The Therapeutic Approach

First and foremost, understanding the dynamics of narcissism, narcissistic abuse, and narcissistic relationships is key. Having an informed and empathic approach to your unique story is where we start. This is your experience, your story, and your space to feel safe and heard. Therapy will be a space for self-advocacy, resilience building, and addressing what has harmed and hurt you. 

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Many people go through these relationships being blamed as "part of the problem" and feel invalidated for what they are going through. Taking a trauma informed approach, it is important that sessions revolve around validating what you are going through and avoiding blame. Understanding these patterns can leave you confused and doubting yourself. Providing you the time and space you need to make sense of these toxic relationship dynamics and to figure out a way forward, determining out what you want to do and how best to cope is at the core of Newington Therapy. 

Healing from narcissistic abuse can also be a deep dive into grief. Grief from the experiences that have been missed and lost. Grief over loss of time and hope. Using a grief recovery format can be particularly useful for those healing from these toxic relationships.

Other themes like cognitive dissonance and trauma bonding are also often some of the core work when untangling the dynamics of these relationships. 

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Working from a culturally informed perspective and understanding the nuances of ethnicity, religion, social class, gender, nationality, age, and so on is important to the work of healing from narcissistic abuse. Although all of these cultural barriers can exist, being helped to get unstuck and heard is at the heart of Newington Therapy. 

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Lastly, counselling will provide techniques to help fortify yourself against gaslighting and help address rumination, connecting you to resources that can be useful. Most importantly, Newington Therapy will be here to help.