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About this course
Part 1 of skills training for recovery from narcissistic abuse, gaslighting and toxic stress, presented by Dr. Liane Leedom
If you’ve been involved with a sociopath (psychopath, narcissist), you’ve been gaslighted into believing his or her stories, such as the individual is a genius, or powerful, or successful. The trauma of abuse makes it difficult to recognize any lies, even when you’re presented with conflicting evidence.
How do you break free? Dr. Liane Leedom, a psychiatrist who was herself targeted by a psychopath, says that you can restore your sanity through mindfulness.
Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment, on purpose and without judgment. Through mindfulness, you objectively observe all your sensory input, including how your body feels, what your brain is thinking and what you’re experiencing socially.
In this webinar, Dr. Leedom teaches you the goals of mindfulness — to reduce suffering, increase happiness, increase control of your mind and experience reality as it is. Then, she offers you specific skills and practices to achieve the goals.
The objective of this training is to help you build a life worth living, despite your experience with the sociopath (psychopath, narcissist). Your wise mind, the wisdom within each person, knows that there is always more than one way to respond to anything. Using your wise mind, you can choose your most effective response.
This skills training is based on the concepts of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). Dr. Leedom refers to many DBT concepts in this course. To jumpstart your own personal recovery, she strongly recommends that you purchase DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, by Marsha M. Linehan. In Dr. Leedom’s experience, the participants who worked with the handouts and worksheets in conjunction with her instruction make the most progress.
Highlights
- After the sociopath, how mindfulness can restore your sanity
- Goal of mindfulness — to reduce suffering and increase happiness
- How to focus on being completely present in this one moment
- How to observe and release painful emotions
- The importance of validation for improved relationships
About the instructor Dr. Liane Leedom
Liane J. Leedom, M.D., is a psychiatrist and a professor of counseling and psychology at the University of Bridgeport. She is author of Just Like His Father? A Guide to Overcoming Your Child’s Genetic Connection to Antisocial Behavior, Addiction and ADHD, and Women Who Love Psychopaths: Investigating the Relationships of Inevitable Harm. She is also author of multiple peer-reviewed studies, including Counseling Intimate Partner Abuse Survivors: Effective and Ineffective Interventions; The Dominance Behavioral System and Psychopathology: Evidence from Self-Report, Observational and Biological Studies; The Problem of Parental Psychopathy; and Did He Ever Love Me? A Qualitative Study of Life with a Psychopathic Husband.
Read Dr. Leedom’s studies at ResearchGate.
In addition to her university research and teaching, Dr. Leedom is currently in private practice as a psychiatrist. She trained in medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She previously served on the medical staff of several Connecticut facilities, including St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Hall-Brooke Behavioral Health Services, the Hospital of St. Raphael and the Center for Optimum Care.
Cost and credits
This course is Part One of Skills training for recovery from abuse, gaslighting and toxic stress, presented by Dr. Liane Leedom. The cost is $200 for 8 hours of instruction — four classes, two hours each. Once you purchase the course, you can access it online as long and as often as you want.
Dr. Leedom’s complete program has four parts, which will get you well on the road to recovery. Save $100 when you buy the entire program.
To maximize the benefit of the course, Dr. Leedom strongly recommends that you purchase the DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, by Marsha M. Linehan. You’ll be able to follow along in the training and complete all of the exercises, which will greatly help with your recovery. The manual is available on Amazon for $40.
Although this course does not award continuing education credits, you will be able to download a certificate of achievement upon completion.
Learning objectives
After completing this webinar, you should be able to:
- Discuss how trauma interferes with seeing reality
- Identify states of mind — reasonable, emotional or wise
- Observe, describe and participate in the present moment
- Describe strategies for letting go of emotional suffering
- Respond appropriately to validation and invalidation
Program agenda for Mindfulness to clear your head of sociopathic gaslighting
4 classes, 2 hours each
Class 1
- How trauma prevents you from seeing reality
- What is mindfulness?
- Change is the only constant
- Goals of mindfulness practice
- Reasonable mind, emotional mind and wise mind
- Taking hold of your mind — what it means
Class 2
- Practice observing your own mind
- Practice describing what you see, think and feel
- Participate with awareness of your connection to the universe
- Taking hold of your mind — how to do it
- Practice being nonjudgmental — focus on the facts
- Practice being completely present in your actions
- Practice effectiveness — what works in your situation now
Class 3
- Letting go of emotional suffering
- Mindfulness of current thoughts — you are not your thoughts
- Practicing mindfulness of thoughts by observing them
- Self-soothing — calm for each of your five senses
- Sensory awareness, step by step
- Practicing loving kindness with yourself and others
Class 4
- Mindfulness with others
- Validating another’s experience
- Identifying validating responses
- Recovering from invalidation
- Responding when someone invalidates you
When the sociopath’s gaslighting has left your mind racing and emotions in turmoil, mindfulness teaches you that you are not your thoughts. Learn to calm your mind, soothe your senses and let go of emotional suffering.