Narcissistic Abuse Support Group
What Happens When You Finally Find People Who Believe You
The most common thing we hear from people entering our narcissistic abuse support group for the first time is not a description of what happened to them. It is relief. Relief that someone in the room nods when they talk. Relief that they do not have to convince anyone that the person who hurt them is capable of what they did. Relief that the experience they have been carrying alone, often for years, is immediately recognised by others who have lived through the same thing.
At Energetics Institute, we have been running our narcissism support group in Perth for over a decade. We understand that narcissistic abuse operates differently from other forms of emotional abuse because of its manipulative nature. The abuser constructs a reality in which the victim doubts their own perception, feels responsible for the abuse, and becomes isolated from the people who might otherwise offer perspective. By the time most people leave a narcissistic relationship, they have lost contact with their own judgment. They do not trust what they remember. They do not trust what they feel. And they often cannot articulate what happened because the abuse occurred in ways that are invisible to outsiders.
Our narcissism survivor group exists to reverse that isolation. It provides a community where survivors can speak openly, receive validation from people who understand the specific dynamics of narcissistic personality disorder, and begin rebuilding the self confidence and perceptual clarity that the relationship systematically dismantled. Every person in the room understands coercive control, intermittent reinforcement, and the particular confusion of having been adored and degraded by the same person.
How Our Support Group Works
Our narcissistic abuse support group is not peer led in the way that many online groups operate. It is facilitated by clinicians who specialise in trauma therapy and who understand the particular psychological mechanisms through which narcissistic abuse causes harm. This distinction matters because narcissistic abuse survivors often carry patterns of self doubt so deep that without professional support and skilled facilitation, group dynamics can inadvertently reinforce those patterns rather than heal them.
Sessions run fortnightly at our Subiaco practice, facilitated by Richard Boyd and our clinical team. Each session provides structured space for members to share their experiences, receive emotional support from fellow survivors, and examine the dynamics that kept them trapped. We cover trauma bonding, gaslighting, the cycle of idealisation and devaluation, generational trauma patterns, and the specific ways narcissistic abuse affects children who grow up in these households. We draw on the work of researchers including Dr Craig Malkin and Dr Ramani Durvasula alongside our own clinical observations from over two decades of treating narcissistic abuse in Western Australia.
We also integrate psychoeducation about recovery. Members learn to recognise narcissistic traits in future relationships and develop practical strategies for rebuilding boundaries, self esteem, and the capacity for healthy relationships. The group is an integral part of a broader recovery process that may also include individual therapy and, for some survivors, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma symptoms meeting the threshold of post traumatic stress disorder.
A former member from Girrawheen described the group as “the first place where I did not have to explain why I stayed.” Friends and family members, however well-meaning, often respond with bewilderment: why did you stay? Those questions, though asked with love, replicate the very dynamic the abuser established: the implication that the victim should have known better. In our group, nobody asks those questions. They already know the answer.
The Devastating Effects Of Narcissistic Abuse
Narcissistic abuse does not leave visible marks, which is part of why victims struggle to be believed. But the devastating effects on mental health are measurable and severe. We commonly see depression, anxiety, symptoms consistent with post traumatic stress disorder, chronic low self esteem, and a pervasive sense of worthlessness that infiltrates every area of life. Survivors often feel guilty for things that were never their fault, believing they deserved the treatment they received, and struggling to form new friendships or romantic relationships because trust has been so thoroughly destroyed.
The abuse typically follows a cycle: idealisation, where the narcissist creates an inflated sense of the relationship’s perfection; devaluation, where they systematically undermine the victim’s confidence and reality; and the final stage of discard, where the victim is abandoned, often blamed for the relationship’s failure, and left without the emotional resources to recover alone. This cycle can occur in intimate partnerships, family relationships, workplaces, and friendships. The pattern is consistent regardless of the context because it reflects the narcissist’s need for control rather than anything specific about the victim.
A woman from Armadale came to our group after eighteen months of individual therapy had helped her understand intellectually what had happened but had not shifted the visceral belief that the abuse was somehow her fault. Cognitively she knew better. Somatically, her body still braced. Within six weeks of group attendance, hearing other survivors describe identical patterns with different abusers, that belief finally began to break. She told us: “When I heard someone else describe exactly what my partner did, word for word, I finally understood it was not about me. It was a program they run.” That moment, the recognition that narcissistic abuse follows a template rather than responding to anything the victim did, is the turning point we witness repeatedly.
Who Benefits From Attending
Our narcissistic abuse support group serves people at every stage of recovery, and we have learned to be cautious about the phrase “healing journey” because for many survivors, the language of personal growth can feel like yet another performance demanded of them. Some members have recently left and need validation that what they experienced was real. Others left years ago but find the effects still shape their relationships and self talk. Some are still in contact with a narcissistic family member. And some have recognised narcissistic patterns in multiple relationships across their life and want to understand why this form of abuse keeps finding them.
We work with survivors of narcissistic abuse from domestic violence contexts, from family systems where a parent exhibited narcissistic personality disorder, and from workplace environments where narcissistic leadership created psychological harm. The common thread is not the specific relationship but the specific type of harm: the systematic erosion of a person’s epistemic trust, autonomy, and sense of self through manipulation, control, and emotional abuse. Research published in the Journal of Personality Disorders confirms that prolonged exposure to narcissistic behaviour patterns produces measurable changes in stress physiology and attachment security that persist well beyond the relationship’s end.
If you have experienced narcissistic abuse and feel uncertain whether a group is right for you, we recommend beginning with an individual session to assess your readiness.
