We’ve enjoyed reading the Kindle Best Seller, The Smart Girl’s Guide to Self-Care by author and advocate Shahida Arabi. Her social media presence and blogs are an informative tribute empowering women of all ages and stages of recovery. Join us for in-depth conversation about healing our addiction to narcissists.
We’ve interviewed clinicians, best-selling authors, and global experts on the top of narcissism, psychopathy, and sociopathology. It’s past time to share the history of survivors. Our next guest, for her own safety, agreed to be interviewed under her pseudonym to discuss her book, her advocacy, and her experiences. She is an author and survivor of abuse at the hands of her former husband. Her book has been praised by survivors and clinicians as an extremely open, honest, and detailed account of what life is like when married to a psychopath. Please welcome MrsXNomore to Mental Health News Radio.
We recently interviewed author and speaker Bethany Yeiser on Mental Health News Radio. She shared her journey with schizophrenia, homelessness, and recovery. Today we enjoy speaking with her mother, Karen Yeiser. Karen has written what is a companion book to Bethany’s story.
One of the questions we asked Karen was how life may have been different for their family if her own book had been available during their years of struggle but also recovery. It was an honor to interview both mother and daughter on separate shows in order to understand what happens on both sides.
Karen was also generous with information listed in her article below to help other families going through this kind of a struggle. Please join us in welcoming Karen S. Yeiser on the show.
Join your host Andrea Schneider and lifecoach, author, and healer Kim Saeed for a discussion about Kim’s work helping victims of narcissistic abuse. Kim has a methodology around healing that stands apart from the crowd. The focus is on no contact and self-love. There is a reason she has millions of followers of her work.
Kim’s organization, Let Me Reach, was created to spread awareness of narcissistic, sociopathic, and emotional abuse, as well as the dynamics of toxic relationships. Here you will find inspiration, motivational quotes, as well as healing resources that will help you overcome the symptoms of PTSD, C-PTSD, abandonment grief, and emotional trauma.
Topics that are covered on Let Me Reach include: surviving narcissistic abuse, No Contact, cognitive dissonance, detaching from toxic relationships, the power of self-love, and much more.
Reach for your higher self! Life begins after No Contact!
Kim Saeed is someone I’ve followed online for over a year. Her blog articles are amongst the top searches for all things related to healing from narcissistic abuse. She is unique in her approach because she focuses so much on the healing process which is considerable. Experts say it takes more time to recover from a breakup with a narcissist (be that a friendship, colleague, family member, partner, or spouse) because you have to grieve twice. You grieve first for the person the narcissist pretended to be (your most loyal friend, soulmate, perfect boss) and then you grieve yet again about the horror of who they actually are: your worst nightmare.
Exactly like drug addiction you are high from the intensity during the initial stages of the relationship. You spend the rest of the entire relationship wanting to get back to that initial high that never comes. Being in a relationship with a narcissist is akin to being addicted to heroin. It will slowly kill you. Every time you leave and are wooed back it is worse which is why the term “No Contact” is the crucial point of Kim’s practice.
I am honored to have her as a guest on Mental Health News Radio. We go in depth about what these relationships are like, why it is imperative to cut off all contact for good, and how important your healing process is so you can recover.
Life truly does begin after No Contact.
I was lucky enough to spend the month of July this year in Italy with our CEO and host of Mental Health News Radio, Kristin Walker. Armed with high speed internet in our villa and the fact that Kristin does 75% of her work via phone and email, she was able to vacation some, work a lot, and spend some time volunteering. We were also there to grieve the passing of her father, my husband. Amidst all of this activity I wondered how she could possibly fit in volunteer work. But, not to worry, in one day she located ten volunteer organizations in Florence and fired off a simple email request asking if they would were available to discuss the work they do within the mental health community of Florence. This led to an invitation to meet with Dr. Paolo Molino, a local psychotherapist.
I went with Kristin to meet Dr. Molino (he prefers Paolo) at his office for 30 minutes, but he was so obviously enjoying their discussion that after 90 minutes he invited us to come with him to pick up his preschool daughter so they could continue talking. Their discussion ranged from why he chose this field and how he built his practice (he speaks excellent English as well as French, so can also work with foreign clients), the education and credentialing process in Italy, and his preference for therapy treatments (Gestalt). Just incidentally we also got a chance to be in the neighborhoods, not just the tourist areas, see a private Italian apartment-home, and drive (wildly!) through the streets to the local school.
It was important for Kristin to find out what his views were on mental health, what stigmas there are in Italy as opposed to the United States, and what his experience as a practitioner were like day-to-day. She told him about Mental Health News Radio and her audience of mostly behavioral health providers in the United States (we have a small but growing number in Ireland and the U.K.).
One of the most damaging psychological mechanisms an extreme narcissist will use in their tormented tool chest is SEX.
THE PROMISE OF IT
THE MECHANICAL ACTION OF IT
THE WITHHOLDING OF IT
We carefully use the word sex in relation to what happens because, to the narcissist, the beautiful act of making love is an impossibility. Sex is one of their most powerful weapons of your mass destruction. If you are a highly empathic person with an abundance of compassion, an intoxicating imagination, and issues around appropriate boundaries, you are the perfect meal for the emotional impotence of a narcissist.
On this episode of Mental Health News Radio author and counselor, Andrea Schneider, joins host Kristin Walker to discuss the relationship between narcissism and sex. In her book, Soul Vampires: Reclaiming Your Lifeblood After Narcissistic Abuse, Andrea takes readers on a journey through the phases of the romantic journey with a narcissist. She shares her expertise with us on the show and in co-writing the blog article to accompany this highly charged subject.
Andrea Schneider, LCSW and Christine Louis de Canonville ask listeners to explore the difference between codependency and co-narcissism. You’ll be surprised and the conversation will make you take a deeper look at the meanings of both of these words.
Christine Louise de Cannonville, B.A.; MIACP; MTCI; MPNLP, CMH; CHyp has been a Psychotherapist and Supervisor of mental health professionals for over 20 years. She has recognized a gap in the training of many therapists.Her book THE 3 FACES OF EVIL – Unmasking The Full Spectrum Of Narcissistic Abuse sets out to address the shortfalls in a therapist’s education so that they become better equipt to work with survivors of narcissistic abuse.
We encourage everyone listening to take the time to read more about her work here.
Christine has created an effective program for working one-to-one with victims suffering from Narcissistic Victim Syndrome, and developed workshops for educating therapists and other health professionals in the whole spectrum of Narcissistic abuse. Much of her knowledge has come from her post-grad studies in Criminology and Forensic Psychology, and it is through these disciplines that she has gained her understanding of the The Dark Triad, (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy). These Three Faces of Evil are vital information for understanding the full spectrum of narcissistic abuse.
Andrea Schneider begins her podcast by interviewing the host of Mental Health News Radio, Kristin Walker. Narcissism in the workplace is toxic and breeds discontent that can turn into hostility, bullying, and mental illness. Andrea guides Kristin through some questions about how to identify a toxic leader or coworker and how to handle them.
Andrea Schneider, MSW, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in San Dimas, CA. She received her MSW from University of Michigan (the top ranked social work program in the country) and her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA. During her 20+ year career, Andrea has counseled thousands of individuals and families covering a broad range of issues and challenges, developing specialties in maternal wellness, narcissistic abuse recovery, special needs parenting, and grief/loss.
Kristin Walker is the CEO of a podcast network that focuses on Mental Health, MHNR Network. As a technology consultant for the last twenty years she has worked with many people in different kinds of workplace environments. The worst? Anti-Social Personality Disorder in the workplace.
