Full Course Description

Narcissistic Abuse for Therapists

You may be working with a victim of narcissistic abuse without even knowing it.

Clients in your caseload who lack self-esteem, can’t say no, and blame themselves for everything may have been emotionally manipulated, controlled, and gaslit through a narcissistic relationship.

But without the right training you could be failing to see the subtle signs, leaving you without a key piece of the puzzle…and keeping them trapped in emotionally damaging and often dangerous relationships.

Now with this training, you can get the clinical guidance and tools you need to help clients free themselves from the cycle of narcissistic abuse and overcome its toxic legacy in therapy!

Amy Marlow-MaCoy, LPC, has helped hundreds of clients identify, understand, and heal from narcissistic abuse from interpersonal relationships. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling book The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook: Healing from Emotional Abuse (Callisto Media, 2020).

Watch Amy and get the strong foundational understanding of narcissistic abuse dynamics and treatment you need to:

Recognize overt and covert signs of narcissism in a variety of contexts
Open your clients’ eyes to gaslighting and other manipulative tactics of narcissists
Avoid clinical missteps that could alienate these clients
Build assertiveness in clients who can’t say no
Teach clients to develop healthy boundaries without guilt
End clients damaging self-blame and help them be their own individual
and much more!

Don’t miss this chance to help clients break the cycle of narcissistic abuse and regain their personal power!

P.S. As popular culture continues to shine a spotlight on the problem, more people than ever before are seeking therapists well-versed in narcissistic abuse. This training will leave you better positioned to work with this growing client population!

Program Information

Objectives

Analyze how abuse from individuals with narcissistic personality disorder in the context of romantic relationships, friendships, and family relationships can lead to long term effects for clients.
Differentiate narcissistic abuse from other forms of emotional abuse to improve your ability to recognize the subtle signs that clients may be victims.
Employ in-session psychoeducation approaches to help clients become aware of narcissistic behavior in their lives and recognize the consequences.
Analyze common mistakes made by practitioners in the treatment of survivors of narcissistic abuse.
Employ exercises to help survivors of narcissistic abuse build assertive communication skills.
Investigate the current research and treatment limitations surrounding work with survivors of narcissistic abuse.

Outline

A Clinician’s Guide to Narcissism:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder and the Spectrum of Narcissistic Traits

DSM-5™ criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Social and culturally acquired definitions
The spectrum of narcissistic traits
Narcissistic traits without meeting criteria for NPD
Psychoeducation for survivors about NPD, narcissistic behavior and its consequences

Narcissistic Abuse and General Emotional Abuse:
Similarities, Differences and Tactics Impacting Detection and Treatment

Goals of perpetrators of emotional abuse vs. narcissistic abuse
Cycle of abuse in narcissistic relationships
Gaslighting and other tactics of manipulation and coercion
What is narcissistic supply?
Subtypes: engulfing and ignoring/neglecting

Narcissistic Abuse in Specific Relationships:
Dynamics and Impacts

Romantic/intimate relationships/sex addiction
Co-parenting vs counter-parenting
Friendships and frenemies
Family of origin – the golden child, black sheep, scapegoat, and invisible child
Lack of self-esteem, difficulties trusting others, C-PTSD and other effects of narcissistic abuse

Potential Missteps and Traps to Avoid

Everyone’s a narcissist (over-pathologizing problematic behaviors)
No one’s a narcissist (dismissing client reports because you can’t diagnose NPD)
Pushing for reconciliation or family therapy
Inadvertently gaslighting clients by questioning hard-to-spot emotional manipulation
Not focusing enough on calming the underlying trauma triggers

Victims of Narcissistic Abuse in Therapy:
Break the Cycle of Abuse through Increased Autonomy, Agency and Sense-of-Self

Building assertiveness and individuation – strategies to help clients be their own individual
- Exercises to help clients discover their own preferences, interests, desires, and goals
- Teach clients to distinguish between assertiveness, aggression, and passive aggression
- Counteract internalized messaging that assertive communication is harmful, cold, cruel, or harsh
- Prepare clients for the backlash that often attends increasing autonomy and agency
- Cultural sensitivity considerations
Exploring levels of contact and clients’ wishes regarding contact
- Developing healthy boundaries -- how to best protect themselves within the relationship parameters they choose
- Processing guilt/shame over setting boundaries and saying no
- Coping strategies for when contact is inevitable

Additional Approaches and Considerations

Trauma competency – an essential for working with these clients
Inner child work to heal attachment wounds
Is family therapy advised?
Specific modalities to explore - AEDP, IFS, EMDR, SE, BSP, Gestalt
Research, risks and treatment limitations

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Physicians
Addiction Counselors
Psychiatric Nurses

Copyright : 07/28/2023

Adult Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

Dozens of tools for core shame, internalized criticism and more
Confidently navigate emotional enmeshment
Best practices to restore emotional safety and authentic identity
Keys to “low contact” and “no contact”

Anxiety, perfectionism, or relationships that never seem to work …

… whatever brings them to you, so many clients describe a childhood that wasn’t that bad” with a mother who was “hard to please.”

But when you start exploring that maternal relationship, the room changes. Defenses come up.

There’s loyalty. Confusion. Shame. Attachment is anxious, avoidant – or both. And their identity? Well, it feels entirely shaped by others’ expectations.

That’s why therapist and author of Recovering from Narcissistic Mothers: A Daughter's Workbook, Ellen Biros, created this one-day training …

… to give you a clear blueprint to identify and skillfully treat the core wounds these clients carry so they can reclaim their voice, rebuild their identity, and create relationships rooted in authenticity and self-respect.

When you watch Ellen, she’ll show you how to:

Spot the subtle but powerful markers of narcissistic parenting and attachment trauma
Work with core shame, internalized criticism, and identity confusion
Help clients navigate loyalty binds, complex grief, and emotional enmeshment
Use clinical strategies to restore self-agency, emotional safety, and authentic identity

PLUS you’ll learn how you can best help clients navigate decisions around low contact, no contact, or strategic interaction.

Whether you’ve had one client like this or dozens, you know how stuck these cases can feel – and how painful it is for clients to remain trapped in old dynamics.

This training gives you the tools to help them break that cycle – and finally begin to heal.

Purchase now!

Program Information

Objectives

Identify the relevance of attachment theory principles to psychosocial development.
Examine how parenting styles contribute to the development of early maladaptive schemas.
Determine how maternal parentification impacts clients’ cognitions, behavioral patterns, and identity in adulthood.
Evaluate the role of parental enmeshment, control, and boundary violations in shaping clients’ relational expectations and conflict responses in adulthood.
Use self-compassion, somatic, reparenting and self-soothing interventions to help clients restore identity, agency, and emotional regulation.
Identify and address countertransference reactions in therapeutic practice to maintain professional boundaries.

Outline

NPD, the Narcissistic Parenting Style and Its Impact

Define narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder
Identify narcissistic traits in parental dynamics
Common behaviors and manipulation tactics
Role reversal and parentification
The interplay between narcissism and codependency
How maternal narcissism distorts emotional development

The Daughter’s Role in the Narcissistic Family System

The scapegoat, the golden child, the invisible child
Emotional survival strategies and learned helplessness
Core developmental injuries: shame, self-doubt, perfectionism
Common adult symptoms: anxiety, people-pleasing, identity disturbance

Attachment Trauma in the Context of Narcissistic Parenting

How narcissistic parenting disrupts secure attachment
Emotional neglect, gaslighting, and chronic invalidation
Fear of abandonment, rejection sensitivity, and relational hypervigilance
Role confusion and identify struggles

Complex PTSD and the Long-Term Impact

Differentiate PTSD from Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)
Neurological and somatic consequences of prolonged emotional abuse
The chronic nature of relational trauma and its ripple effects

Build a Trauma-Informed Therapeutic Alliance

Establish trust and emotional safety in therapy
Validate ambiguous, minimized, or forgotten abuse
Recognize and working through transference and countertransference dynamics
Therapist boundaries and emotional resilience

