When you grow up in a narcissistic family, you don’t get the space to become yourself. Your wants are dismissed, your needs are overlooked, and your boundaries are annihilated. So in healing, we’re not just recovering — we’re learning who we are for the first time.

One part of identity that often gets left out of this conversation is sexuality and desire.

For many people, this area is deeply impacted. A narcissistic parent can blur boundaries, sexualise, shame and create confusion around sex, sexuality and desire. And that can leave you feeling disconnected from your body, your desires, and your sense of agency.

In this episode, I’m joined by sex educator and intimacy coach Grace Alice OShea to explore sexuality in a way that feels safe, grounded, and shame-free.

We talk about how early experiences shape our relationship with sex and intimacy, and how to begin reconnecting with yourself—at your own pace, in your own way.

This is a gentle, honest conversation to help you release shame, understand your experience, and begin to reclaim this part of yourself.

Follow Grace on Instagram

The C.A.L.M Method

If you want to be notified when Katie is running the next group - Join the Waitlist today

Calmer parenting and a happier home and kids is so much closer than you think

Katie McKenna

Accredited Psychotherapist, Podcast Host, Author

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

When raised in a narcissistic system, sibling bonds can become both a lifeline and a source of deep emotional strain.

In todays letter, we discuss the often unspoken dynamic of sibling abuse, trauma bonding, family roles, addiction, and the emotional toll of being the cycle breaker.

Ruth and I explore what happens when one sibling begins the healing journey — setting boundaries, going no contact, and breaking generational cycles — while others remain caught in addiction, mental health struggles, and unresolved trauma.

There’s often the guilt of leaving. The pressure to rescue. The cost of being cast as “the strong one.” And the heartbreak of watching siblings suffer while trying to protect your own peace.

Growing up in a home marked by alcoholism, narcissistic parenting, domestic violence, neglect, and abuse, today’s story reflects what many adult children of dysfunctional families quietly carry.

It also speaks to the reality of holding compassion without self-abandonment, especially when your own healing, your children, and your nervous system need to come first.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I support my siblings without losing myself?”—this conversation offers a grounded, trauma-aware space to reflect on that question.

Because healing doesn’t mean you stop caring.
But it does ask you to choose where your responsibility begins — and ends.

Follow Dr. Ruth Callaghan on Instagram

Follow Dr. Ruth Callaghan in TikTok

www.callaghancounselling.ie

The C.A.L.M Method

If you want to be notified when Katie is running the next group - Join the Waitlist today

Calmer parenting and a happier home and kids is so much closer than you think

Katie McKenna

Accredited Psychotherapist, Podcast Host, Author

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

This week a listener describes what it was like to grow up largely invisible and also scapegoated, while their older sister held the role of the golden child.

With a covertly narcissistic mother and an overtly narcissistic father, achievements, independence, and curiosity were mocked rather than celebrated, while approval always seemed just out of reach. Praise was offered to strangers, but rarely, if ever, directly to the child who longed to hear it.

The story also touches on boundary violations, body shaming, and the subtle but powerful ways children learn to survive within dysfunctional systems — becoming the “good child,” the high achiever, the one who stays quiet and contained in order to maintain stability.

But the dynamics didn’t stay in childhood. When this listener became a parent and began setting boundaries, the family system escalated in ways that will feel painfully familiar to many who grew up in similar environments.

If you grew up in a family where love felt conditional, where roles were rigid, or where your reality was often dismissed, this story may resonate deeply.

Follow Dr. Ruth Callaghan on TikTok

Follow Dr. Ruth Callaghan on Instagram

www.callaghancounselling.ie

The C.A.L.M Method

If you want to be notified when Katie is running the next group - Join the Waitlist today

Calmer parenting and a happier home and kids is so much closer than you think

Katie McKenna

Accredited Psychotherapist, Podcast Host, Author

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast