Being partnered with a narcissist or borderline personality can be hard enough, but learning how to shield children from the fallout is paramount. Here, the authors show readers how to manage parenting when a narcissistic or borderline partner is part of the equation. Life in a narcissistic family system is at best challenging, and too often filled with chaos, isolation, emotional outbursts, and rigid controlling behaviors. It is too often devoid of peace and emotional safety. In the worst outcomes, children in these families grow up with low self-worth, issues with trust and belonging, and a lack of self-compassion. They are at significant risk of carrying the cycle forward and having poor adult relationships. This book offers a way to intervene and disrupt the cycle of negative outcomes for children. Written by two family therapists who bring a combined total of sixty years of clinical practice with individuals and families, the book pulls no punches, giving clear-headed advice, easy to follow actions to help children, and an abundance of teaching examples. Instead of the doom and gloom scenarios often presented about life with a narcissist or borderline, this book provides a much more positive outlook, and most importantly, it offers hope and a path to an entirely different outcome for the family members. Supported by current research in neuroscience, mindfulness and parenting information, the book focuses on teaching resilience and self-compassion to raise emotionally healthy children, even in a narcissistic family system. It starts by helping parents get a clear understanding of what they face with a narcissistic or borderline partner. There is no room here for denial, but there are also many options to explore. It explains how and why the narcissistic family system functions so poorly for raising healthy children, and pinpoints the deficits while providing information on how to intervene more effectively for the benefit of the children. Using their years of experience, the authors present ideas for staying together as well as knowing when to leave the relationship and how best to do that. Emphasis throughout the book is on supporting and strengthening the reader with encouragement, concrete ideas, skills and compassionate understanding.

From the author of Stop Walking on Eggshells comes a lifeline for the romantic partners of those with BPD or narcissistic personality disorder. With this guide, you’ll learn to set boundaries, defuse arguments, and do what’s right for you. Do you often feel manipulated, controlled, or lied to in your relationship? Does your partner exhibit intense, irrational, or violent rage? Are you often the victim of gaslighting or extreme blame? If your partner has borderline personality disorder (BPD) or narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), it’s important to remember that it is not your fault. Lured in by your partner’s initial charm, you might have initially ignored or outright denied the red flags; however, the constant stream of criticism, blame, and gaslighting has left you questioning your own reality. So, how can you begin to set boundaries and make self-preservation a priority? BPD and NPD expert Randi Kreger provides targeted resources to help you build the confidence you need to navigate your relationship safely and effectively. Packed with in-depth information and proven-effective skills, this no-nonsense guide will help you evaluate your relationship, discover what you truly want and need, and gain the courage needed to make healthy decisions—and act on them. If you decide to stay with your partner, you’ll be equipped with tools to improve the relationship; if you determine you want to leave and start a new life, this book will light your path to freedom. As much as it might feel like it, you are not stuck in your current relationship. There is a way forward, and no matter how you ultimately choose to proceed, you’ll be guided wisely and safely toward a satisfying relationship—and the better, more peaceful life you deserve.

"A valuable, practical resource for parents and caregivers of children, from age five through adulthood, who exhibit signs of, or have been diagnosed with, borderline personality disorder (BPD)."—Booklist Based on the self-help classic, Stop Walking on Eggshells, this essential guide offers powerful skills and strategies for parenting a child of any age with borderline personality disorder (BPD)—without sacrificing their family or themselves. If you have a child with BPD, you are all-too-aware of the behavioral and emotional issues that are linked to this disorder—including rages, self-harm, sexual acting out, substance abuse, suicidal behaviors, physical and emotional attacks, and more. Traditional parenting strategies that work on other kids just don’t work with a borderline child. But you shouldn’t lose hope. The good news is that there are parenting strategies that do work. With this comprehensive resource, you will learn all about borderline personality disorder, how it shows up in children, adolescents, and your adult children, how to obtain proper treatment, and how to manage your child’s condition at home. You’ll find proven-effective strategies to help you communicate and improve your relationship with your child of any age, and, as a result, improve your own life as a parent and an individual. You’ll also find real stories and advice from parents who have also experienced raising a child with BPD. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to maintain boundaries and validate your child while also meeting your own needs. Whether your child is 5 or 25, this book offers tools to help you and your family thrive.

Isn’t it time you stopped walking on eggshells? Learn how with this fully revised and updated third edition of a self-help classic—now with more than one million copies sold! Do you feel manipulated, controlled, or lied to? Are you the focus of intense, violent, and irrational rages? Do you feel you are ‘walking on eggshells’ to avoid the next confrontation? If the answer is ‘yes,’ someone you care about may have borderline personality disorder (BPD)—a mood disorder that causes negative self-image, emotional instability, and difficulty with interpersonal relationships. Stop Walking on Eggshells has already helped more than a million people with friends and family members suffering from BPD understand this difficult disorder, set boundaries, and help their loved ones stop relying on dangerous BPD behaviors. This fully revised third edition has been updated with the very latest BPD research on comorbidity, extensive new information about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), the effectiveness of schema therapy, and coping and communication skills you can use to stabilize your relationship with the BPD or NPD sufferer in your life. This compassionate guide will enable you to: Make sense out of the chaos Stand up for yourself and assert your needs Defuse arguments and conflicts Protect yourself and others from violent behavior If you’re ready to bring peace and stability back into your life, this time-tested guide will show you how, one confident step at a time.

