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
309 episodes
Dr. Les Carter: Stop Trying to Make a Narcissist Understand You — Do This Instead
Are You Feeling Stuck?Take my FREE “Toxic or Troubled?” survey to discover your relationship type and get instant access to a complete, private mini-course—educational overviews, reflective questions, grounding techniques, and new st...
They Didn't Miss You, They Ran Out of Money: How Hoovering Actually Works
Future faking hoovering isn't a change of heart. It's a second round of grooming, aimed at exactly what the first round wanted.In this highlight from Kerry's weekly live Q&A, she takes on what's actually happening when someone shows...
Narcissist, Psychopath, or Sadist? Does Naming Your Abuser's Personality Type Actually Help?
What if naming the disorder never actually got you out? And what if the thing you've been calling proof was really just a way to feel in control?In this episode, Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee take on the debate splitting the recovery...
Gray Divorce and the 30-Year Con: Why Covert Narcissists Never Wanted You to Leave
Gray divorce isn't a midlife crisis. For a lot of people, it's the end of a con that ran for decades.When researchers ask why people divorce after 50, the top answer from women isn't money or infidelity — it was abuse.In this hi...
Narcissistic Love Withdrawal: Why You Chase Their Affection and Lose Yourself
Why did you do things you swore you'd never do, just to get their love back?In this episode, Kerry and researcher Dr. Karen Mitchell unpack why affection from a narcissistic or predatory partner can feel like a drug. It's intense and str...
DARVO Exposed: How Manipulators Make YOU the Abuser When You Confront Them
Why did the narcissist’s collapse look so real — curled on the floor, shaking, sweating, begging you not to leave — yet nothing changed after?What looks like a breakdown is often a temporary loss of status, not a loss of identity — the ...
Why Narcissists Ruin Your Sleep: Don't Miss This Nasty Bedtime Control Tactic
What if the reason you feel like you're always “nagging” has nothing to do with you being difficult — and everything to do with deliberate provocation?In this episode, Dr. Kerry McAvoy and Lynn Strathdee break down the hidden mechanics ...
I Treated Narcissists for Years and Never Saw a Collapse — Here's What Really Happens
Why did the narcissist’s collapse look so real — curled on the floor, shaking, sweating, begging you not to leave — yet nothing changed after?What looks like a breakdown is often a temporary loss of status, not a loss of identity — the ...
He Fooled Every Therapist in the Room — What No One Warns You (feat. Chelsey Brooke Cole)
What if the trait everyone praises you for is the exact one the narcissist is scanning for?That isn’t naivety. That isn’t missing the red flags. Agreeableness — assuming people are honest, wanting harmony, believing no one would be crue...
The Family Scapegoat: Why You Were Chosen, and Why It Was Never About You
Why does one person in the family end up carrying everything — the blame, the mood, the thing nobody will say out loud? That wasn't a flaw in you. That was a role, and someone cast you in it. Scapegoating is bullying that a family ...
How Narcissists Pick Their Victims in Under an Hour
What if it only takes him an hour to know exactly how to control you?That wasn't chemistry. That wasn't "instant connection." A predator ran a background check on your character to know if you had the exact traits he needs to exploit.
Rumination After Narcissistic Abuse: Why Your Mind Won't Stop, and How to Break the Loop
Why do you keep replaying a relationship that's already over — running the same five minutes on a loop, searching for the one detail that will finally make sense of it?That wasn't you overthinking. That was your nervous system trying to ...
The Narcissist Relationship Cycle: Why They Get Bored and Repeat It
What if the reason they keep coming back to you has nothing to do with love — and everything to do with boredom? In this episode, Dr. Kerry and Lynn Strathdee break down the internal clock that drives narcissistic relationship cycle...
The Narcissist’s Hit-And-Run Tactic: Why They Leave You Feeling Crazy
They said they'd "never talk to you again" — like it was a boundary. Like it was healthy. But the silence never actually stayed silent. Behind your back, a different story was already being told behind your back.And when you reach out, y...
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...