HOW CAN THERAPY HELP ME TO RECOVER FROM A RELATIONSHIP WITH A NARCISSIST?

There are a number of ways in which therapy or counselling can help you recover from your relationship with a narcissist.

• Validate your experience: When you decide to undertake therapy, you will be provided with a safe and supportive space where you can express your emotions and experiences without fear or judgement. Narcissistic relationships can expose you to gaslighting, manipulation and feelings that are invalidated. Spending time with a therapist can help you validate your experience and begin to see that your reactions are normal responses in the recovery process from an unhealthy and toxic relationship. 

• Identify negative coping mechanisms: When you are in a relationship with a narcissist, you may develop negative coping mechanisms such as self-blame, anger or depression. Unfortunately, these coping strategies can lead to more significant problems in the long term. Undertaking therapy allows you to explore these behaviours, identify any unhealthy coping mechanisms that have developed and come to understand and implement alternative strategies to help you deal with stressors and triggers in a healthy manner. 

• Build self-esteem: narcissistic relationships cause damage to a person's self-esteem, making it difficult to leave the toxic relationship and struggling to move forward in life. A trained, experienced therapist can help you to gain insight into your strengths, identify your positive qualities and build up your resilience moving forward. 

• Explore new perspectives: recovering from a narcissistic relationship is not an easy healing process: it can be traumatic and leave you feeling stuck or scared. Therapy provides you with an opportunity to explore new perspectives, behaviours and ways of thinking about the relationship. You will find out about healthy relationships, build yourself, awareness and gain new tools and strategies to manage stressors. 

To conclude, therapy can provide you with a safe and supportive space to heal from narcissistic relationships, as it will allow you to express your emotions, validate your experiences, identify any negative coping mechanisms that have developed, build your self-esteem and help you to explore new perspectives in life.