe feeling like they don’t recognize themselves anymore. Sleep is disrupted. Anxiety increases. Hormones feel off. Mood shifts. Energy drops. The body feels stuck in survival mode. Many begin to wonder… is this just stress, or is something actually happening in my body? In this episode, I’m joined by Family Nurse Practitioner Amber Dalton, who works closely with women navigating the aftermath of betrayal and emotional trauma. Amber shares why so many women feel physically “off” after betrayal, how chronic stress affects the body, and practical first steps for supporting both emotional and physical healing. We also talk about what whole-person healing looks like and why pushing through betrayal without addressing the body often keeps women stuck in survival mode. If you’ve been wondering why you don’t feel like yourself after betrayal, this episode will help you understand what’s happening — and remind you that your body is responding exactly the way it was designed to. Healing is possible. And it begins with understanding.

Connect with Amber Dalton Alaska Retreat Experience Adaptive Health and Wellness: https://www.adaptivehealthandwellness.com/home⁠

Connect With Me + Continue Your Healing If today’s episode resonated with you, you don’t have to walk the healing journey after betrayal alone. I create trauma-informed resources, conversations, and learning experiences to support individuals and couples navigating infidelity, betrayal trauma, and relational repair. Here are a few ways to stay connected and continue your healing:

Join me at a Retreat or Intensive If you’re craving deeper, in-person support and embodied healing, I’m helping facilitate upcoming experiences created specifically for betrayed partners. Email Hali⁠ to join the⁠⁠⁠ Interest list for an upcoming course for parents called Intentional Parenting After Betrayal⁠⁠⁠⁠, hosted by Hali and her daughter, Morgan Ellsworth. The Rise, Renew, Restore Retreat in Costa Rica, happening July 13–18, offers a more spacious, restorative experience focused on slowing down, reconnecting with your body, and healing in the presence of nature and supportive community. The ⁠Courage to Thrive Betrayal Trauma Intensive⁠ takes place August 25-28 in Spanish Fork, Utah and offers a structured, trauma-informed space to understand betrayal trauma, regulate your nervous system, and rebuild self-trust.

Free Resources & Downloads Access free tools, guided practices, and educational resources designed to support nervous system regulation, self-trust, boundaries, and clarity after betrayal. 👉A Mini Guide to Mindful Healing After Betrayal 👉Your First Steps to Rising After Betrayal Upcoming Course: Reclaiming You After Betrayal If you’re ready for deeper guidance in a structured, supportive format, I am offering a course focused on healing after betrayal, rebuilding self-trust, and grounding into your values and identity—without rushing decisions about staying or leaving. This course is ideal for those who want support without individual coaching and at a pace that honors their nervous system. 👉 Join the Reclaiming You Waitlist to be the first to Register!

Listen to My Other Podcast If you are still in your relationship—or in the process of discerning whether you want to stay—I invite you to also follow my podcast, Choosing to Stay After Infidelity and Betrayal, where I speak to both partners about healing, accountability, and rebuilding trust. 👉 Choosing to Stay After Infidelity and Betrayal

Join My Newsletter Stay connected through my newsletter, where I share reflections, trauma-informed insights, and updates on upcoming courses, workshops, retreats, and live experiences. 👉 Rooted and Rising Weekly

Connect With Me Between Episodes Join me on social media for continued conversation, encouragement, and resources between podcast episodes. 👉 Instagram 👉 Facebook 👉 Website

More from Rooted and Rising Healing After Betrayal

Oct 19, 2026

Should I stay? Should I leave? Is this time different? Am I overreacting, or not reacting enough? If you’ve been caught in that loop, second-guessing every choice from the biggest decisions to what to make for dinner, this episode is for you. In this episode, we look at why self-doubt after betrayal makes so much sense through a nervous system lens, the signs that it’s showing up in your daily life, and five practical ways to start rebuilding self-trust one decision at a time. Not trusting your decisions right now isn’t proof your judgment is broken. It’s an injury, and it can heal.

Oct 12, 2026

After betrayal, it's natural to want something - anything - that will make you feel safe again. Sometimes the boundaries we set carry a quiet hope that our partner will finally change, and without meaning to, a boundary can become a way of trying to control the outcome. In this episode, we talk about what healthy boundaries actually are in betrayal trauma recovery, how to tell the difference between a boundary and covert control, and why that difference matters so much for your peace. Whether you're staying, leaving, or still figuring it out, this conversation is about your healing.

Oct 5, 2026

If you've caught yourself saying "I don't even know what I need anymore," you are not alone — and you are not broken. For women navigating betrayal trauma and infidelity recovery, this kind of disconnection from your own needs is one of the most common, and least talked about, experiences. In this episode, Hali offers 5 simple, grounding questions to help you find your next honest step — without needing to have it all figured out. This episode is for you if you're a partner navigating a spouse's sex addiction or infidelity recovery, if you've been pouring your energy into his healing while your own gets put on the back burner, or if you simply feel stuck and unsure where to start. 👉Free download 5 Questions to Find Your Next Step

Sep 28, 2026

Betrayal doesn't just break trust in one person. For a lot of women, it quietly rewrites how they see everyone — turning "this person hurt me" into "people aren't safe," or "this man betrayed me" into "men can't be trusted." In this episode, Hali talks directly to the parts of you that have gotten more guarded since betrayal. This episode covers that healing was never dependent on the relationship's outcome, that people (including the person who hurt you) can genuinely change through consistency and accountability — but that trust is earned back over time, not handed over because someone says they're changing. While you're doing the harder work of healing, start noticing the good that's still around you — the people who keep their word, apologize and actually change, show up consistently. Not to prove anything to yourself, just to notice it. Because betrayal doesn't get to decide who you become. You do.

Sep 21, 2026

When your partner starts doing things differently — even for a short stretch — it's natural to feel relief, and easy to let your guard down. But a few good weeks isn't the same thing as rebuilt trust, and relaxing your boundaries too early can open the door for old patterns to quietly return. In this episode, we talk about why trusting too soon happens, what it actually costs, and how to validate how hard it is to sit in the discomfort of waiting for trust to be earned over time — not just implied by a good moment.

See all episodes →