If you've ridden in a car with a narcissist, then you've likely experienced them using their driving to intimidate, threaten, or scare you. People with narcissistic traits often use vehicles like a weapon, turning you into more of a hostage instead of a passenger.

This week, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn break down why road rage and narcissism frequently co-occur and how the car gets used for far more than just driving, i

If you've survived narcissistic abuse, want to watch the part we couldn't fit into the main episode? Become a paid Substack subscriber and learn:

• What to actually do if you're experiencing narcissistic abuse but you can't leave yet
• Why "how do I make them stop?" is the wrong first question,
• Why grey rock can backfire behind the wheel
• And the dangerous assumption nearly every survivor makes about their own safety.

Tune in this upcoming Thursday for Viewers' Stories where we'll share your road-rage stories.

LYNN STRATHDEE is a UK-based psychodynamic psychotherapist specializing in echoism, narcissistic abuse recovery, and the unconscious patterns that keep survivors stuck in repeating relationship cycles. A former educator turned therapist, Lynn brings both clinical training and lived experience to her private practice, where she works with clients online and in person. Her approach goes beyond surface-level psychoeducation to the deeper identity work that creates lasting change.

Website

Key Moments

• 00:00 — Cars as devices for control nobody suspects
• 05:00 — The car as a metaphor for the self
• 08:06 — What their car says to the world
• 11:39 — The mattress on the floor: the car as a mask
• 14:23 — When something this ordinary makes you doubt yourself
• 17:49 — The parking-garage asthma attack 21:48 — His reality wins, no matter the danger
• 26:18 — Gender, cars, and the "little lady" hierarchy
• 29:12 — What to do if this is happening to you (→ Podcast Extra)

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

#narcissisticabuse #toxicrelationships #roadrage #narcissists

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Narcissistic abuse doesn't just affect your mind — it gets stored in the mind-body connection.

Do you have the kind of chronic pain no doctor can explain? Does it get worse the harder you try to fix it? Are you bracing, clenching, and shutting down without knowing what's wrong?

In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks how narcissistic abuse gets stored in the body, not just the mind. Want to learn more about healing from narcissistic abuse, check out Monday’s episode with Liz Tenuto, The Workout Witch. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/gM9h4GjITpc?si=BxsgI-eUXsrZzTuA

Have a story or realization you'd like Dr. Kerry to take on air? Send it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com.

When you become a paid Substack subscriber, you also join the Toxic-Free Relationship Club — our exclusive community for serious survivors.

As a paid subscriber you also get:

• Weekly premium newsletter
• Bonus podcast segments not available anywhere else
• Exclusive members-only videos

Key Moments

• 00:00 — "I knew before I knew"
• 00:53 — The words you use for toxic love ("I bent over backwards")
• 01:39 — Why your body keeps the receipts (Monday's Liz Tenuto)
• 02:05 — "I emptied myself out" — loving an emotional black hole
• 03:05 — Not codependency: the alarm that fires before logic
• 03:41 — "He told me exactly what he expected from me"
• 04:17 — My story: love-bombed and quietly terrified
• 04:46 — The PI, the missing records, and the wedding bombshell
• 05:26 — Why we silence the body's warning
• 06:21 — Three truths to take with you
• 07:59 — Your body is on your side
• 08:23 — Share your story + Reclaim You

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the chronic pain, the exhaustion, and the sleepless nights aren’t because of stress, or you’re getting older, but because your body keeping the score of narcissistic abuse?

In this episode, Dr. Kerry sits down with somatic healing expert Liz Tenuto, as known The Workout Witch, to explored one of the most overlooked truths: abuse doesn't just impact your mind; it affects your body.

Learn why survivors get trapped in a constant state of fight-or-flight and the surprising reason that talk therapy and EMDR alone often aren't enough to finally heal.

PODCAST EXTRA EXCLUSIVE SEGMENT
Ready to go deeper?
Think the abuse never touched you physically? Find out the truth.

In this members-only bonus, Liz walks Dr. Kerry through a simple body self-assessment to learn if you’re storing trauma. Learn the early warning signs before they turn chronic.

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here.

LIZ TENUTO (known to her millions of followers as The Workout Witch) demystifies somatic healing and offers a compassionate, science-backed roadmap for anyone struggling with the physical aftermath of stress and trauma. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and an abusive marriage, Liz spent years battling chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia. She cycled through countless healing trends before discovering the life- changing power of somatics. Today, Liz is a trauma informed practitioner with a degree in psychology, 15 years of teaching experience, and advanced training in somatic movement through Pilates, Reiki, and 6 years of Feldenkrais mentorship with Augusta Moore.

Website
Book: When the Body Speaks: How Somatic Healing Sets You Free

Key Moments

• 00:00 Like a paper doll, flat and dead
• 01:00 Meet Liz Tenuto, the Workout Witch
• 02:40 When foot pain feels like walking on glass
• 04:23 Why your body never leaves fight or flight
• 05:59 How chronic stress dominoes into disease
• 08:47 The angry father and the trauma beneath the pain
• 10:22 Unexplained pain your doctor can't explain
• 11:49 Stress weight and the shame no one talks about
• 13:56 What somatics actually is
• 14:36 The massage that unlocked a buried trauma
• 16:29 Why talk therapy alone isn't enough
• 19:21 What somatics felt like the first time
• 21:46 The small, perfect self you built to survive
• 24:07 Why chasing your step count backfires
• 26:30 Fight, flight, freeze, and the Goldilocks state
• 28:44 Five minutes a day to rewire your nervous system
• 31:01 Are you armored up without knowing it? (→ Podcast Extra)

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why has the person who claimed to love you gone years without once saying your name — not even once?