Clinical Strategies and Targeted Interventions for Attachment Injury, Empowerment, Identity Restoration and More

Techniques to rebuild self-identity and autonomy
Help clients recognize and deconstruct internalized criticism
Teach assertiveness, boundary-setting, and emotional regulation
Encourage self-compassion, resilience, and post-traumatic growth
Attachment-based and relational interventions
Reparenting strategies and inner child work
Somatic practices and self-soothing techniques
Research, risks and limitations

Helping Clients Navigate Decisions around Low Contact and No Contact

How to assess current contact and relational patterns
Identify ongoing manipulation, guilt, and emotional control
Explore the client’s values and goals around contact
Boundary-setting methods and communication scripts
Disengagement

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage & Family Therapists
Psychologists
Physicians
Case Managers
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Other Mental Health Professionals

Copyright : 12/09/2025

The Family Scapegoat Treatment Guide: Tools to Release Self-Blame, Reclaim Self-Worth and Heal Attachment Wounds

Not good enough, not worthy of love or acceptance, and trapped in a cycle of seeking approval that never comes, the family scapegoat carries the burden of the label into adulthood…

…along with the trauma, self-limiting beliefs and emotional wounds that lead them to therapy.

Now in this webinar you’ll delve deep into the intricate dynamics of family scapegoating and get the practical treatment strategies you need to help clients break free and heal from the damaging role assigned to them by their toxic family.

You’ll watch Jay Reid, LPCC, family scapegoat treatment expert and author of Growing Up as the Scapegoat to Narcissistic Parents: A Guide to Healing.

He’ll show you how the power dynamics, emotional manipulation, and trauma of scapegoating impact your clients PLUS give you the clinical tools you need to confidently treat them.

You’ll get an easy-to-follow framework to guide therapy and a complete toolbox of interventions designed to disrupt unhealthy patterns, shift clients away from self-blame, challenge their limiting pathogenic beliefs, set healthy boundaries and much more.

And with Jay’s tips you’ll feel more prepared than ever before to work with clients looking to go “no-contact” with toxic family members.

You’ll end this course ready to provide specialized treatment to the growing number of clients looking to escape the painful legacy of family scapegoating…

…so they can embrace their true identity and feel safe in claiming what is “right” with them.

Don’t wait. Purchase now.

Program Information

Objectives

Determine how a narcissistic parent influences the child to assume the blame for all the family’s problems.
Name three ways empirical research has shown children of narcissistic parents suffer psychologically.
Identify why the scapegoat child sacrifices healthy developmental goals to stay in relationship to their narcissistic parent.
Define pathogenic beliefs and why they generate psychological suffering for the scapegoat survivor.
Examine Control-Mastery Theory’s Five-Step Case Conceptualization to scapegoat survivors in treatment.
Name two ways scapegoat survivor’s may coach their therapist based on Control-Mastery Theory.

Outline

Relational Dynamics of the Narcissistic Family

The psychology of a narcissistic parent
The scapegoat child’s function in the narcissistic family
How the scapegoat child is made to feel the worthless

Devaluation, Deprivation and Control: The Creation of the Family Scapegoat and Pathogenic Beliefs

Devaluation: The child is treated as if they are lower status
Deprivation: Emotional support is withheld from the child
Control: The child is domineered by the narcissistic parent
How healthy developmental goals threaten relationship to parent
8 common pathogenic beliefs held by the scapegoat child

Use a Control-Mastery Theory (CMT) Approach to Treatment

Goal of therapy: safely pursue sacrificed developmental goals
How and why pathogenic beliefs persist into adulthood
Respond in ways that do not align with the client’s pathogenic beliefs
Overview of empirical support for CMT
Indications and contraindications

Apply a 5-Step Case Conceptualization Method

Step 1: Tailor treatment around each specific client’s goals
Step 2: Identify pathogenic beliefs that block progress towards goals
Step 3: Understand the past traumas that made those beliefs necessary
Step 4: How the client may unconsciously test whether those beliefs are still true
Step 5: Respond in ways that helps clients answer “No” to their tests
Case studies: Learn to apply CMT’s 5-step case conceptualization

