Welcome to Surviving Toxic Relationships with The Matadoras.
Deana and Lizzie are podcast hosts, authors, speakers, advocates, mothers, and friends who are passionate about helping individuals recognize unhealthy relationship patterns, strengthen their discernment, and find hope on the path to healing.
Through their podcast, books, speaking engagements, and online community, they share faith-based encouragement, practical tools, and real-life experiences for those navigating toxic relationships, emotional abuse, betrayal, difficult family dynamics, and the challenges of rebuilding after heartbreak.
They believe healing is possible, boundaries are healthy, truth leads to freedom, and no one should have to walk this journey alone.
Their Story
Most people are surprised to learn that Deana and Lizzie were married to the same man, Deana for 27 years and Lizzie for 6.
Their friendship did not begin with a shared story of betrayal. During Lizzie’s marriage, she was the stepmother to Deana’s adult children for six years. Although they spent time together on only a few occasions, including a wedding and a college graduation, their lives remained connected through family. Over the years, Deana often heard from her children that Lizzie was a kind and caring woman.
After Lizzie left her marriage, Deana reached out and shared her own experiences. Her purpose was simple but profound: to let Lizzie know she was not crazy, she was not alone, and that the painful patterns she was experiencing were real.
For Deana, those conversations were equally meaningful. Hearing similar experiences confirmed that the challenges she had endured were not hers alone to carry and were not the result of a personal failure to fix the relationship. What began as a conversation became a friendship, a source of healing, and eventually a shared mission.
Today, Deana and Lizzie are passionate about helping others recognize unhealthy relationship patterns, strengthen their discernment, and find hope after toxic relationships. With a special heart for women of faith, they seek to help individuals distinguish between biblical truth and unhealthy influence so they can walk forward in wisdom, freedom, and a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Through their books, podcast, speaking engagements, and resources, they also hope to equip young adults and teens with the knowledge and discernment to recognize red flags early, establish healthy boundaries, and make relationship decisions rooted in wisdom, character, and faith. Their mission is not only to help people heal from painful relationships, but to help prevent them in the first place.
Members of Christian Women Speakers
Deana and Lizzie are proud members of Christian Women Speakers, a professional network of faith-based communicators dedicated to encouraging, equipping, and inspiring others through speaking, teaching, writing, and ministry.
Through this community, they continue to grow as speakers and leaders while connecting with organizations, churches, conferences, and events seeking Christ-centered encouragement and practical tools for healing and personal growth.
Why The Matadoras?
People often ask why Deana and Lizzie chose the name “The Matadoras.”
Traditionally, a matador or matadora enters the arena armed with little more than skill, courage, wisdom, and determination. While their mission has nothing to do with bullfighting, the symbolism deeply resonates with their own journey and the journeys of many people they serve.
Those facing toxic relationships often feel as though they are standing alone in a difficult arena, navigating confusion, manipulation, betrayal, fear, and self-doubt while trying to make sense of what is happening around them. In those moments, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is taking the next step despite it.
What many people do not realize is that they are not truly alone. Beyond the arena are people who care, support, encourage, and walk alongside them. Sometimes those supporters are trusted friends, family members, counselors, pastors, or a faith community. Sometimes they are people who have walked a similar path and simply want others to know there is hope.
The Matadoras represents courage, discernment, wisdom, and perseverance. It represents choosing truth over confusion, healthy boundaries over fear, and healing over hopelessness.
Most of all, it reflects a belief that no one should have to walk this journey alone.
You are not alone.
You are not crazy.
You are deeply loved.