Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse

Latest Episodes:

Why Narcissists Use Pet Names Instead of Calling You by Your Real Name Jun 15, 2026

Show notes

What if the sweet pet name your partner calls you isn't affection at all — but rather designed to keep you off balance?

In this episode, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee unpack one of the strangest and most overlooked patterns in narcissistic relationships: the use of pet names.

Learn why some narcissists even speak about themselves in the third person, and the chilling moment when a "compliment" reveals exactly what they really think of you.

Podcast Extra Exclusive Segment

Want to go deeper?

🔹 What does it actually take to heal when the abuse has shaped how you see yourself? In this members-only bonus, Lynn and Dr. Kerry discuss why recovery requires building a stronger sense of self.

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here.

LYNN STRATHDEE is a UK-based psychodynamic psychotherapist specializing in echoism, narcissistic abuse recovery, and the unconscious patterns that keep survivors stuck in repeating relationship cycles. A former educator turned therapist, Lynn brings both clinical training and lived experience to her private practice, where she works with clients online and in person. Her approach goes beyond surface-level psychoeducation to the deeper identity work that creates lasting change.

WEBSITE

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice, nor does listening create a doctor-patient or therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911 or contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 (US/Canada).

You've Been Brainwashed! How Manipulators Train You to Never Leave Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

Were you brainwashed to stay — and didn't even know it?

A cult doesn't need a compound, robes, or a manifesto. All it needs is two people: one who sets the rules and one who lives by them.

Dr. Kerry reads your most powerful wake-up moments — from the woman who recognized every cult trait laid down in the first three months of a nine-year relationship, to the viewer who grew up in a home where productivity meant safety, to the one who finally had a word for what she'd survived: brainwashed.

This isn't about missing the signs. It's about a system that was designed to make coercive control feel like love, devotion, and belonging. Have you been struggling to leave? Stop asking why you didn't see it sooner. Start asking if you were trained not to.

📩 Want Dr. Kerry to read your story on air?

Email your question to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Born into a Cult. Then Married a Narcissist. Is Coercive Control Stealing Your Life? Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

Were you born into a cult — or did you unknowingly marry one?

If you've ever felt trapped, controlled, and unable to trust your own reality — whether in a religion, a family system, or a relationship — you may have been living inside a cult of two.

Narcissistic abuse operates through the same coercive control and psychological manipulation that keep cult members from ever questioning their reality.

Brooke Deanne, trauma healing mentor and author of Shattered, Broken and Beautiful, joins Dr. Kerry to share her remarkable survivor's story: 36 years inside a high-control religious cult, followed by 17 years married to a narcissist. Discover the chilling similarities between coercive control in relationships and cult indoctrination that make narcissistic abuse so hard to name.

Coercive control doesn't always look like abuse — sometimes it looks like devotion, duty, and belonging.

PODCAST EXTRA — EXCLUSIVE SEGMENT

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here: https://substack.com/@breakingfreenarcabuse

🔹 If you've been in a narcissistic relationship, how do you finally release the shame? In this members-only bonus, discover Brooke Deanna’s full healing steps.

BROOKE DEANNE is a Trauma Healing Mentor, Rapid Transformational Therapist (RTT), and NLP Practitioner empowering female survivors of abuse and trauma to reclaim their lives by rewriting their stories via a holistic approach to access new levels of mind, body, and spirit integration. After overcoming her history of abuse as an ex-Jehovah’s Witness and toxic relationships, Brooke brings profound insight to her work as an advocate against religious abuse and domestic violence.

Website
Books: Shattered, Broken, & Beautiful - Losing My Religion and Finding Faith
Children’s Book: The Grief Monster
Podcast: The Cult Diaries

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

You Saw the Red Flags and Stayed Anyway. Here’s the Real Reason Why Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Why can you spot every red flag, name every tactic, and still find yourself in another toxic relationship?

A commenter recently wrote that she had been raised by three narcissists, married to one, dated another for five years, recently lost a friendship to one, and a former partner just resurfaced. She wrapped up by saying “the law of averages can't explain it. So what can?”

In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks why insight alone never sets survivors free.

Submit Your Question

If you'd like Dr. Kerry to answer your question on air, email it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com or use this link.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Nobody Taught Us What a Healthy Relationship Looks Like — Here's the Cost Jun 01, 2026

Show notes

Nobody taught us what a healthy relationship should feel like. Not in school. Not in graduate training. Not in the culture we grew up in.

And that missing lesson? It's costing survivors years of confusion, repeat heartbreak, and an obsession with understanding the very people who harmed them.

This week marks a major shift for Breaking Free from Narcissistic Abuse. After a year of flying solo, Dr. Kerry welcomes Lynn Strathdee as her new co-host — a UK-based psychodynamic psychotherapist, echoism specialist, and survivor whose path to this work mirrors so many of yours.

Inside this episode:

How Kerry and Lynn met through echoism — and why their shared focus on the survivor's inner world changes everything
How free, violent porn rewired intimacy into rage
The Predator's Playbook: cobras, pit bulls, and the deliberate targeting of survivors (Get your copy of the Predator's A-Z Playbook here!)
Why you can't stop talking about the abuser

🔹 PODCAST EXTRA — MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS SEGMENT

Why does studying the abuser feel productive but actually keep you stuck?