The Family Scapegoat Survivor Treatment Toolbox: Strategies for Replacing Self-Blame with Self-Compassion and Self-Worth

Specific strategies for validating the survivor’s experience
Anxiety management tools to address survivor’s anxiety around success
Self-compassion practices to shift clients from self-blame
Present-focused interventions to redirect the focus from their parents to themselves
Cognitive restructuring exercises to challenge and test pathogenic beliefs
Use reflective questioning to explore underlying issues
Boundary setting skills
Go no contact and other considerations
Research, risks and limitations
Boundary setting skills to protect themselves from abuse

Target Audience

Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Psychologists
Addiction Counselors
Nurse Practitioners
Physicians
Others in Caring Professions

Ambiguous Loss in Narcissistic Relationships

Grief and loss hit clients recovering from narcissistic abuse on multiple levels. From grieving a childhood of abuse and neglect to mourning the loss of the rosy-colored glasses that allowed victims to stay in a cycle of abuse -- grief echoes through all corners of the adult child of a narcissist’s life. In this session, you’ll view narcissistic abuse expert and best-selling author Amy Marlow-MacCoy, LPC as she gives you the skills and tools you need to recognize grief in a client’s anger, help them identify the losses of the past, present, and future, and come to terms with the ambiguity of grieving a person or relationship that may never be peacefully resolved.

Program Information

Objectives

Differentiate ambiguous loss from other losses and identify relevant clinical implications.
Apply the theory of ambiguous loss to clinical cases involving emotional abuse and estrangement.
Support clients in exploring all dimensions of grief work, coping with past, present and future losses.
Analyze how guilt and shame can complicate grief, particularly when a client’s estranged loved one dies and they are unable to achieve resolution.
Employ a past, present and future perspective to treatment to help clients manage the pain of the past, find closure, and envisions a future after the “death” of a relationship.
Apply evidence-informed techniques for promoting resilience in circumstances of ambiguous loss in the context of estrangement or the end of abusive relationships.

Outline

Ambiguous losses in the context of abuse
The grief of the past - the childhood that happened and the one that didn’t
Grieving the present and future - helping clients come to terms with what is
Clinical skills to process grief that occurs in relationships that end or change due to estrangement
Risks, limitations and challenges

Target Audience

Counselors
Marriage & Family Therapists
Nurses
Nurse Practioners
Psychologists
Social Workers
Other Mental Health Professions

The Other Person In the Therapy Room: Attending to the Person of the Therapist When Treating Narcissistic Abuse Survivors

Working with narcissists and the survivors of their abuse is hard…

Countertransference, loss of objectivity, power struggles, and boundary violations can halt therapeutic progress and leave the therapist feeling emotionally triggered, frustrated, and even burned out.

In this must-see session, Amy Marlow-MaCoy, LPC, author of bestseller, The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook: Healing from Emotional Abuse, will guide you through developing compassionate awareness of your own “stuff”, including unhealed inner child wounds and relational trauma, ensuring not only the best therapeutic environment for your clients but also prevention of burnout and compassion fatigue.

Program Information

Objectives

Apply person-of-the-therapist insight and self-awareness to strengthen the therapeutic alliance with complex relational trauma survivors.
Evaluate the concept of the “blank slate” clinician and how it impacts the development of the therapeutic alliance with complex PTSD clients.
Assess when and how to utilize countertransference to help clients gain insight into their presentation in relationships.

Outline

The Therapeutic Alliance

The “blank slate” concept revisited
Authenticity with boundaries
Acknowledging countertransference

Countertransference: Benefits for the client

Creating safety through genuine connection
Attuning to the inner world
Modeling care for the inner child

Countertransference: Benefits for the therapist

Opportunity for self-compassion
Identifying our own wounds
Practice: Meditation

Target Audience

Psychiatrists
Psychologists
Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Addiction Counselors
Nurses
Physicians
Other Mental Health Professionals