Rerelease | Healing From Complex Trauma & Narcissistic Abuse

Narcissist Apocalypse: Patterns of Abuse

Abuse Survivor Network

Relationships, Society & Culture, Education, Self-improvement, True Crime

4.7 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

In this rerelease episode of Narcissist Apocalypse, Brandon talks with clinical psychologist and author Dr. Ingrid Clayton about narcissistic abuse, complex trauma, and the long journey toward believing your own experiences. Dr. Clayton shares how growing up within an abusive and gaslighting family system shaped her nervous system, relationships, and sense of self. She explains why emotional abuse can remain hidden for decades, with its effects often mistaken for personal failings, addiction, perfectionism, or an inability to maintain healthy relationships. Brandon and Dr. Clayton discuss complex PTSD, fawning, trauma reenactment, toxic shame, and the painful hope that an abusive or enabling parent will eventually acknowledge the truth. They also explore why familiar relationship dynamics can feel safe to the body, even when those dynamics are harmful.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On this episode of Narcissist Apocalypse, we talk with Dr. Ingrid Clayton about healing from narcissistic abuse and complex trauma.
0:37.6	Music Welcome to Narcissist Apocalypse Q&A, everyone. I am Brandon Chadwick, and with me today, we have Dr. Ingrid Clayton.
0:38.8	Welcome to the show.
0:41.3	Thank you so much, Brandon.
0:42.4	I'm happy to be here.
0:46.0	Well, I am happy that you are here.
0:57.6	And before we get started in this episode, just a big content warning for this episode as we do discuss childhood sexual abuse in this episode.
0:59.4	And that is our content warning for this episode.
1:03.5	And for those that don't know who you are, Dr. Ingrid Clayton, you are a writer and
1:09.6	clinical psychologist with a private practice in Los Angeles,ton. You are a writer and clinical psychologist with a private practice in
1:12.1	Los Angeles, California. You have a master's in transpersonal psychology, a PhD in clinical
1:18.1	psychology. You have a holistic approach to psychotherapy, incorporating trauma-informed
1:23.5	modalities like somatic experiencing EMDR and other experiential ways of working with
1:30.1	the nervous system.
1:32.0	You are also the author of your memoir, Believing Me, Healing from Narcissistic Abuse and Complex
1:37.6	Trauma.
1:38.2	Today we're going to talk a lot about complex trauma.
1:41.6	And in this book, you uncover your you know, your childhood trauma from a
1:45.9	psychologist's perspective. And we've had many therapists on our Survivor Story episodes.
1:53.0	And I love having therapists and psychologists on to talk about their experience of abuse
1:58.6	and trauma and how they unpack everything. And for those that don't know
2:04.2	much about your book, you know, or about your life, you never really understood what you were
	...

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