When a narcissist won't say your name, it isn't a quirk. It's name erasure: a slow, deliberate way of treating you as less than a full person.

In this Viewers' Stories episode, Dr. Kerry reads real survivor stories and unpacks four ways the same tactic shows up. Each one is a covert control tactic, and together they're a form of withholding affection most survivors don't recognize as emotional abuse until much later. You'll learn how to read what someone's use of your name reveals about how they actually see you, and why these small omissions add up to something far bigger than rudeness.

Key Moments

• 00:00:00 — The Husband Who Never Said Her Name
• 00:01:19 — When "Gorgeous" Was a Quiet Cruelty
• 00:03:11 — The Trap Hidden Inside "Babe" and "Honey"
• 00:04:08 — Hearing Your Name Until the Room Goes Foggy
• 00:05:09 — Mispronounced on Purpose, Again and Again
• 00:05:51 — What the Sound of Your Name Reveals

Resources

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

Follow Dr. Kerry!

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

Kerry Kerr McAvoy, Ph.D, a retired psychologist & author, is an expert on cultivating healthy relationships and deconstructing narcissism.

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if the sweet pet name your partner calls you isn't affection at all — but rather designed to keep you off balance?

In this episode, Dr. Kerry and co-host Lynn Strathdee unpack one of the strangest and most overlooked patterns in narcissistic relationships: the use of pet names.

Learn why some narcissists even speak about themselves in the third person, and the chilling moment when a "compliment" reveals exactly what they really think of you.

Podcast Extra Exclusive Segment

Want to go deeper?

What does it actually take to heal when the abuse has shaped how you see yourself? In this members-only bonus, Lynn and Dr. Kerry discuss why recovery requires building a stronger sense of self.

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here.

LYNN STRATHDEE is a UK-based psychodynamic psychotherapist specializing in echoism, narcissistic abuse recovery, and the unconscious patterns that keep survivors stuck in repeating relationship cycles. A former educator turned therapist, Lynn brings both clinical training and lived experience to her private practice, where she works with clients online and in person. Her approach goes beyond surface-level psychoeducation to the deeper identity work that creates lasting change.

WEBSITE

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Were you brainwashed to stay — and didn't even know it?

A cult doesn't need a compound, robes, or a manifesto. All it needs is two people: one who sets the rules and one who lives by them.

Dr. Kerry reads your most powerful wake-up moments — from the woman who recognized every cult trait laid down in the first three months of a nine-year relationship, to the viewer who grew up in a home where productivity meant safety, to the one who finally had a word for what she'd survived: brainwashed.

This isn't about missing the signs. It's about a system that was designed to make coercive control feel like love, devotion, and belonging. Have you been struggling to leave? Stop asking why you didn't see it sooner. Start asking if you were trained not to.

Want Dr. Kerry to read your story on air?

Email your question to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Were you born into a cult — or did you unknowingly marry one?

If you've ever felt trapped, controlled, and unable to trust your own reality — whether in a religion, a family system, or a relationship — you may have been living inside a cult of two.

Narcissistic abuse operates through the same coercive control and psychological manipulation that keep cult members from ever questioning their reality.

Brooke Deanne, trauma healing mentor and author of Shattered, Broken and Beautiful, joins Dr. Kerry to share her remarkable survivor's story: 36 years inside a high-control religious cult, followed by 17 years married to a narcissist. Discover the chilling similarities between coercive control in relationships and cult indoctrination that make narcissistic abuse so hard to name.

Coercive control doesn't always look like abuse — sometimes it looks like devotion, duty, and belonging.

PODCAST EXTRA — EXCLUSIVE SEGMENT

Find the exclusive second segment and weekly newsletter here: https://substack.com/@breakingfreenarcabuse

If you've been in a narcissistic relationship, how do you finally release the shame? In this members-only bonus, discover Brooke Deanna’s full healing steps.

BROOKE DEANNE is a Trauma Healing Mentor, Rapid Transformational Therapist (RTT), and NLP Practitioner empowering female survivors of abuse and trauma to reclaim their lives by rewriting their stories via a holistic approach to access new levels of mind, body, and spirit integration. After overcoming her history of abuse as an ex-Jehovah’s Witness and toxic relationships, Brooke brings profound insight to her work as an advocate against religious abuse and domestic violence.

• Website
• Books: Shattered, Broken, & Beautiful - Losing My Religion and Finding Faith
• Children’s Book: The Grief Monster
• Podcast: The Cult Diaries

Resources

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why can you spot every red flag, name every tactic, and still find yourself in another toxic relationship?

A commenter recently wrote that she had been raised by three narcissists, married to one, dated another for five years, recently lost a friendship to one, and a former partner just resurfaced. She wrapped up by saying “the law of averages can't explain it. So what can?”

In this episode, Dr. Kerry unpacks why insight alone never sets survivors free.

Submit Your Question

If you'd like Dr. Kerry to answer your question on air, email it to clients@kerrymcavoyphd.com or use this link.

Submit your question to be answered on air here!

Resources

• ReclaimYou: Dr. Kerry's AI-powered coaching app
• The Complete Recovery Collection: Narcissistic abuse resources
• First Steps to Leaving: Online self-paced digital course
• Toxic-Free Relationship Club: Live coaching & community support

• Youtube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

As an Amazon affiliate, commission is earned from qualifying purchases.

This podcast/video is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, counseling, or professional mental health advice. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or your local emergency number.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.