By: Melody Wolfe

For many people, recovery from abuse is framed as a return to baseline, a way to function, cope, or stabilize after harm. In Radically Alive Beyond Abuse, Dr. Lisa Cooney proposes a more expansive and challenging question: what becomes possible when a person is no longer organized around what hurt them?

That question sits at the heart of Cooney’s work and defines what she calls radical aliveness. Rather than focusing solely on symptom management or survival, radical aliveness invites people to reenter their lives with agency, creativity, and desire. “Healing can stop at coping,” Cooney explains. “Radical aliveness invites people to fully inhabit their lives again, not as former victims, but as active creators of what comes next.”

Beyond Survival as the Goal

This shift, from recovery as repair to recovery as authorship, runs throughout the book. Cooney does not dismiss traditional healing pathways, but she challenges the idea that stabilization alone is the endpoint. Instead, she asks what life might look like when presence, choice, and possibility are restored.

Radical aliveness, as Cooney frames it, is not about erasing the past. It is about refusing to let the past remain the organizing principle of the present.

The Internal Rules That Keep Trauma Alive

A central obstacle to that restoration, Cooney argues, is what she calls the internal cage of abuse. Long after abuse has ended, its effects often persist internally, shaping how people relate to themselves and the world. “The cage often shows up as self-doubt, hypervigilance, people-pleasing, or a constant sense of bracing for impact,” she says.

Because these patterns become familiar, many people mistake them for personality traits or safety. They may limit their dreams, silence their needs, or interpret emotional numbness as protection. “The abuse may be over,” Cooney notes, “but the internal rules don’t take up space, don’t trust, don’t want too much, remain until they’re consciously questioned.”

Radically Alive Beyond Abuse is structured as an invitation to begin that questioning process, not through force or urgency, but through awareness.

Why the Future Matters in Healing

One of the book’s defining features is its future-oriented orientation. Cooney emphasizes that trauma keeps people tethered to the past, even when the danger has long passed. Revisiting pain alone, she suggests, may not be enough to restore agency.

“A future-oriented approach restores choice,” she explains. “Creation, possibility, and asking, What would I like to create now? activate the nervous system differently than survival.”

That question marks a transition from endurance to authorship. It reframes healing as an ongoing, living process rather than a destination, allowing people to orient themselves toward possibility instead of vigilance.

Permission as the First Threshold

For readers early in their healing journey, Cooney is clear about what she hopes the book offers first. “The first doorway is the realization that something more is possible, even if they can’t yet imagine what it looks like,” she says.

Central to that realization is permission: permission to want more than “being okay,” permission to question limits that once felt fixed, and permission to move at one’s own pace. That initial curiosity, What if my life could feel different? often becomes the spark that initiates deeper change.

Catalyst, Not Fixer

Cooney is intentional about how she positions herself within the healing process. Rather than acting as a fixer, she describes her role as that of a catalyst, an important distinction for people healing from abuse, where autonomy was violated or taken away.

“When someone sees me as a fixer, they give their power away,” she explains. “As a catalyst, I help people recognize the power they already have.” A catalyst does not rescue; they invite inquiry, expand perspective, and support people in choosing themselves, often for the first time.

An Ongoing Inquiry Into Relationship and Choice

This philosophy extends beyond the book. Cooney has worked with thousands of people, and her broader body of work consistently centers on responsibility without blame and empowerment without pressure. That inquiry continues in her current projects.

She is in the early stages of two new books, one exploring recovery and addiction through choice, embodiment, and conscious relationship rather than shame, and another examining blended families as living laboratories for healing. Both continue her central inquiry: how relationships, when approached with awareness and responsibility, can become practices for transformation rather than repetition of old wounds.

Reframing Recovery as Creation

Radically Alive Beyond Abuse ultimately reframes healing not as a return to who someone was before trauma, but as an opening into who they are becoming. It does not promise ease or quick resolution. Instead, it offers language, permission, and orientation toward a life no longer organized around harm.

In asking readers to move beyond survival and into conscious creation, Dr. Lisa Cooney offers a redefinition of recovery rooted not in what was endured but in what is now possible.

Radically Alive Beyond Abuse is available on Amazon.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general informational purposes only and reflects the views and opinions of Dr. Lisa Cooney and her work. It is not intended as medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. If you or someone you know is experiencing trauma or needs support, please consult a licensed professional for personalized care and guidance.