When a relationship with a narcissist ends, the caretaking partner is often left confused, deeply hurt, and often still emotionally connected, while the narcissist seems to easily move on to the next relationship. Healing from a Narcissistic Relationship offers guidance about what to expect as the relationship unravels and how to cope with the fallout. It also helps the reader learn to truly disengage and move through the grief process.Presenting techniques for healing and rebuilding self-esteem and self-confidence, this book offers a guide to developing emotional strength and encourages forgiveness and reconciliation with the past. It shows the reader how to increase emotional self-protections, quit caretaking in relationships, and become more independent and self-loving. Using real stories, Margalis Fjelstad offers a process of healing that can direct the reader away from former patterns of inequitable relationships and toward loving, caring connections that can truly grow healthfully and flourish. It shows that ending a relationship with a narcissist may be the best thing that ever happened.
Margalis Fjelstad, PhD, LMFT, works with clients who are in relationship to someone who has borderline or narcissistic personality disorder, and she facilitates groups on Caretaker recovery. She has previously been an Adjunct Faculty member at Regis University in Colorado Springs and at California State University in Sacramento. She is the author of the hugely popular Rowman & Littlefield title Stop Caretaking the Borderline or Narcissist.
Part I: The Narcissist and the Caretaker1: It’s All About THEM—Narcissists 2: What About YOU? 3: Why Relationships with Narcissists Always Crash Part II: How Could This Be Over?4: The End Game 5: What Just Happened? 6: Coping with the End 7: Letting Go Part 4: Healing After the Crash8: Grieving 9: Healing Self-Esteem 10: Rebuilding Self-Confidence11: Loving your SELFPart 5: Empowerment12: Developing Inner Strength13: Self-Protection14: Becoming IndependentPart 6: Transform Your Life into Your Dream15: Forgiveness16: Coming Home to Yourself17: Finding Others to Love18: Living Your Intention
Must-read for anyone struggling with the ending of a relationship with a narcissist. Dr. Fjelstad clearly and powerfully lays out what you need to do for yourself to heal from the ravages of a relationship with a narcissist. I love her straight-forward way of describing the narcissist, as well as her direct, no-nonsense way of describing the caretaker - the enabler of the narcissist. If you want to heal from the end of your relationships with a narcissist, as well as not repeat your same patterns in your next relationship, this book is for you.