A detailed guide to help you resist manipulation and emotional abuse.

“You provoked me”, “You get it all wrong!”, “Yes, there was no such thing!”, “What a kindergarten !”, “Oh, how sensitive we are!”. If your relationship - work or personal - contains such phrases, be careful.

These are obvious signs of manipulation called "gaslighting": you are made to doubt yourself and your feelings, gradually take away your right to autonomy and own opinion. But you can put an end to this, and licensed psychotherapist Amy Marlow-Macoy can help you. She specializes in supporting victims of emotional abuse, and this guide outlines her methodology.

As you complete assignment after assignment, you will learn to:

- notice the signs of emotional abuse and understand the true goals of those who uses it|

- Maintain healthy self-esteem and self-confidence|

- Set personal boundaries and naturally avoid toxic relationships.

And these skills, in their turn, will help you gradually create a completely different communication environment around yourself - friendly, supportive and full of new opportunities.

Who this book is for

The book is recommended for those who want to learn how to identify toxic people in environment and read manipulations in time | recover and recover after forced interaction with the manipulator | conduct intelligent introspection and discover opportunities for deep self-care.

From the Author

This three-section how-to guide helps bring to light the emotionally abusive tactic known as gaslighting. Part I is about how to identify the signs of gaslighting, understand the goals of those using it in a relationship, and determine how it manifests itself in different relationships and environments.

Parts II and III contain exercises and suggestions to help build self-esteem, increase self-confidence, set boundaries and create healthy relationships. This book will help you understand how gaslighting works, how to identify it, and how to recover.

You may want to jump right into the exercises, but I highly recommend starting at the beginning and working through each section in order, because each chapter builds on the previous one. Some exercises may upset you, and some you may want to return to more than once. Please don't give up. Sometimes the only way out is through, and healing takes work. Be patient and kind to yourself.

Published in Russian for the first time.