Raising Resilient Children with a Borderline or Narcissistic Parent

If you are raising a child with a high conflict partner, you owe it to your children to read this book. With compassion toward everyone involved, the authors help parents overcome their fear and doubt to stop caretaking their partner—a child-like adult with a personality disorder—and put their energy into protecting their real children from high conflict behavior, which can put them at risk for lifelong psychological problems. With the publication of this well-written and exciting book, parents now have the tools to be their child’s advocate, setting them up for a lifetime of success. – Randi Kreger, borderline and narcissistic personality disorders expert and advocate for families, the author/coauthor of Stop Walking on Eggshells and The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality DisorderSeasoned professionals Margalis Fjelstad and Jean McBride clarify and validate the uniquely challenging experience of parenting with a narcissistic or borderline partner and provide science-based, practical-minded advice and strategies for how to nurture self-compassion and resilience in children in such homes. A much-needed addition to the literature on narcissistic families, this insightful book will help you counterbalance your partner’s emotional instability and selfishness with your own realistic expectations, proactive problem-solving, ongoing self-care, and, most importantly, loving connectedness with your kids. – Julie L. Hall, author of “The Narcissist in Your Life: Recognizing the Patterns and Learning to Break Free”A thorough and supportive guide for the growing dilemma of raising a child with a self-absorbed, unstable and angry co-parent. I can strongly recommend this insightful book to any reasonable parent, after working with thousands of dysfunctional families. You can raise a healthy child even in these difficult circumstances. – Bill Eddy, co-founder of the High Conflict Institute and developer of the New Ways for Families® method, author of “Don’t Alienate the Kids,” co-author of “Splitting: Protecting Yourself While Divorcing Someone with Borderline or Narcissistic Personality

Margalis Fjelstad, PhD, has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for thirty years. For over 25 years she trained and supervised family therapists and was the Clinical Director of Threshold Educational and Counseling Services. She is noted for her work with clients who grew up with a mentally ill parent and those who take on a caretaking role with a borderline or narcissistic family member. Her books, Stop Caretaking the Borderline or Narcissist: How to End the Drama and Get on with Life and Healing from a Narcissistic Relationship: A Caretaker’s Guide to Recovery, Empowerment & Transformation, have been extremely well received. Fjelstad retired from clinical practice in 2016, but continues writing and doing phone consultations with callers from all over the world who have questions about a current or former relationship with someone who has BPD or NPD. She resides in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Jean McBride, MS, LMFT, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has maintained a private practice for thirty years. Her areas of specialization include divorce adjustment, high conflict divorce, parenting after divorce, and remarriage and stepfamilies. As president of Divorce Transitions, she taught court ordered parenting after divorce classes to over 20,000 parents in person and online, using a curriculum that she developed. She has additionally developed programs for stepfamily adjustment, and Are You Ready to Remarry? She is the author of Encouraging Words for New Stepmothers, and Talking to Children about Divorce: A Parent’s Guide to Healthy Communication at Each Stage of Divorce. McBride has been a popular speaker on the topics of divorce and remarriage and has trained professionals for the Stepfamily Association of America, Collaborative Divorce, and The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. She resides in Fort Collins, Colorado.