When Love Hurts: Talking to Your Child About a Narcissistic Parent: A trauma-informed guide for protective parents raising emotionally safe children Paperback – November 1, 2025

When You Have to Explain the UnexplainableTalking to Your Child About a Narcissistic Parent — Without Losing Their Trust or Your SanityHow do you protect your child from a parent who rewrites reality?How do you explain manipulation, gaslighting, or cruelty — without breaking their heart?In When Love Hurts: Talking to Your Child About a Narcissistic Parent, Dr. Karolina James offers a rare combination of research-based insight and lived wisdom for the parents quietly fighting to shield their children from emotional harm while navigating custody battles, confusion, and grief.Drawing on the work of trauma experts like Bessel van der Kolk, Bruce Perry, Janina Fisher, and Daniel Siegel, this guide translates complex neuroscience and attachment theory into everyday language. You’ll learn how to:Talk about difficult truths without turning the child against the other parent.Recognize trauma responses in your child — and in yourself.Stay calm when they idolize the abusive parent.Create safety and stability in a high-conflict co-parenting environment.Teach empathy, critical thinking, and boundaries without fear.This is not a book about revenge or bitterness. It’s a book about protection with grace — about raising children who can see truth, trust themselves, and grow beyond the chaos they were born into.Written by a mother who’s lived it and a trauma-informed educator who’s studied it, this book is part field guide, part lifeline — a steady hand reminding you that:You are not crazy for protecting your child. You are courageous for doing it with compassion. Read more