In this exclusive bonus, Lynn and Dr. Kerry break down the difference between understanding your abuser and healing from them — and the one shift that moves you from analysis to recovery.

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here: https://substack.com/@breakingfreenarcabuse

Lynn’s Website

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Alpine Divorce: When Narcissistic Abuse Turns Physically Dangerous May 28, 2026

Show notes

Have you heard of an Alpine Divorce?
During a listener’s two-year marriage to a psychopath, her husband took her hiking and then left her clinging to a rock in gale-force winds while he filmed her terror and laughed. This is what’s commonly called an "Alpine Divorce."
It is also an example of malignant sadism.
In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks one of the most chilling tactics in a dangerous personality's playbook.
Learn how some abusers engineer life-threatening situations to trap their victims in forced dependency. Also, learn how environmental gaslighting (the weaponized use of weather, terrain, and wilderness) gives these dangerous individuals plausible deniability.

If you or someone you know has experienced this:

▸ Be sure to preserve the photos and videos as digital evidence of criminal behavior

▸ Consider seeking out a CPTSD-specialized clinician

▸ And the only safe path is total severance

Submit Your Question

If you'd like Dr. Kerry to answer your question on air, email it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com or use this link.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Narcissists Are Waging a Secret War Against You: 5 Dark Psychology Experts Expose Their Tactics May 25, 2026

Show notes

As we honor Memorial Day, there's another war, something that rages invisible, deliberate, and inside the most intimate relationships. This episode is dedicated to you.
In this special compilation, 5 world-class experts answer the questions survivors ask most:
How did I end up here? Why didn't I see it coming? And why was I the one chosen?
Discover how narcissists and dangerous personalities identify, groom, and trap their targets — and why your kindness, not your weakness, made you vulnerable to narcissistic abuse.
Enjoy a full complimentary Substack newsletter this week.
EXPERTS FEATURED
• Joe Navarro — Former FBI Special Agent & Author (Dangerous Personalities)
• Dr. Peter Salerno — Psychologist & Author
• Don Hennessy — Irish Psychotherapist & Author (How He Gets Into Her Head)
• Dr. Leslie Dobson — Clinical & Forensic Psychologist
• Dr. Peter Favaro — Forensic Psychologist & Author
#NarcissisticAbuse #NarcissistRecovery #EmotionalAbuse #CPTSD #DangerousPersonalities #NarcissisticAbuseRecovery #Narcissism #ToxicRelationship

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Why Your Kids May Have Blamed You for the Narcissist's Abuse — and What to Do Now May 21, 2026

Show notes

A listener from Texas writes in: after escaping a narcissistic marriage, her adult daughter is now demanding that she admit that she was an abuser too.

How does she reach her daughter now?

In this episode, Dr Kerry unpacks one of the most painful and least-talked-about consequences of narcissistic abuse — what happens to your children when you stay. How do you hold two devastating truths at the same time: you were a victim, and your child was hurt by your inability to leave?

Submit Your Question

If you'd like Dr. Kerry to answer your question on air, email it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com or use this link.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

Childhood Neglect: The Hidden Damage From Narcissistic Families That Follows You Into Every Relationship May 18, 2026

Show notes

Did you experience childhood neglect? If you keep repeating painful patterns in your relationships — choosing wrong partners, feeling invisible, never asking for what you need — this might be why.
Dr. Rachna Buxani, author of "Unseen," joins Dr. Kerry to expose the hidden roles children are assigned in narcissistic family systems — and the lasting damage those roles leave behind in every relationship you'll ever have.
Childhoos neglect doesn’t stay in childhood — it follows you.
PODCAST EXTRA — EXCLUSIVE SEGMENT
🔹 Were you the invisible child — and do you even know it yet?
Find Dr. Buxani's specific, practical steps for healing from childhood narcissistic abuse in the members-only bonus segment and weekly newsletter.
DR. RACHNA BUXANI-MIRPURI is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and National Certified Counselor with over 23 years of experience across the United States, Dubai, and the Cayman Islands. Known for her compassionate, culturally sensitive approach, she specializes in trauma, family dysfunction, and identity development. She is the founder of Buxani Counseling Care in Miami, a mental health advocate, and a board member of NAMI Miami-Dade. Her work extends to prisons, schools, and underserved communities, reflecting her deep commitment to accessible, inclusive care.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Kerry!

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D., an author and educator, helps listeners decode toxic dynamics, recognize manipulation, and rebuild self-trust.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

The Real Reason You Can't Stop Snooping on Your Narcissistic Partner May 14, 2026

Show notes

A YouTube viewer asks: What about someone's makeup drives them to snoop instead of simply addressing the red flags?
In this episode, Dr. Kerry digs deeper into a question raised in the February 19, 2026, Fan Mail segment, Feeling the Urge to Snoop on Your Partner? Here's What It's Really Telling You. Learn why victims of narcissistic abuse feel compelled to hunt for proof and why it never brings the relief you're looking for.
Submit Your Question

If you'd like Dr. Kerry to answer your question on air, email it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com or use this link.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources