Description
Heal from narcissistic abuse and gaslighting, regulate emotions, set effective boundaries, and build healthy relationships with this powerful, evidence-based workbook.
Are you caught in an emotionally abusive relationship with a narcissist, or attempting to recover from one? Are you being gaslit by an intimate partner, family member, or coworker? Narcissistic abuse and gaslighting can have devastating impacts on mental health and well-being. You may experience feelings of shame, guilt, humiliation, and even a sense that something is fundamentally wrong with you. Even if you’ve managed to escape the abusive dynamic, the emotional, physical, and psychological impact can carry on long after the relationship ends. So, how can you start healing?
Using this empowering workbook, you’ll learn practical skills grounded in proven-effective dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)—the go-to treatment for achieving emotional balance—to help you heal and move forward after narcissistic abuse. Throughout the book, you’ll find targeted exercises for specific trauma symptoms to help you rebuild your shattered self-esteem and confidence, learn how to trust again, and make certain you can recognize red flags in the future. You’ll also discover essential and easy-to-apply mindfulness skills for developing self-compassion, setting healthy boundaries, and managing negative thoughts.
After enduring the hell of narcissistic abuse, it can be easy to lose hope—or even lose your sense of self. If you’re ready to start healing your emotional wounds so you can finally move on, this gentle guide can help you replace the guilt, self-doubt, and shame of abuse with self-esteem, unshakable confidence, and trust.
You may look at the title of this book and feel it does not apply to you personally as I did. Amazingly, I could pick out times in my life, people such as co-workers, acquaintances, even friends and family whom could fit into many of the chapters of this book. I have worked with the public in the nursing profession for many years. I now recognize, as Katelyn Baxter Musser explained, that Narcissistic abuse has an impact on all areas of your life. I personally never thought some of the people I had dealt with in my life were narcissistic. This book was eye opening in not only helping me identify people but also in helping me deal with them. In chapter 3 it talks about you being told you are misreading or “misremembering” an event and you don’t know how to take a joke. How many times have we heard this in our life, from friends, family, etc. How often did we think, maybe I did mishear it or it wasn’t meant to be mean. And as said in the book, it often leads to negative emotions about ourselves. It was great to learn skills like self compassion and how putting this into daily practice can dramatically change our thoughts and actions. Another area of this book I loved is the part on Radical Acceptance. What a challenging skill to learn, however what a valuable piece of advice to have in your pocket. Learning radical acceptance does not only help with dealing with trauma from gaslighting and narcissistic abuse but from every day issues that come up in life. Learning this skill helps you identify the issue and accept the issue for what it is. It can be good or bad. Yes it can be painful but it is also very freeing, validating the feelings you have and being nonjudgemental and accepting. Going froward I plan to use the skills I have learned to set better boundaries and to not let some people make me question myself and/or my judgement. I would recommend this book for everyone. You will gain valuable knowledge on identifying behaviors as well as a “tool box” filled with ways to deal with them.
I was talking to a friend about the cluster of confusion and doubt I was living in and they described me as a light on a dimmer…turned down all the way, I know that sounds harsh but it really made sense. At the time, I constantly questioned my own reality and feared the person I had become was who I was stuck being, forever.
That same friend left this workbook at my house one day, no conversation, no push to read it, just a simple note. “Next time you are wondering what is up and what is down, set a timer for 5 minutes, open this book and read it until the timer goes off.”
My thoughts on this workbook…reread the note my friend left me and consider it my parting words to you. I think you will find the knowledge, activities and peace of mind to create your own path of self and discover who you are and can be.
This is a thoughtful, practical resource for survivors of narcissistic abuse. Gaslighting can lead to a profound distrust of one’s internal pexperiences, and by defining terms and giving specific examples, Katelyn has given the gift of validation to survivors reading this book. As a clinician, I highly recommend this book and will be recommending it to future patients.
As a reader looking for help and healing, I found this workbook to be very well written and thoughtful in its approach to understanding your own unique trauma. The exercises were easy to follow and are accompanied by helpful explanations, reflections, and recommendations. I found deep value in the “use at your pace and need” style and was able to complete sections that were most important to me, first, making the workbook muchh easier to use than most other guides of the type. I would highly recommend this to anyone needing help along their healing journey!