013 - When Family Gaslighting Hits Close To Home

The Gaslight Effect

On this episode, Dr. Robin Stern talks with real-life sisters, psychotherapist Abby Rodman and former beauty executive now life coach Julie Howard, co-hosts of the popular podcast Sisters Cracking Up.

From their podcast website:

"...we've been through a few things. If nothing else, life has a way of teaching us about balance -- and we've both had our share of blessings and challenges.

We've laughed and cried our way through parenting, empty nests, managing adult children, aging and body image concerns, aging parents, and menopause. We've struggled through divorce and second marriage (Abby), career transition and reinvention (Julie), depression, anxiety, and the frustrations and heartbreak of dealing with family members with mental health and addiction issues.

But, through it all, we've laughed until we've cried many more times than we can count and have held each other up when everything else seemed to be falling down around us.

We feel extraordinarily lucky to have one another. That's why we created Sisters Cracking Up. We believe everyone needs a sister (biological or otherwise) to share in our joys and successes -- and to help right our ships (or, frankly, our shit) when storms hit.

Our podcast is a labor of love, sisterhood, and curiosity. In it, we look for answers to the questions and issues we face in midlife and know you do too. We interview really smart, engaging, and often funny people and we offer our decades of expertise in psychology, relationships, beauty, and well-being to the mix as well. With every episode, our goal is to listen, learn, share, laugh, and connect without judgment or expectation -- as any good sister would."

Abby and Julie open up about a devastating gaslighting incident that occured in their family as young girls and continued over many years. A stunning secret about their father threatend to tear their family apart and forever changed not only their relationship with their father, but also impacted the lives of their other family members as well.

The willingness of Abby and Julie to be vulnerable with Robin about this gaslighting event, and Robin's sensitivity and understanding in handling this very sensitve conversation is a wonderful example of how important it is to find someone to share life's difiicult moments with.

This is an episode you won't want to miss!

To read the full transcript of this episode and to hear other episodes, head over to robinstern.com.

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