Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

You don’t have to feel like your best isn’t good enough. Take back your voice and start leading a life that aligns with your own values instead of someone else’s. If you yearn to make a change and end years of abuse and toxicity, then you are already a step ahead of your abuser. Perhaps you question if there was something in you that attracted the narcissistic abuser to your life. Yet narcissists are attracted by strong, talented, empathetic people—and you were one of them. The good news is that they are powerless without you.

This is a two-book collection of previously released books by Lauren Kozlowski, Trauma Bonding and Coercive Control.

You or someone you love may be in a toxic relationship, but it doesn't have to stay that way. In this compassionate and practical resource, Stephanie Quayle shares her powerful story alongside psychologist Dr. W. Keith Campbell's professional insights to give you the help and hope you need—and remind you that you are not alone.

Raised in the Christian patriarchy movement, Cait West was homeschooled and could only wear clothes her father deemed modest. She was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing, to go change. There would be no college in her future, no career. She was a stay-at-home daughter and would move out only when her father allowed her to become a wife. She was trained to serve men, and her life would never be her own.

This dynamic program, founded on cutting-edge psychological research, enables you to deconstruct and deal with stress head-on. Stress: The Psychology of Managing Pressure helps you identify external and internal sources of stress in your life and reframe unhelpful patterns of thought into powerful psychological solutions that you can apply every day. Underpinned by psychological theory, with relevant findings from psychologists, doctors, and teachers, this audiobook will help you smash the shadow of stress in any area of your life.

Not all mothers are nurturing and caring. This is a true story of a woman who controlled her child through fear, and how her daughter escaped the emotional and physical abuse. But to truly move forward and thrive in the future the daughter has to do more than just survive the past. This story is about that survival and journey towards happiness.

No bond is more sacred than the one between a mother and child. And no figure is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the reason for the illness? What if the sympathy is the point? With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.

Informing and arming yourself with knowledge is all too critical for those suffering under a narcissist because, as you may have observed, the narcissist will often assert their reality onto you. This can cloud your judgment and make it easy to forget what is normal and healthy behavior. Take a deep breath. If you feel guilty or at fault, it’s only the narcissist’s voice talking in your head.

In the 1980s, Erika Bornman’s family join, and ultimately move to, KwaSizabantu, a Christian mission based in KwaZulu-Natal, which is touted as a nirvana, founded on egalitarian values. But something sinister lurks beneath ‘the place where people are helped’. Life at KwaSizabantu is hard. Christianity is used to justify harsh punishments, and congregants are forced to repent for their sins. Threats of physical violence ensure adherence to stringent rules. Parents are pitted against children. Friendships are discouraged.

Natasha Trethewey was born in Mississippi in the '60s to a Black mother and a White father. When she was six, Natasha’s parents divorced and she and her mother moved to Atlanta. There, her mother met the man who would become her second husband and Natasha’s stepfather. While she was still a child, Natasha decided that she would not tell her mother about what her stepfather did when she was not there: the quiet bullying and control, the games of cat and mouse. Her mother kept her own secrets, secrets that grew harder to hide as Natasha came of age.

If you have a family member who suffers from mental illness, but refuses to seek treatment, you may feel like you're caught in a trap. If you try making life easier for your loved one, you wind up perpetuating dependency and entitlement. If you push for treatment, you are met with resistance or outright animosity. And when you reach out to professionals for help, you are told that nothing can be done unless your family member is ready to change. So, how can you escape the "family trap?"

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast recording, featuring members of the original Steppenwolf Theatre and Broadway productions: Tara Lynne Barr, Shannon Cochran, Deanna Dunagan (Tony Award®, Best Leading Actress), Kimberly Guerrero, Francis Guinan, Scott Jaeck, Ron Livingston, Robert Maffia, Mariann Mayberry, Rondi Reed (Tony Award®, Best Featured Actress), and David Warshofsky. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo. Recorded by L.A. Thetare Works before a live audience.

On a hot August night on Cape Cod, when Adrienne was 14, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me. Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention; from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved.

When leaving is not a viable option: Discover how to cope with narcissists while living under the same roof, sharing a workplace, or co-parenting. Psychologists and behavioral experts are still debating the causes of narcissism, but they all agree on one thing: Having a narcissist in your life is extremely harmful to your well-being. Breaking free from that toxic circle of narcissism and codependency is hard, especially when you’re dealing with someone close to you. You’re not alone, and there’s a way to regain your freedom and confidence.

When former teacher Paula Eden adopts Faith and Trevor, she is astounded by their natural intelligence and decides to homeschool them to nurture their brilliance. But as the years go on, Faith and Trevor itch for more independence. When Faith sets her sights on a handsome young man visiting from out of town, Paula grows increasingly desperate to preserve her small family and her plans for the children to carry on her legacy. Luckily, she has a cohort in loyal Trevor, who will do anything to please his mother, even at the risk of hurting his sister and changing their lives forever.

In January of 1995, 17-year-old Lizzette Martinez met Grammy-winning musician and record producer R. Kelly at Aventura Mall in Florida where he was performing. At first, it seemed that her hopes of becoming a professional singer were about to come true when he offered to help boost her career. However, this mentorship quickly turned into sexual grooming, leading to years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

It’s a fact that the narcissist in your life doesn’t care about you. Dr. Judith Orloff said it best: “Narcissists have an empathy deficit disorder. They’re not capable of empathy as we know it.” As a result, they are more likely to engage in manipulative behaviors than to commit long-term. To the narcissist, you're nothing more than a source of attention, admiration, and praise. They need you to supply these things so that they can continue to support their inflated false sense of self.

George Diener, World War II veteran and traveling salesman, and his wife, Carol, had old-fashioned values and ordinary aspirations: a home, a family, the pleasure of watching their two sons grow up. But in February 1972, an unthinkable tragedy occurred in the basement of their Nassau County residence, shattering their hopes and dreams forever.

Award-winning filmmaker Tanya Selvaratnam bravely recounts the intimate abuse she suffered from former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, using her story as a prism to examine the domestic violence crisis plaguing America. Sensitive and nuanced, Assume Nothing details how Tanya’s relationship devolved into abuse, how she found the strength to leave - risking her career, reputation, and life - and how she reclaimed her freedom and her voice.

By the age of sixteen, up to one in six boys has unwanted direct sexual contact with an older person. This is rarely talked about, and when it is, shame and embarrassment often stop us from speaking up openly and frankly. Now, this major new book by Dr. Richard Gartner, a pioneering therapist in the field, explores in depth the once-taboo subject of male sexual victimization.