From Personal Pain to Professional Breakthrough: How Betrayal Led to a Healing Method That Changes Lives
Every practitioner has a story—one that shapes the work they do and how deeply they’re able to serve.
For me, it started with two painful betrayals. First by my family. Then, years later, by my husband. I was devastated. Confused. Numb. The kind of pain that doesn’t just hurt—it shatters.
But instead of getting stuck, I got curious. I needed to understand:
Why do we struggle so much to heal after betrayal?
What really happens to us—physically, mentally, emotionally—when the people we trust the most lie, cheat, or deceive?
That question led me into a Ph.D. program in Transpersonal Psychology. My research focused entirely on betrayal and the long-term impact it has on the body, mind, and soul.
What I discovered has since become the foundation for a certification program that now trains coaches, therapists, and healers all over the world.
Here’s What That Study Revealed:
1. Betrayal Is a Unique Type of Trauma that needs a specific way to heal
While other life crises like death, disease, or disaster are deeply painful, betrayal is different.
It feels personal. Intentional.
With betrayal, the entire self must be rebuilt:
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Confidence
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Belonging
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Trust
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Worthiness
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Identity
This isn’t just about moving on. It’s about rebuilding your life and the self from the ground up—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. That level of healing needed a new name:
Post-Betrayal Transformation® (PBT®).
2. There Are Five Predictable Stages of Healing
What started as a study turned into a step-by-step framework.
Healing betrayal isn’t random. It’s predictable.
We now know:
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The exact Five Stages every person must move through to heal
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What’s happening in each stage—biologically, emotionally, and behaviorally
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How to move clients from survival to transformation using trauma-informed tools
When my research chair read the findings, she said:
“Debi, I believe you’ve discovered a process here.”
That was the moment I knew: this was bigger than me.
3. Post Betrayal Syndrome® Is Real—and Often Misunderstood
There’s a collection of symptoms so common in betrayal that they deserved their own name:
Post Betrayal Syndrome® (PBS®).
A few of these symptoms include:
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Chronic fatigue
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Gut issues
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Brain fog
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Hypervigilance
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Anxiety, depression, mistrust, isolation
And here’s the kicker:
Time doesn’t heal these wounds.
Only a full journey through the Five Stages does.
That’s why so many clients stay stuck for years—or even decades—after betrayal… until someone trained in this work helps them break free.
Your Clients Need This—and So Might You
Since publishing my research, I’ve seen thousands of lives transformed.
Not just those healing from betrayal—but the practitioners who now use this method in their work.
Whether you’re a coach, therapist, energy healer, or wellness professional, if you:
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See clients stuck in patterns they can’t explain
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Work with emotional, physical, or relational trauma
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Want a deeper, proven way to guide people from pain to purpose
…then this is your opportunity.
👉 Become a Certified Post Betrayal Transformation® Practitioner
Learn more here.
There’s a community waiting to support you, a method waiting to empower you, and a mission waiting to grow through you.
Because betrayal doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
With the right tools, it becomes the beginning of a breakthrough.
Dr. Debi Silber, Founder and CEO of The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute and National Forgiveness Day is a WBENC-Certified WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise), an award-winning speaker, bestselling author, holistic psychologist, a health, mindset and personal development expert who helps (along with her incredibly gifted Certified PBT-Post Betrayal Transformation Coaches and Practitioners) a predictable, proven multi-pronged approach to help people heal (physically, mentally and emotionally) from the trauma of shattered trust and betrayal.