Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

In 1976, Francis Beaumont spirited 11-year-old Kim Chown and her brother away from their mother to Africa, where he had taken a job as a university lecturer. There, behind a veneer of respectability, he terrorised and brutalised his own child, Kim, sexually and emotionally abusing her several times a day. Only aged 20 did Kim feel able to escape from him, descending into alcoholism, after her siblings and mother refused to help her seek justice. But after almost ending her own life, Kim fought back.

The true story of a wife and mother's descent into alcohol addiction. A harrowing and sometimes heartbreaking chronicle of habitual blackouts and unremembered nights, and her triumphant emergence into the light of recovery.

It's late on Friday night when Casey's mobile starts to ring. She is expecting it to be her daughter, Riley. But it isn't Riley. It's a woman from the Emergency Duty Team. So begins Casey and Mike's latest fostering challenge - a 15-year-old girl called Keeley who's run away from her long-term foster home 25 miles away.

Just when Casey thinks her foster care duties are done, she’s asked to look after Sam, a troubled nine-year-old with a violent streak who drove his previous guardians to release him of their care. It soon unfolds, however, that this is no simple case. Determined to get to the root of Sam’s behaviour, Casey is committed to uncover his mysterious past only to find out something far darker than she ever imagined.

Picking up where Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth leaves off, Kristin Masterwood and her boyfriend up the ante—by going into her attic to re-enact scenes described in Christopher Dollanganger’s journal. Jealousy, tragedy, survival, and revenge—the discovery of Christopher’s...

Family scapegoating is an insidious form of "invisible" abuse that is difficult to recognize. It is therefore critical that adult survivors of dysfunctional or narcissistic family systems understand what type of abuse they are trying to recover from. In Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed, licensed psychotherapist and family systems expert Rebecca C. Mandeville uses her research findings on what she named "Family Scapegoating Abuse" (FSA) to help survivors recognize and release the damaging "scapegoat" narrative associated with the family "identified patient" role.

Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his siblings idolized their dad. Tall, strong, smart, and brave, the self-taught Cherokee regaled his family with stories of his World War II feats. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics that justified cruelty, violence, lies - even murder. A shrewd con artist with a genius IQ, Thurston intimidated David with beatings to coerce him into doing his criminal bidding. David's mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn't protect him.

After tragedy, how do we find hope? A memoir about what it takes to get through the very worst of times from Rosie Batty - a woman who has experienced tragedy, who had lost all hope, yet now is intent on finding it again. On a warm summer's evening in February 2014, eleven-year-old Luke Batty...

A young girl's life is shadowed by secrets and lies. When Willow arrives in the Allen household, curious things begin to happen. Who is the strange child dressed in outlandish clothes who refuses a mobile phone? What are the mysterious allegations that have been made about her?

A desperate young woman’s bargain with a wealthy couple is not what it seems in this gothic tale of big city dreams gone wrong from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and literary phenomenon V.C. Andrews—whose books are now major Lifetime TV movies. The English countryside is beautiful...

Evie and Elliot are scrawny, filthy and scared when they turn up on foster carer Maggie Hartley's doorstep. Aged just two and three years old, this brother and sister have hardly set foot outside their own home. They have been prisoners, locked in a world of abuse, violence and neglect. Maggie soon realises that Evie and Elliot are lacking the basic life skills we all take for granted, and the outside world terrifies them. Gradually unlocking the truth of their heartbreaking upbringing, Maggie tells their shocking true story.

The Watsons are no strangers to sibling placements, but when Casey takes the call from her supervising social worker one frosty January morning, she can instantly tell from the tone of her colleague’s voice that there’s a complicated case ahead. And she’s right. A four-day-old baby boy called Tommy - born in prison - plus his four-year-old half-brother, the lively Seth. A month later, the very moment she gets out of prison, the boys’ mother - a 19-year-old called Jenna - also follows.

Left as a newborn in a box outside Stoke City Football ground, her grandparents took her into their home. But instead of finding a sanctuary, Nicky was subjected to horrific sexual abuse throughout her childhood. In 1951, when Nicky was six years old, her glamorous-looking estranged mother arrived on the doorstep to 'rescue' her. But Nicky's hopes of a safe and loving family were very soon smashed, and her world became darker still.

In this profoundly honest and examined memoir about returning to Iowa to care for her ailing parents, the star of Orange Is the New Black and bestselling author of Born with Teeth takes us on an unexpected journey of loss, betrayal, and the transcendent nature of a daughter’s love for her...

In this provocative and intimate look at Covert Emotional Incest (CEI), Adena Bank Lees, LCSW, a leader in the field of traumatic stress and addiction, takes you on a moving and informative journey through her own experiences with this form of abuse. CEI, as she has defined it, is an elusive, emotional form of sexual abuse that occurs in a family system with the absence of direct genital contact. Being placed in the surrogate or substitute spouse role for a parent(s) is one of the primary tenets of CEI, but there is much more.

Narcissistic abuse is a form of abuse that ensures victims are left emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, and devoid of any self-worth or self-esteem...ending a relationship with a narcissist isn’t that easy. In this audiobook, I want to offer you some guidance on this rarely-talked about aspect of an abusive relationship: how to deal with a narcissist when they’re your ex.

Because I Love Him by Ashlee Donohue is a memoir of rare insight into strong family ties, the intricacies of relationships and the unspoken expectations within urban Aboriginal communities. A proud Dunghutti woman, born and raised in Kempsey, NSW, Donohue was determined to keep her family together, despite the unforgivable acts and inevitable fallout, to gift her children what she never had – the presence of their father.

This program is read by the author. A groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that investigates Munchausen by Proxy from the host and creator of the award-winning true crime podcast Nobody Should Believe Me. "I devoured this chilling yet critically important book in 48 hours, unable to...

Lara was seven when her birth mother died from a drug overdose. With no extended family to look after her, she was put into foster care. The care system failed Lara and now she is failing her son. Lara and her one-year-old son, Arthur, are brought to experienced foster carer, Cathy Glass, by...

Set against a backdrop of East End London, Georgia experienced a childhood few of us could imagine. Though brought up in a loving family, she watched her family break apart through deceit and her mother descend into heroin addiction. Escaping into what she felt was a loving sanctuary, Georgia ended up trapped in a violent relationship with a man who would beat and abuse her. After having her three children by him, she knew she had to escape to finally find safety.