Blog - Codependency, Narcissism, Trauma - Ross Rosenberg

  • The Unconscious Guide for Compatibly Opposing Partners

    Relationship templates are formed by a child's attachment experience with one or both parents. Whether healthy or dysfunctional, and anything in between, these templates coalesce into a “relationship guidance system” that consists of automatic/reflexive explanations, instructions, rules, preferred roles, and levels of tolerance. In the most basic sense, it serves as a "blueprint" and “instruction manual” that unconsciously and intuitively guides the development and maintenance of close and intimate oppositely compatible partners.  

  • Attachment Trauma Causes Codependency

    Written by Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed., LCPC, CADCSelf-Love Recovery Institute — President/CEOPsychotherapist, Educator, Author, Expert Witness An ...

  • Children of Narcissists: Becoming a Trophy Child

    If one of your parents was a pathological narcissist, you would have been born into this world with specific expectations determined by that narcissistic parent. 

  • Am I Codependent? Signs of Codependency

    The codependent’s compulsion to control someone who cannot be controlled puts them on a circular path that always brings them back to where they started: angry, frustrated, and resentful. Much like the dog chasing its tail, they run around and around, trying to get somewhere, but always ending up in the same place. Their attempts to seek the unobtainable create a series of personal and relational failures that ultimately remind them of their powerlessness over others. This pattern is self-reinforcing. The more they fail at controlling the pathological narcissist, the worse they feel. Over time, they get worn down by their failures and, consequently, give up on the hope the one-sided nature of their relationship will ever change.

  • The 8-Step Boundary Technique

    Setting boundaries is an important part of all relationships. It becomes even more important — and potentially life-saving — when you are interacting with a pathological narcissist. Those who are Self-Love Deficient (SLD), which is a new term for codependent, need to learn tools and strategies to set boundaries, even to the point of breaking up with someone.

  • Hiring an Expert Witness or Testimony Consultant

    Psychotherapists and other mental health practitioners are frequently called upon as expert witnesses in disputes involving emotional distress/trauma, mental illness, child custody disputes, and other disputed mental health-related phenomena. In such cases, their ability to provide persuasive and credible information/testimony to a judge and/or jury often determines the success of a specific legal proceeding.

  • The Positive Nature of Negative Feelings

    Just because “positive” feelings feel good does not necessarily mean that the “negative” feelings are not good for us. Although negative feelings create negative emotional states, they are essential to the positive mental health of all people. Human beings are biologically designed to experience a complete range of all possible feelings (emotions). We are born as a “blank slate” with the potential to develop a full array of emotional abilities. Through environmental, cultural, societal, and familial conditioning, we learn about our feelings, which are and are not valued, and the rules to manage them.

  • 15 Ways Narcissists Try to Stop a Break Up

    When facing the termination of the relationship from their escaping codependent, pathological narcissists react as if their oxygen supply has been blocked. Their "last gasp" attempts to circumvent, reverse, or sabotage the escaping partner's plans to terminate the relationship take many forms. The below strategies instill enough doubt, regret, guilt, and manufactured or gaslit sympathy and empathy to entice their "escapees" to return to their "prison cell" voluntarily. 
    Posted in Codependency, Covert narcissist, Gaslighting, Induced conversation, Narcissism, Narcissist, Narcissistic abuse, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Observe Don't Absorb, Psychotherapy, Ross Rosenberg, Self-Love Deficit Disorder, Self-Love Recovery

  • Taking the "Joke" Out of Codependency

    Codependency is a pathological mental health condition that manifests in individuals (codependents) who are predictably and reflexively attracted to harmful, selfish, and self-absorbed Pathological Narcissists. The powerful and difficult to resist opposite attraction dynamic illustrated in my "Human Magnet Syndrome" books account for the instant explosion of euphoric "chemistry" between "caregiving" codependents and "care-taking" Pathological Narcissists. Codependency is not just limited to romantic couplings, as it manifests itself in varying degrees in most other significant relationships.

  • Guilt Management: A Path to Better Codependency Recovery

    If you find yourself in a relationship with a covert narcissist, it can be extremely difficult to escape. Covert narcissists are masters of manipulation and control, and they will do everything in their power to keep you under their thumb.

    Here are five tips on how to break free from a covert narcissist.

    Posted in Covert narcissist, Narcissism, Narcissist, Narcissistic abuse, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Observe Don't Absorb

  • The "Of Course" Method: Neutralizing Narcissistic Abuse

    One of the most effective techniques for setting boundaries and breaking free from a pathological narcissist is the “Of Course Method.” It may seem like a simple turn of phrase, but “of course” are two small words that hold huge 
    Posted in Boundaries, Codependency, Codependency Cure, codependent, Covert narcissist, Induced conversation, Narcissistic abuse, Observe Don't Absorb, Self-Love Deficit Disorder, Self-Love Recovery

  • Gaslighting Is Everywhere

    Written by Ross Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed., LCPC, CADCSelf-Love Recovery Institute – President/CEOPsychotherapist, Educator, Author, Expert Witness  ...