Restoring Resilience with Chelsey Brooke Cole

You were kind, agreeable, willing to compromise — and somewhere along the way, you stopped recognizing yourself. If you've left a narcissistic relationship unsure what you like, what you want, or whether you can trust your own memory, this episode gives you the language for why. Chelsey talks with Bill Eddy — attorney, therapist, mediator, and author of 20+ books including Splitting — about how na...

Have you ever looked back and thought, "He saw exactly what I needed... and used it against me"? That gut feeling isn't paranoia — it's accurate. In this episode, psychotherapist Chelsey Brooke Cole breaks down the dark psychology behind how narcissists and predators actually choose their targets, and the answer might surprise you: predators don't go after the weak, they go after the warm. Chelsey...

You can't catch a covert abuser with a checklist. They don't follow a script — they follow you. Divorce coach Kate Anthony spent years deciding the definition of emotional abuse didn't fit her marriage — because her ex was never overt. The harm was quieter: a slow, tailored erosion of her sense of self that no bullet list could capture. In this conversation, Kate explains why the checklist keeps s...

"He never lost his temper. He chose it." Don Hennessy spent more than three decades sitting across from male intimate abusers — and what they taught him upends nearly everything we assume about how abuse works. In this episode, Don Hennessy — former Clinical Director of Ireland's National Domestic Violence Intervention Project and author of Steps to Freedom: Escaping Intimate Control — explains th...

Can a psychologist fall victim to a narcissist? Dr. Kerry McAvoy says yes — and she lived it. In this powerful episode, Kerry shares her personal journey of narcissistic abuse recovery after losing her husband to cancer and being targeted by a predatory partner who used coercive control to trap her. If you've ever doubted yourself in a toxic relationship or wondered how to spot a narcissist before...

Have you ever felt so beaten down that you stopped trying to change things — stopped fighting for your boundaries, stopped taking care of yourself — because it felt like nothing you did actually mattered? That's not a character flaw. That's what narcissistic abuse does. And in this episode, I'm talking about the one psychological concept that has to be rebuilt before anything else in your healing...

Do you second-guess yourself constantly — wondering if what happened to you even "counts" as abuse? In this episode, I'm sharing five statements I hear from survivors over and over again — phrases that immediately tell me someone has experienced relational trauma, even when they've never labeled it that way. These feel like random doubts, but they're not. They're patterns. And once you can see the...

If you've ever escaped a narcissistic relationship only to find yourself in another one, this episode is for you. Not the "here are the red flags to watch for" version you've heard before — the real conversation. The one that goes all the way back to the emotional needs that didn't get met when you were young, and explains how those needs have been quietly choosing your partners ever since. I'm jo...

After narcissistic abuse, most of us are so focused on what we don't want that we never learned what a healthy relationship actually looks like. In this episode — Part 2 of my series on creating healthy relationships after narcissistic abuse — I'm giving you the practical roadmap. I'm walking you through 4 green flags that will tell you more about a person's character than any red flag checklist e...

After surviving narcissistic abuse, most of us do one of two things: obsess over red flags — or give up on love entirely. In this episode, I'm breaking down why  neither  of those approaches will lead you to a healthy relationship, and what you actually need to do instead. If you've survived narcissistic abuse, betrayal trauma, or gaslighting and you're wondering whether you can ever trust yoursel...

In this powerful episode, Chelsey sits down with renowned psychotherapist and bestselling author Ross Rosenberg to completely reframe what we think we know about codependency — and why the label itself may be doing more harm than good for narcissistic abuse survivors. Ross introduces his groundbreaking concept of Self Love Deficit Disorder (SLDD) — the deeper truth beneath codependency — and expla...

In this episode of the Restoring Resilience Podcast, I sit down with Anne Wintemute, the co-founder and CEO of AimeeSays, to discuss a groundbreaking tool designed specifically for survivors of domestic and narcissistic abuse. Unlike standard AI models, AimeeSays is a trauma-informed system that understands the complexities of coercive control, gaslighting, and the systemic hurdles survivors face....

You saw the red flags. You felt like something was off. And part of you knew… but you stayed anyway. So many survivors of narcissistic abuse find themselves asking: "Why didn't I leave sooner?" "Why didn't I trust my gut?" In this episode, we're breaking down the psychology behind that question so you can finally understand why this happens—and start releasing the self-blame that comes with it. Yo...

In this power-packed podcast episode of Restoring Resilience, join me as I sit down with Chris and Lisa, true experts in handling a high-conflict divorce and navigating the complexities of child custody cases. They offer invaluable insights for anyone divorcing a narcissist and strategies for overcoming parental alienation. This discussion is crucial for understanding the dynamics of narcissistic...

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why do I keep attracting narcissists?" If that question has been on your mind, this episode of Restoring Resilience with Chelsey Brooke Cole is going to give you a completely different answer than what you've probably been told. Because the truth is… You're not broken. You're not weak. And you're not the problem. In this episode, we break down: Why narcissists are dr...

In this powerful podcast episode of Restoring Resilience, Chelsey Brooke Cole sits down with Dr. Nadine Macaluso (Dr. Nae) — psychotherapist, trauma bond expert, and author of Run Like Hell — to break down the psychology behind trauma bonds, narcissistic abuse, and emotional attachment to toxic partners. Most people know Dr. Nae as the real-life inspiration behind The Wolf of Wall Street… But her...

In this episode of Restoring Resilience, Chelsey Brooke Cole breaks down why it's so hard to leave a toxic relationship with a narcissist. We cover: ✔ What a trauma bond actually is (and why it feels like addiction) ✔ How your nervous system keeps pulling you back ✔ The role of intermittent reinforcement (why the "good moments" keep you stuck) ✔ What euphoric recall is and how it distorts your mem...

If you're co-parenting with a narcissist, you may eventually face one of the most painful challenges of narcissistic abuse: parental alienation. When a narcissistic parent feels a loss of control during divorce or separation, they often escalate their tactics. One of the most common strategies is turning the children against the other parent. In this episode of Restoring Resilience, therapist Chel...

In this episode of Restoring Resilience with Chelsey Brooke Cole, we explore the early psychological signs that you may be in a narcissistic or emotionally toxic relationship — especially when nothing looks obviously abusive on the surface. Often, the first red flag isn't their behavior. It's the change in you. Narcissistic abuse doesn't just hurt you in obvious ways. It slowly erodes your clarity...

In this episode of Restoring Resilience with Chelsey Brooke Cole, we unpack how vulnerable narcissists (often called covert narcissists) slowly and strategically create self-doubt over time, without explosive arguments or obvious rage. Unlike grandiose narcissists, vulnerable narcissists don't appear arrogant or dominant.  And that's exactly what makes the manipulation so confusing. If this episod...

There is a psychological reason narcissists stay close to their ex, and it's not about love, closure, or friendship. Narcissists are not motivated by connection, closure, or emotional honesty the way healthy people are. They are motivated by access. Access to your attention. Access to your emotional energy. Access to knowing they still matter to you. What looks like friendliness is often regulatio...

Narcissistic abuse has a way of making you doubt your reality. Gaslighting, manipulation, and chronic unpredictability can leave your nervous system stuck in survival mode, replaying conversations, second-guessing yourself, and feeling disconnected from who you used to be. This podcast is a safe place to begin healing. I'm Chelsey Brooke Cole, licensed psychotherapist, certified partner trauma the...