Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse
Confused by your relationship? Do you catch yourself second-guessing, walking on eggshells, or feeling emotionally drained? Whether you’re still in the chaos or trying to rebuild after leaving, this podcast is your lifeline.
Join Dr. Kerry McAvoy as she exposes the hidden dynamics of toxic relationships. You’ll learn how destructive personalities operate, the manipulative tactics they use, and the stages of abuse—plus the practical steps to heal and reclaim your life.
If you’re ready to break free, rebuild your self-worth, and find lasting emotional freedom, hit play and start your recovery journey today.
Episodes
295 episodes
Divorce Attorney Diana Romanov: Why Being Nice to a Narcissist Can Leave You Homeless
The divorce papers are signed. The marriage is over. But for survivors of narcissistic abuse, the legal system is often where the abuse escalates — not ends. In this conversation, Kerry McAvoy and Family Law Attorney Diana...
Feed Swap: Beneath the Apology — Shame, Image & the Illusion of Empathy with Renee Swanson & Dr. Mazella
Why does their apology leave you feeling like the one who did something wrong? \Continuing this week's feed swap, I'm sharing a conversation from Renee Swanson's Covert Narcissism Podcast — this time a guest interview w...
The Financial Abuse Tactic Narcissists Use When They 'Have No Money
They said they were managing the finances — because you weren't good with money.That every purchase had to go through them. But somehow, there was always money for what they wanted.They made you feel like a child asking for an all...
How Narcissists Use Love Bombing to Build a Financial Trap
He checked the grocery receipt. And the look on his face said everything: he expected to catch you at something. You weren't a partner. You were a suspected thief. But that moment — that first time money became a surveil...
Narcissistic Parents Don't Love Their Children — They Use Them
They said they were managing the finances — because you weren't good with money. That every purchase had to go through them. But somehow, there was always money for what they wanted. They made you feel like a child asking for an all...
When Your Narcissistic Ex Weaponizes Your Children in Their Smear Campaign
Your child comes home from a visit with the other parent guarded. Repeating things they couldn't have come up with on their own. Now they’re looking at you differently. That's not just "divorce being hard." That's a smear campaign —...
Feed Swap: Covert Narcissist Relationships — When You Can't Live the Lie Anymore with Renee Swanson
If you can name the patterns and see the behaviors, have you wondered why do you still feel so stuck?This week I'm sharing an episode from Renee Swanson of the Covert Narcissism Podcast — a feed swap I wanted to bring straight to this co...
When Narcissists Weaponize Food: What Survivors Need to Hear
Food shouldn't feel like a threat — but for narcissistic abuse survivors, it often does.In this viewer stories episode, survivors share exactly how the narcissist in their life weaponized food — turning meals into rituals of control, cri...
The Real Reason Narcissists Make Food About Control
Food is the most primal human need — and narcissists know it. The demands that ruin a vacation. The meal that is never made right. The praise given once, then withheld forever. These are calculated moves in a much larger control strategy.
Harmless Joke? No, It Was Sadism & Why Your Body Spotted the Truth First
That flash of something is wrong you couldn't quite explain? Your body caught it before your mind could argue you down.In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy reacts to a so-called "prank" a husband pulled on his wife — secret...
How Dangerous Predators Hide Sadism in Plain Sight - Joe Navarro, Former FBI Agent
The most dangerous narcissists don’t go ballistic: they peck you to death.After spending decades studying dangerous personalities, former FBI agent Joe Navarro has learned that the cruelest narcissistic abuse almost never looks the way w...
Your Birthday Was Rigged to Fail: How Narcissists Sabotage Special Days
It's your special day. Your birthday. Maybe the narcissist participated in the build-out or maybe they pretended not to notice. But you knew. And you got your hopes up. Perhaps this birthday will go differently. What you didn't expect w...
Why Narcissists Destroy Your Best Days — It's Not Forgetfulness, It's Sadism
The ruined birthday. The wrecked anniversary. The gift left in a drawer. It wasn't thoughtlessness.Dr. Kerry sits down with psychodynamic psychotherapist Lynn Strathdee to break down one of the most painful — and least-named — patterns i...
Narcissists Perfect at Hiding Cheating Because They Perfect at Lying to You
In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks the psychological damage done by narcissistic abuse, especially when you’re living with a partner who’s keeping a secret life.Learn how cheaters use gaslighting, lies, and calculated re...
A Sex Addict's Deception Playbook: How Your Partner Hides a Double Life
Most people imagine they'd recognize a sex addict. But here’s the reality most survivors never realize: you were never meant to see it.Sexual addictive behavior doesn’t look like deception or betrayal; it looks like distance, irritabilit...
When the Car Becomes a Weapon: Real Stories of Narcissistic Road Rage
Abuse is something we imagine happens behind closed doors. For a lot of survivors, some of the most frightening moments happened not just in the home but in the passenger seat of a moving car.In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry p...
Road Rage & Other Terrifying Ways Narcissists Use Cars to Intimidate You
If you've ridden in a car with a narcissist, then you've likely experienced them using their driving to intimidate, threaten, or scare you. People with narcissistic traits often use vehicles like a weapon, turning you into more of a hostage ins...
Your Body Knew Before Your Mind Did — Viewer Stories
Narcissistic abuse doesn't just affect your mind — it gets stored in the mind-body connection.Do you have the kind of chronic pain no doctor can explain? Does it get worse the harder you try to fix it? Are you bracing, clenching, and shu...
Is Trauma Destroying Your Body? What Narcissistic Abuse Does to Your Health
What if the chronic pain, the exhaustion, and the sleepless nights aren’t because of stress, or you’re getting older, but because your body keeping the score of narcissistic abuse? In this episode, Dr. Kerry sits down with somatic h...
4 Ways Narcissists Use Your Name to Control and Dehumanize You
Why has the person who claimed to love you gone years without once saying your name — not even once?When a narcissist won't say your name, it isn't a quirk. It's name erasure: a slow, deliberate way of treating you as less than a full pe...
Why Narcissists Use Pet Names Instead of Calling You by Your Real Name
What if the sweet pet name your partner calls you isn't affection at all — but rather designed to keep you off balance? In this episode, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee unpack one of the strangest and most overlooked patterns i...
You've Been Brainwashed! How Manipulators Train You to Never Leave
Were you brainwashed to stay — and didn't even know it? A cult doesn't need a compound, robes, or a manifesto. All it needs is two people: one who sets the rules and one who lives by them. Dr. Kerry reads your most powe...
Born into a Cult. Then Married a Narcissist. Is Coercive Control Stealing Your Life?
Were you born into a cult — or did you unknowingly marry one? If you've ever felt trapped, controlled, and unable to trust your own reality — whether in a religion, a family system, or a relationship — you may have been living insid...
You Saw the Red Flags and Stayed Anyway. Here’s the Real Reason Why
Why can you spot every red flag, name every tactic, and still find yourself in another toxic relationship? A commenter recently wrote that she had been raised by three narcissists, married to one, dated another for five years, recen...
Nobody Taught Us What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like — Here's the Cost
Nobody taught us what a healthy relationship should feel like. Not in school. Not in graduate training. Not in the culture we grew up in. And that missing lesson? It's costing survivors years of confusion, repeat heartbreak, and an...