For survivors of childhood sexual abuse. KEY POINTS: Sexual problems that former victims of sexual abuse experience may include sexual aversion or promiscuity. Realizing that many former victims of child sexual abuse suffer similar sexual issues as adults can help survivors feel less alone. Survivors of sexual abuse may cope in passive ways, like choosing an abusive partner, or in aggressive ways, like being abusive themselves.

Narcissists are often portrayed as evil people who deliberately focus on undermining and destroying their partner. But this simply is not true for many with narcissism or narcissistic traits. Although their behavior can certainly fall under the category of emotional abuse, many who suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) are …

This is Part II. in my series on how self-compassion can help heal victims of emotional abuse.

Once you have begun to acknowledge your suffering, you are ready to learn how to provide yourself with self-kindness, an important component of self-compassion. | If you fall down and scrape your knee, you know that you need to cleanse the …

If you have been a victim of emotional or physical abuse, you are probably very good at putting yourself in your partner’s position and imagining how they feel. And you no doubt have a great deal of compassion for how difficult your partner’s life has been and what struggles and challenges he faces every day. But I doubt that you …

As I have shared in my previous posts, I believe that shame is the most damaging aspect of emotional abuse, so much so that I designed a shame reduction program for emotional abuse victims. This proprietary program has been …

Emotional abuse and shame go hand in hand—a perfect marriage, so to speak. Shame is a significant factor in emotional abuse since it is the primary damage caused by emotional abuse. It is also the primary tool used by abusers and the source of emotionally abusive behavior in abusers. Coming to identify how shame is affecting you and understanding how …