by Adelyn Birch | Jul 24, 2016 |

Early on in my trauma,
I felt incredibly and unbearably vulnerable. And I hated the psychopath I’d been involved with. In fact, I hated all psychopaths. I feared them, too. They terrified me. I felt there might be one lurking behind every bush and every smiling face. I felt paranoid; every time I interacted with someone I drilled my eyes into them, searching for some kind of sign. For a short time, I believed the one I’d known may very well have been the devil himself (something I’d never even believed existed before).
All of those feelings were normal reactions to the trauma I’d experienced. And all of them resolved eventually, because they could not co-exist with empowerment.
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by Adelyn Birch | Jul 19, 2014 |

We’ve learned there are many things that leave us vulnerable to predatory manipulators.
But no discussion of what may make us vulnerable is complete without revealing one vulnerability we all have, but that remains hidden from us.
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by Adelyn Birch | Jul 15, 2014 |

A reader commented on my last post, saying “It’s hard to enforce a boundary when you don’t even know it’s being violated.”
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by Adelyn Birch | Jul 13, 2014 |

Can boundaries protect you from a manipulator?
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by Adelyn Birch | Jun 30, 2014 |

Courtesy of Manda/ AMSBT at Deviant Art
Take a look at the illustration of Lil’ Red.
She’s really changed, hasn’t she? A big part of that was learning to be her own protector. She went through quite a trauma with the wolf, and big changes were needed.
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by Adelyn Birch | Jun 24, 2014 |

Do you have boundaries?
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by Adelyn Birch | Oct 17, 2013

Recently I got a comment from a terrified reader with a violent ex, who didn’t know where to turn. She wrote, (more…)
by Adelyn Birch | Sep 16, 2013 |

When we’re imagining our ideal relationship, no one thinks:
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by Adelyn Birch | Feb 17, 2013 |

Image by Dana Toony
Do you have traits that make you vulnerable to psychopathic manipulation? (more…)