The love of a narcissist is fake. It’s a soul-destroying realisation for every victim of narcissistic abuse, but even more damaging is finding yourself trapped and abused by the person who claims they love you.

Nova Gibson has helped thousands of people in their struggle to understand, extricate themselves and heal from toxic relationships and narcissistic abuse. Drawing on the expertise gained from a decade of working with clients and her global online community, Nova offers comfort, knowledge and powerful strategies to help you identify, navigate and survive this extremely covert, confusing – and dangerous – form of abuse.

In this life-changing book, Nova brings unparalleled insight into the lived experience of victims and helps identify the behaviours of narcissistic abusers, such as coercive control and gaslighting, pathological lying, the love bomb-devalue-discard cycle, hoovering, smear campaigns and many, many more. She also helps you understand covert and overt narcissism, and explores in depth the concept of trauma bonding, which creates a powerful connection with your abuser and explains why and how you’re compelled to stay, even when the abuse is impossible to ignore.

In this deeply compassionate book, Nova offers hope, support and concise, practical strategies to break the toxic cycle, extricate and protect yourself … and most importantly, heal.

It is extremely common for victims of narcissistic abuse and other forms of domestic violence, to develop symptoms of ptsd and cptsd (complex/ post traumatic stress disorder). As a result of their ongoing trauma where their sanity and perhaps physical safety were compromised, victims are left with the aftermath of dealing with their body’s response to triggers that remind them of their trauma.

Ptsd symptoms may be triggered by something as simple as a smell that reminds a victim of their abuser’s perfume/colgne, which send them spiralling into a crippling attack of anxiety or a full blown panic attack.

It may be the victim now fears driving because of the roadrage their abuser engaged in, or they fear going places that remind them of their abuser and they begin to self isolate. It may be even a feeling whilst watching a movie that can take a victim back to the trauma zone with the narcissist. Toxic relationships, that are based on power and control by the dominant abuser, mean victims are continually in survival mode, or a constant state of fight or flight.

Victims must now be able to live without the coping mechanisms, or hypervigilance to danger, that enabled them to survive their abuse. Other common post traumatic stress disorder symptoms include cognitive impairment, memory loss, unexplained physical ailments, irrational fears, and numerous others that are personal to the victim and their trauma.

Nova supports victims to process the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, by identifying triggers, and supporting victims to sever the traumatic associations between their abuse/abuser, and their current trauma free life.