This popular book is dedicated to freeing those stuck within toxic relationships.Compassionately grounded in science and embedded in the author's 30 years plus of clinical experience, this is nevertheless an easy and powerful read.

From the psychologist and author of Gaslighting comes a practical recovery plan outlining ten foundational steps to true healing. Surviving and escaping a toxic or abusive relationship can often only be part of the struggle. Long after, survivors often struggle to heal; your self‑esteem may be damaged, you may feel rage and betrayal, and you may punish and/or blame yourself. The author of Gaslighting and specialist in toxic behavior, narcissistic abuse, and personality disorders, Dr. Stephanie Sarkis has seen it all--and she is here to help you understand how to move forward. In Healing from Toxic Relationships, Dr. Sarkis extends compassion and knowledge to survivors, helping you understand the underpinnings of toxic behavior and how to find peace. Highlighting ten essential steps, Dr. Sarkis provides survivors with an accessible framework that can be applied to anyone preparing to heal: 1. Block or Limit Contact 2. Create Your Own Closure 3. Forgive Yourself 4. Establish Boundaries 5. Talk to a Professional 6. Practice Self‑Care 7. Reconnect 8. Grieve 9. Look Outward 10. Prevent: Keeping Toxic People Away Anyone who is in a toxic relationship—whether it's with a romantic partner, colleague, family member, or friend—deserves a way out and a path forward. Dr. Sarkis offers help and hope.

An examination of the child alienation problem from the perspective of a lawyer/therapist/mediator who trains professionals on managing high-conflict disputes.

This little book gives more than 20 examples of BIFF responses--brief, informative, friendly, and firm--for all areas of life, plus additional tips to help readers deal with high-conflict people anywhere. 158 pp.

This highly anticipated second edition of Splitting includes new chapters on abuse, alienation, and false allegations; as well as information about the four types of domestic violence, protective orders, and child custody disputes. Are you divorcing someone who’s making the process as difficult as possible? Are they sending you nasty emails, falsifying the truth, putting your children in the middle, abusing you, or abusing the system? Are they “persuasive blamers,” manipulating and fooling court personnel to get them on their side? If so, you need this book. For more than ten years, Splitting has served as the ultimate guide for people divorcing a high conflict person, one who often has borderline or narcissistic (or even antisocial) personality disorder. Among other things, it has saved readers thousands of dollars, helped them keep custody of their children, and effectively guided them through a difficult legal and emotional process. Written by a family law attorney and therapist, and the author of Stop Walking on Eggshells, Splitting is an essential legal and psychological guide for anyone divorcing a persuasive blamer: someone who suffers from borderline personality disorder (BPD), narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and/or antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). This second edition includes new information about antisocial personalities; expanded information about domestic violence, child abuse, alienation, and false allegations; how to approach protective orders and deal with child custody disputes; and a new chapter on how to successfully present your case to decision makers. Turn to this guide to help you: Predict what your spouse may do or say in court Take control of your case with assertiveness and strategic thinking Choose a lawyer who understands your case Learn how e-mails and social networking can be used against you If you need help navigating a high-conflict divorce from a manipulative spouse, this book includes all of the critical information you need to work through the process of divorce in an emotionally balanced, productive way.

A clinician faces a multitude of considerations when assessing a child patient. Foremost among these is that caring for the child entails caring for the family members involved with that child. The therapist must balance the competing needs and feelings of the child, parents, and family as a whole. By forming an alliance with all members of the family, the therapist is in a position to strengthen and enhance the ties between child, parents, and family during all phases of assessment and treatment, leading to a more effective therapeutic intervention. Paving the Way for Children's Success offers a model that will help clinicians achieve this alliance. The model presented in this book focuses on ways to integrate child assessment and treatment with that of their parents' and families' level of function. It uses the authors' unique concept of the Zones of Care to help clinicians assess this level of function. In turn, each of the four zones leads to a specific approach to treatment. The authors present how these treatment approaches to current internalizing and externalizing disorders in children and adolescents allow clinicians to integrate a wide variety of techniques to address most DSM-IV categories. Their approach stresses both symptom reduction and the cultivation of coping skills. It also integrates fiscal issues of treatment into the development of the alliance with the parents in resolving the presenting problem. Dr. Ziegler and Dr. Bush present the reader with practical, workable strategies for laying down strong diagnostic foundations for successful treatment, making Paving the Way for Children's Success a valuable resource for any clinician working with children and adolescents.