Gaslighting Fundamentals
- Family gaslighting: scapegoating, parentification, sibling triangulation and more
- Intimate partner and trauma bonding
- Cultural/systemic issues
- Medical origins in “hysteria”
- Group/religious: indoctrination and thought control
- Covert vs. overt: subtle invalidation versus blatant denial
- Subconscious or insecure gaslighters
- Calculated or malicious gaslighters
- Goals: destabilization, isolation, and power
Gaslighting in Action:
Common Tactics and the Cycle
- How it starts: gradual “testing the waters”
- Recognize common tactics
- Exaggeration
- Repetition
- Silent treatment
- Minimization
- Triangulation
- Emotional baiting
- Blame-shifting
- The cycle of gaslighting
- Clinical worksheet – subtle behaviors and red flags
Psychological, Relational and Somatic Impacts of Gaslighting
- Psychological: fractured self-trust, shame, confusion, perfectionism, fawning
- Relational: attachment injuries, loss of validation networks
- Physical: chronic stress
- Gaslighting Shock Response and the Gaslighting Shock Reset grounding sequence
- Clinical exercise: body scan plus Shock Reset script
- Differentiate Gaslighting from other abuse
- Distortion of reality and erosion of self-trust as defining features
- When gaslighting overlaps with coercive control, stalking, or financial abuse
The Gaslighting Recovery Spectrum
- Stages of recovery
- Journal prompt: how clients may shift between stages
DAY 2
Safety Planning for Survivors of Gaslighting and Abuse
- Recognize – Anchor – Reset – Validate – Boundaries or Exit
- How to guide clients through each step
- Scripts and anchor-building strategies
- Clinical exercise: anchor menu, red-flag to boundary phrase bank
The Gaslighting Recovery Plan
- Step 1: Recognize distortions
- Step 2: Reconnect with inner truth and self-compassion
- Step 3: Restore self-trust with micro-decisions
- Step 4: Restore self-worth
- Somatic trauma processing: titration and pendulation
- EFT/tapping for stress
- Research, risks and limitations
Gaslighting Detection: Patterns, Behaviors and Contexts
- Statements and behaviors
- Patterns
- Contexts (family, partner, workplace, medical, cultural)
- Risk factors (isolation, financial control, threats)
- Clinician checklist, client self-report, and collateral prompts
- Severity and domain totals, risk flags triggering safety planning
- Clinical exercise: 10-item mini-screen to begin safe conversations
Internal Family Systems Tools for Treating Survivors
- Mapping parts
- The internal gaslighter
- The pleaser
- The perfectionist
- Exiles of shame or abandonment
- Exercise: Self dialogues with the internal gaslighter part
- Clinical exercise: protector-to-self contract for perfectionist or fawn roles
- Research, risks and limitations
Attachment-Focused Tools and Clinical Exercises
- How gaslighting fractures attachment bonds
- Reparenting Dialogue – offering attunement to invalidated parts
- Clinical exercise: Safe Others Map for daily co-regulation
- Guide survivors across the lifespan
- Exercise: “Shield Up” cue practice and circle of helpers drawing
- Research, risks and limitations


