The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook: Healing from Emotional Abuse

by Amy Marlow-MaCoy

Start healing from gaslighting today

Gaslighting is the practice of psychologically manipulating someone into questioning their own sanity—and if you are reading this, you may be all-too familiar with this form of emotional abuse. The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook is a uniquely interactive method of rebuilding your self-esteem and allowing yourself to heal from an abusive relationship.

Through a process of explanation, advice, positive affirmations, daily logs, visualizations, and a journal-style workbook approach, you'll understand gaslighting, the stages of recovery, and how to heal and move forward. It contains the most effective, evidence-based strategies for conquering gaslighting at work, with friends and family, and partners.

Recovery from gaslighting

Profile the abuser—Identifying and understanding abusive personality disorders is essential to the recovery process.You can do it—Grow through a positive and actionable approach filled with exercises that provide relief and recovery from abuse.Well thought out—Interactive exercises encourage thoughtful and comprehensive introspection, including a 'letter of commitment' to yourself.The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook is a thoughtful and comprehensive source of information for anyone who has been a victim of this form of abuse.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Abuse

194 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 18, 2020

Reviews

[amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I was a bit selfish with requesting because it was for me and solely me.
I have a history with gaslighting as I am a victim from a very toxic relationship. I still suffer from the side effects of it. I probably always will.
This is truly a workbook as it features several different scenarios and also has questions snd and spaces where you can fill out your answers.

With gaslighting you feel as though you’re alone, you’re insane, and nothing you do is right.

It’s hard to find yourself again.

That is what your abuser wants. They want to break you down.

This wasn’t an easy read but I am happy I did so. It’s nice to know I’m not alone and that there is help out there and I’m not trapped inside of my mind.

Thanks very much to Netgalley for this copy of my ARC.

[Sage Nestler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook is not only an excellent tool for sufferers but an incredibly important component of practice for any individual working in mental health. As a clinician and a sufferer of gaslighting myself, I found this workbook to provide wonderful information behind gaslighting, its definition and effects, while providing wonderful self-directed exercises. Thank you so much to the author for providing me with healing for myself and clients as well!

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The term “gaslighting” became a part of the language after the 1944 film Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. In the movie, a man marries a wealthy older woman and then leaves her at home alone in the evenings, where she hears noises and see the gas lights outside flicker on and off. When she tells him about her experiences, he tells her that she is imagining it all, making her feel crazy, so that he can acquire her wealth and leave her. The end of the movie (spoiler alert) shows that he had created everything she had heard and seen, before “coming back home” to tell his wife that she’s crazy. That concept of manipulation, of being told that your experience is not accurate, is infuriating. It is crazy making. It is painful. And it can be difficult to learn how to trust your own experiences again after it happens to you.

To recover from this type of emotional abuse, it takes work. You need a commitment to yourself, maybe a good therapist, an inspiring notebook or journal, and The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook. This compassionate workbook is a gentle guide to understanding and healing from being in a relationship with a gaslighter. Whether it’s a friendship, a romantic relationship, a boss or coworker, or a family member who is causing the pain, this workbook has exercises that can help you.

Author Amy Marlow-MaCoy is a professional counselor who has worked with those needing this type of healing, and she understands how challenging it can be. She knows how this sort of abuse erodes a person’s self-esteem, friendships, boundaries, and trust. Moving step by step through self-compassion and healing to self-care and establishing healthy relationships, Marlow-MaCoy uses thoughtful questions and writing exercises to help you stop internalizing the lies of the gaslighter, learn assertive communication, understand boundary guilt with bingo, learn to say no, and protect yourself from the flying monkeys.

If you have been in this type of relationship, or you suspect you might be, then read The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook and know for certain. Know what to look for, and learn how to protect yourself. Heal the trauma that this emotional abuse causes, learn how to put yourself first, and set boundaries against those who want to manipulate you. In other words, The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook can help you get your life back.

A copy of The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook was provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.

[Frrobins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good overview of what gaslighting is and how it looks. There were a few early chapters that could have benefitted from a good editor and were written rather sloppily. And I wish there has been more emphasis on recovering from gaslighting and exercises to help regain one's sense of perception and reality rather than identifying it. And I wish the author had been a bit more careful in her sections on narcissism as, in my work with people who have been abused, they can get so focused on whether or not the person they are with is really a narcissist that they lose sight of whether or not the behavior patterns are acceptable or not and if they will change. Still, there is good information on the history of the term gaslighting, what it looks like and some ideas for how to approach it.

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse that isn't talked about enough. This is the process of getting your victim to question their own sanity and is a type of abuse seen frequently, but not talked about. As a psychology major, I found this workbook to be interesting and helpful. I feel like the exercises would go a long way in rebuilding the self-esteem that was stolen from a victim. I highly recommend this!

[Cynthia D · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review ***

This is one of my more favorite workbooks as of late for a really, really, really hard topic: gaslighting. Gaslighting is one of those things where you question yourself and think about what you did wrong rather than the abuser being the person at fault for whatever situation. The author clearly explains a lot of different topics around this type of abuse, and has helpful exercises to really think about what you just read with your experience. I would suggest picking it up or even giving it a quick read if you think you might've been affected.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Gaslighting Recovery Workbook, Amy Marlow-MacCoy, LPC, presents a clear, readable, and understandable process for healing from emotional abuse. First she defines gaslighting and the traits of someone performing the emotional abuse. Once you have identified the techniques of an abuser, and the reactions those techniques create, Amy then delves into worksheets to help you overcome the situation. The exercises are often self-reflecting and designed to cause the reader to look into themselves, identify situations, and give themselves strength to overcome them. I recommend this book for anyone looking for insight into their relationships and their personality, and who are looking to better their emotional states.

[Daria (jezykowy.koneser) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Gaslighting. Odzyskanie równowagi po doświadczeniu przemocy emocjonalnej" to książka, która pomaga zrozumieć tą formę przemocy emocjonalnej, umocnić poczucie własnej wartości, określać swoje granice czy budować i pielęgnować zdrowe relacje.

Czym tak właściwie jest gaslighting? To forma przemocy psychicznej, polegająca na manipulowaniu drugą osobą, tak aby zaczęła kwestionować rzeczywistość, to jak postrzega świat oraz swoją pamięć.

To naprawdę wartościowy poradnik, jest napisany zrozumiałym językiem. Podobało mi się to, że znajdziemy tutaj różnego rodzaju ćwiczenia. Teoria miesza się z praktyką.

Na początku autorka wyjaśnia czym jest gaslighting, jak on na nas oddziałuje oraz kim jest gaslighter, jak się zachowuje, jak manipuluje innymi. W drugiej części autorka zajmuje się tematem powrotu do równowagi emocjonalnej. Dzieli to na trzy fazy, w których należy zaakceptować fakty, zbudować poczucie własnej wartości i nauczyć się określać granice. W trzeciej części przeczytamy o tym jak wyjść z traumy, jak dbać o siebie i jak tworzyć zdrowe relacje.

To książka, która zasługuję na uwagę. Zwięzła i pełna wartościowych informacji.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook is perfect for those who have been in emotionally/mentally abusive relationships, either parent/child, sibling, or romantic. The book is complete and comprehensive, and has a pretty compassionate tone. For those who are "in the tunnel" and have a hard time identifying toxic behavior, this helps put said behavior into words. For those who are out and in therapy, this is a quality supplement.

Amy Marlow-MaCoy divides the workbook into three sections: The Gaslighting Influence, which identifies gaslighting and gaslighters, Stages of Recovery, divided into three phases (Acknowledgement & Self-Compassion, Building Self-Esteem, and Establishing Boundaries), and finally, Healing from Trauma. There is plenty of room for reflection and quality questions, as well as good prose. She is gifted in explaining her subject and leading the reader to healing.

Thank you, Callisto, for the review copy. I will be recommending this book to a friend going through a pretty toxic divorce, and her daughter as well.

[Sarah Brousseau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 98/75:The Gaslighting Recovery Workbook: Healing From Emotional Abuse by Amy Marlow-MaCoy LPC. I worked through some healing during the quarantine period and I also kept procrastinating completing this workbook. I started this March 2020 but the pandemic had its own healing to going on. Finally finished October 2021, when all seems to be going better, my ex's stuff has been out of the apartement FINALLY for a few months now, I feel at peace! I am ready for the world with so much self-love and knowledge on setting boundaries. A much needed workbook when I saw it in the window and felt it call to me. Since acquiring and working on this, two of my girls have also wanted this book and I will gladly continue to buy this workbook for whoever thinks they may need to work on their relationships, and that goes for any relationship in life!

[Me · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is a very very good book. The author goes through many of the gaslighting tactics, but instead of focusing on said tactics, focuses on the people it has been done to and how they can recover from it. The author certainly knows her trade and topic

The depth in which the author goes into the topic is extremely good. Communications, boundaries, esteem and self belief...all nicely covered. This book would be THE manual for a use recovery groups.

As a therapist myself, I've seen a million self-help guide books. To the bulk of them, they have been nearly worthless I absolutely hate a lot of these self-help guidebooks. This book, however, this one is worth every penny.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a fan of too much/alot of CBT, so this workbook didn’t really resonate for me. With that said, I like a few of the exercises on boundaries and healthy relationships from this workbook as I like to pull great information and exercises from various sources of books and workbooks as a therapist in private practice. These exercises will come in handy for some of my clients.

[Katey Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well laid out workbook

I liked the walkthrough of the book and the excersises are constructed in a well thought out order. Author has a very caring and optimistic tone and explains all aspects of gaslighting fully

[Ms. Sharon O'Hara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enlightening read

As a recovering victim of narcissist abusive this book clearly and simply identifies all the feelings and confusion that made me feel so broken. It truly does provide a path to a much healthier and happier life. Thank you Amy!

[Devyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The therapist i practice with knows exactly what to introduce to me and when and I’m so grateful for the introduction to this workbook. I hope to carry with me what I’ve learned in this workbook everywhere I go until i can embody it in my own way.

[Deborah Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this workbook. Take your time doing the exercises and allow yourself to process through them even if it takes time. It's well worth it.

[Di Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our culture of being nice tends to make us perfect victims of gaslighting. What a hurtful way to grow stronger and get to know yourself. This book is very practical and well-written itself.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful resource. Most of the questions and prompts are good things to think about and work on.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book my therapist recommended. It was good to identify behaviors I've experienced in my relationships and how I can overcome them.

[Catie]

This definitely helped me to become more aware of when I am being gaslighted. It helped me heal from the countless times I have been gaslighted.

[Wei-Chu · Rating 5 out of 5]

對於我是不是在有毒關係中的疑慮，以及是否要下定決心離開、或是接受加害者傷害過後的道歉的我幫助非常大。

[Glenda]

Never read it !!!