The Toxicity Survival Guide

After some hard thinking about what the real secret sauce is to philosophy, some changes are coming to Empowerment Through Thought. Inspired by the struggles with flying monkeys, I'll continue to serve my fellow survivors and call in all those seeking to go against the norms.  Website: www.empowermentthroughthought.com  Contact me: dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought.com  Instagram:...

There is trend in the healing space to reject psychology's talk therapy and embrace that healing must come at the level of the subconscious. In this episode, I explore how we can acknowledge the limitations of psychology's talk therapy without necessarily moving to the much more vulnerable space of the subconscious. I share how philosophy can is another way to engage in conscious dialogue that can...

Suffering follows us wherever we are on the survivor journey. We might as well learn how to live well within its presence. In this episode, I share some of Marcus Auerilius' thoughts on how to deal with inevitable suffering.  Learn more about the Grey Rock Masterclass here Catch me on IG: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought Email me: dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought.com 

You may have heard of grey rock, but I bet you haven't heard of Stoic Philosophy or Marcus Auerilius. In this episode, I explain why understanding the philosophic foundation of this popular technique for navigating toxic people can help you immensely. I share how it helped me on my journey and why it can help  you deal with both guilt and anger.  Learn more about the Grey Rock Masterclas...

I pull insights on the value of listening to yourself as I reflect on what the holidays are looking like for me. Its a weird season and here are some good reasons to think that is totally okay.  Email: dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought

Started playing with my current angst in the form of a fiction piece and I have discovered that it is wildly difficult to live in the peace that so many of us strive for on the journey.  The post on IG that I refer to is here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cl9z_a3jGnr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

We often strive to be the version of ourselves that are no longer burdened by the challenges of long-term abuse, but this idealization of our fully healed selves may be causing more harm than good. I explain why I think that there is no such thing as being fully healed and what survivors can focus on instead.  Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought Email: dr.louise@empowerment...

Survivors often assume that they are busted and in need of immediate healing. In this episode I invite you to challenge that assumption and get really curious about when it is appropriate to seek real deep growth on your healing journey and when it is best to switch into a maintenance phase. I discuss how this perspective shift can especially serve us as we are making our choices about navigating...

Have you ever thought about how much power the algorithm has when it comes to your healing work? The more we rely on social media to help us on our healing journey, the more susceptible we are to the preferences of this robot.  In this episode I explore the potential shortcomings of social media as a tool for healing from abuse and what you can do about it.  Instagram: www.instagram.com/...

Learning to allow emotions that once brought us a lot of heartache back into our lives in the wake of healing from toxic people can be a CHALLENGE. In this episode I reflect on my own recent experience crying in a public space and what us survivors can do who want to learn to heal our relationship to these formerly dangerous feelings.  Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought.co...

This episode is all about the identity crisis that comes up for us survivors of narcissistic abuse. Often we cling to old parts of ourselves since that served us well in navigating abusive environments, but as we make progress on the healing journey, we can struggle to make sense of these older parts of ourselves and the new folks that we are becoming.  As a fellow survivor currently going th...

In this episode, I talk about the final communication my toxic father ever sent me. I discuss a particular "witnessing" technique that I have been using to help ease the absolute horror and dismay his final cruel words have created in me.  I do not share any direct quotes from the letter, but I do discuss death and many of the harsh realities sacrifices we make to toxic parents.  Email m...

Ready for some fun healing! In this episode, I invite you to consider the stuff that toxic people forbid you from doing. I also share how this has been quite liberating on my own journey, including some spicy talk on the paranormal.  When you are ready for some one-on-one support, reach out  Email: dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughtho...

In this very raw episode, I share with you my recent experience of losing a friendship and how this too is part of the healing journey as survivors of narcissistic abuse.  Email: Dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought.com  Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought

Sometimes feeling ok isn't enough. At some point on your healing journey, you are likely to want to actually feel GOOD. But how the heck do we accomplish that after navigating so much darkness? I share my recently developed ideas on how exactly to do that.  Learn about working one-on-one with me here: https://www.empowermentthroughthought.com/work-with-me Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowerm...

Much to my surprise, the memorial service of my toxic father was overall a good experience. In this episode I recap how the event went and unpack some of the reasons I think it was an overall good experience.  If you would like to join me for the 5 day guilt-free boundaries challenge you can do so here: https://www.empowermentthroughthought.com/guilt-free-challenge 

In this episode I walk you through my reasoning process to attend the memorial service for my recently deceased toxic father. Consider this a sort of case study of one survivor's journey through this part of the experience of being the adult child of a toxic person. 

My first thoughts on some big takeaways from the recent passing of my father. It turns out the way people said this experience would go were wrong...

Loneliness and isolation is one of the hardest things to deal with on our survivor journey. The bigger our boundaries get the more distant we can feel from the folks around us. In this episode, I talk about how I am working to ensure that us survivors never have to feel lonely again! Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought Email me: dr.louise@empowermentthroughthought

Toxic people taught us directly that we are not worthy of goodness and beauty in our lives. Unfortunately, survivors have likely interanlized these messages and are likely to have self-worth issues popping up in unexpected places. Listen to this episode to hear what I'm talking about and what you can do about it! Join the waitlist for my new survivor experience: https://www.empowermentthroughthoug...

Hot of the heels of shutting down this house, I am bringing you a recap and the biggest lessons I learned along the way. If you have worried about what it will be like shutting down the house of a toxic person, this episode is for you.  Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought

This episode original published in September 2021 covers such an important topic that I really wanted to bring it back to y'all. It is was a very difficult episode for me to originally come up with, and it hits on topics that are so so important in the abuse recovery journey. Hope you enjoy! Instagram: www.instagram.com/empowermentthroughthought

In this episode I share a piece I wrote on explaining what exactly philosophical counseling is. I explore how it differs from mental health services and how it compares to life-coaching.  You can read the original piece here https://theprofessorisin.com/2022/03/31/what-the-heck-is-philosophical-counseling/?fbclid=IwAR3rbDoHHfHPAKSnly6U0ZMwlMVv4KXWBTxp5OFsea0WtjrybKqcF4dFbc4 Find me on Instagr...

After a recent explosion on Instagram, it was clearly time to do a deep dive on the controversial topic of forgiveness. Many folks in the survivor community seem to think that you must forgive toxic people in order to heal. In this episode, I bring in the work of Aristotle, Kant, Hume, and a contemporary philosopher named John Kekes to show why forgiveness really is optional.  Instagram: www....

While the standard advice for dealing with toxic people is to go no-contact, what enables a person to be able to do that often depends on a bunch of things that are outside their control. In this episode I explore how privilege plays into the decision to go no-contact, and why those folks who are not able to do so can still make a lot of progress on their journey.  If you are ready for some s...