Clear from Control
A Practitioner Pathway for Relationship Trauma Recovery
Addressing the complexity of
post-separation relationship trauma recovery
Equipping trauma-informed practitioners to work confidently from active coercive control through to full trauma resolution.
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Designed to integrate into your existing trauma approach.
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Theoretically Driven · Clinical Psychologist Led · Online & Live CPD · Certificate on Completion
Clinically Informed
Clinical Psychologist Lead
Self-paced & live options
CPD certificate on completion
THE NEED
Relationship trauma is not rare — it's a pandemic
These clients are already in your therapy room.
You may just not have the lens to see what's happening.
1 in 5
people will experience abuse in their lifetime. Emotional abuse being the most commonly reported experience.
40-60%
of people in community mental health services, report histories of interpersonal trauma
1 in 4
people experience workplace bullying, which often includes coercive control behaviours.
Coercive control
reported as one of the primary reasons women enter mental health services.
Sources: ONS (2025); Read et al. (2005); CIPD (2024); CIPD (2024); Royal College of Psychiatrists (2024)
Coercive Control and Trauma
Relationship Trauma
Is Not One Stage
Many evidence-based trauma treatments were developed and tested in contexts where the primary traumatic threat had ceased.​
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But relationship trauma does not follow a simple “before and after” pattern.
For many clients:
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The abuse continues after separation
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The control transforms
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The psychological positioning persists
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Ongoing coercive interference can complicate trauma recovery.
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The result?
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Practitioners may experience stalled progress or apparent treatment resistance when ongoing threat dynamics are not addressed.
The issue is not competence.
It's that many trauma models assume relative safety as a prerequisite for processing.
The Five Stages of Relationship Trauma Recovery
Our work is structured around a five-stage recovery model.
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Each stage requires different clinical skills.
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Early stages demand threat recognition and stabilisation.
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Middle stages require boundary work and system navigation.
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Later stages require narrative reconstruction and attachment repair.
Applying trauma processing before sufficient safety and stabilisation may increase vulnerability or destabilisation in contexts of ongoing threat.
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Prolonged stabilisation without progression to processing may limit deeper trauma resolution.
This pathway trains you across the arc.
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The Critical Distinction
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In post-separation coercive control, the threat may not have ended — it may have transformed.
Abuse can shift into legal, relational or psychological interference. Coercive positioning may persist beyond separation.
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Effective work in this context requires:
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Threat literacy
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Emotional safety frameworks
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Boundary competence
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Narrative repair
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Attachment reconstruction
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This is not a single-module intervention.
It is staged practice development.
"Relationship trauma is trauma plus ongoing attempts at control plus an extensive campaign of forced psychological submission"
OUR SERVICES
The Clear From Control Practitioner Pathway
ACCREDITATION​
CPD Certificate on Completion
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AUDIENCE​
Therapists, counsellors, practitioners.
Coach specific training.
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RESOURCES​
Downloadable practitioner guides and study pack.
Bespoke assessment tools.
Client facing books.
Client facing self-paced programmes (digital).
We provide structured training across three domains:
Recognition & Threat Literacy
Identifying coercive control, masked dynamics, and systemic interference.
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Stabilisation & Emotional Safety
Equipping clients with emotional regulation skills that enable boundaries that hold under pressure.
Narrative & Trauma Resolution
Applying Narrative Regulation Therapy (NRT) to resolve relational distortion and complex-PTSD.
Together, these form a coherent recovery model.
We also offer facilitator training - to enable practitioners to support clients, at scale via groups.
METHODOLOGY Stages 1 - 3
The CARE Framework - for stabilisation
A structured clinical approach developed for therapists supporting clients in ongoing-threat post-separation contexts. Four pillars, grounded in the evidence.
C
Check-in
Body awareness and threat assessment. Teaching clients to notice what's happening in their nervous system — not to fix it, but to see it. Reconnects clients who have dissociated or numbed under chronic threat.
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A
Anchor
Grounding and present-moment focus. When threat-activation pulls clients into anticipated futures, anchoring returns them to now — where they are often safer than their nervous system believes.
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R
Reflect
Pattern recognition without pathologising. Helping clients see their automatic responses — self-blame, compliance, hypervigilance — as adaptive survival responses, not character flaws. Visibility creates choice.
E
Empower
Agency restoration and decision-making. Coercive control collapses the client's sense of agency. Empower work rebuilds it by clarifying what is — and isn't — within their control, and strengthening their capacity to act there.
CARE is stabilisation work, not trauma processing — and that distinction is what makes it appropriate for clients still under active threat.
METHODOLOGY Stages 3 - 4
Narrative Regulation Therapy - for relationship trauma
Developed by Dr Craig Newman, NRT addresses trauma embedded within relational distortion.
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Rather than working only with symptoms, NRT works with:
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Installed relational narratives
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Responsibility distortion
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Shame loops
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Attachment injury
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Meaning reconstruction
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It bridges stabilisation and trauma processing.
Clear From Control is a clinically synthesised, theory-integrated pathway adapting established phase-based trauma models to the realities of ongoing post-separation coercive control. The NRT model has been piloted in digital self-help format with promising outcomes, though it has not yet undergone randomised controlled evaluation.
Who this training is designed for...
Clear From Control fills a significant gap in post-qualifying CPD
Designed for...
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BACP / UKCP counsellors
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HCPC psychologists
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Social workers
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IDVAs
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EAP practitioners
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Trauma specialists
Particularly relevant if you work with...
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Post-separation coercive control
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Court-involved clients
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Clients labelled “high conflict”
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Complex-PTSD following relational abuse
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Choose Your Entry Point
Our programmes reflect the recovery stages
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You can access these as a lone practitioner, or contact us if you'd like to discuss us training your team / organisation.
Core Programme
for trauma practitioners
Specialist Courses
for pracitioners with specialist roles
Workshops (task specific)
Focused modules for detection, masked control, and CARE framework application.
How to identify masked coercive control.
Identifying where threat and control, is masked, in your practice.
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90 minutes
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The CARE framework for emotional safety post-separation
Equipping survivors with the CARE framework for emotional safety post-separation.​
90 minutes
JOIN THE WAITLIST
Register Your Interest for Early Bird offers
Want updates on our CPD courses as they launch?
2026 will include live and self-paced digital CPD.
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Early Registrants will be offered discounts up to 25% off full price.
No payment commitment required, until dates are set.
Meet the trainer
Dr Craig Newman
Founder & Creator · Chartered Clinical Psychologist · Author
Dr Craig Newman is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist with 25 years’ experience in trauma, abuse and complex presentations.
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He developed Narrative Regulation Therapy (NRT), a clinical model addressing recovery from relationship trauma in the context of ongoing coercive control.
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Craig is also the author of Get Out Get Love, later rebuilt into the digital programme renurture.
As former CEO of Project5, he led the training of over 400 therapists and 600 coaches.
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This CPD catalogue draws on both clinical research and real-world practitioner experience.
Recognition & Awards
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Selected as a national leading female technology — UK FemTech Accelerator (2024–2025)
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SW Tech Award for potential social impact (2024)
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Multi-award winning leader in digital health innovation — including HSJ and BMJ Awards (two of the UK's most prestigious health awards)
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UK Government funding for domestic abuse recovery: digital programme development and translation.