In this episode, Renee Swanson talks about the painful reality many survivors face after awareness begins: why nothing improves—even when you communicate better, regulate your emotions, go to thera...
Smear campaigns don’t just distort the truth—they dismantle trust, fracture relationships, and leave survivors questioning where it’s safe to stand. In this episode of the Covert Narcissism Podcast...
If you feel confused, unsettled, or unable to name what’s wrong in your marriage—even though nothing sounds “bad enough”—this episode is for you. Many people living in covertly unhealthy dynamics d...
Healing from covert narcissistic abuse doesn’t follow a calendar—and January doesn’t require clarity, decisions, or resolutions. If you’re entering the new year feeling foggy, heavy, or unsure, thi...
In this episode, Renee Swanson discusses the challenges of navigating holidays with a covert narcissist, emphasizing the emotional toll it takes on family members. She explores the concept of survi...
In this Christmas-themed episode, Renee Swanson explores the impact of covert narcissism on personal relationships, particularly during the holiday season. Using the metaphor of the Grinch, she dis...
Covert narcissism in marriage keeps survivors trapped by the belief that if they just tried harder, the relationship would finally improve.If you’re exhausted from over-functioning, self-blame, and...
Covert narcissism recovery often shows up quietly—through internal safety, self-trust, and a nervous system that no longer lives on high alert. Many survivors wonder how to tell whether they’re act...
Covert narcissism and trauma quietly teach adults and children that silence feels safer than honesty. If you’ve noticed yourself going quiet, choosing your words carefully, or avoiding hard convers...
In Part 1, we uncovered the surprising physical symptoms of trauma that often go unnoticed — the jaw tension, the tinnitus, the eye twitching, the constant bracing your body learned to do in order ...
When you live in the backwards, upside-down world of covert narcissistic abuse, your body often understands the danger long before your mind can name it. The symptoms you thought were “random,” “we...
Talking to your adult children about a covert narcissistic parent is one of the hardest and most emotionally loaded challenges survivors face. You’re carrying years of truth inside you — experience...
So many survivors walk into healing believing they were “codependent,” when the truth is far more compassionate and far more accurate:What you were doing wasn’t codependency — it was fawning, a tra...
This Thanksgiving episode is unlike any you’ve heard before.Instead of forcing gratitude outward—toward family, toward traditions, toward circumstances that may feel complicated or painful—this epi...
In Part 2 of this story, we pick up right where the alligator encounter left off — not with danger, but with the emotional aftershock that followed. My body was still shaking, adrenaline pumping, b...
In a healthy relationship, conversations might be difficult at times—but they are possible. You can talk, clarify, repair, and understand each other. But when you’re living with a covert narcissist...
In this episode, I’m taking you with me on a peaceful Florida river… right up to the moment my kayak bumped over what I thought was a floating log. Except it wasn’t a log. It was a massive mama all...
Covert narcissism isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some manipulate through silence, others through guilt or tears. Some quote scripture, some play the victim, and some simply vanish into the quiet coldness...
Ever feel like you’ve been living in a circus you didn’t sign up for?In this episode, Renee Swanson uses humor to shine a light on the exhausting emotional reality of living with a covert narcissis...
What if your greatest fear as a parent has already come true?You can feel it — your child pulling away, repeating phrases that don’t sound like them, looking at you through someone else’s eyes. Thi...
