Overview of the
Narcissistic Abuse Media Association
Who
The Association for NPD/Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research & Education, is the field-body organization for mental health professionals in the field of ‘Pathological Relationships’ (known as narcissistic/psychopathic abuse). The field-body has created:
- ‘Standards of Care’ and ‘Clinical Practice Guidelines’ for the field
- Theory Generation (Relational, Trauma, and Survivor Profile)
- Evidence-based treatment methods
- Training of therapists in the standardized model of care (with contraindications of care)
- Research
- Input into Certification Standards
What
The Narcissistic Abuse Media Association is a function of the Association field-body, as the primary organization focused on field development for congruency and accuracy, and it’s active function in evidence-based and trauma-informed methodology.
The Media Association was formed to:
- Establish support for serving the narcissistic abuse population as a primarily trauma-survivor population
- Support the utilization of SAMHSAS/NCTIC trauma-informed guidelines when dealing with the narcissistic abuse trauma population
- To identify known media elements that can cause trauma activation in this primarily trauma population
- To establish contraindications in media for this population or ‘harmful media practices’ related to inappropriate content, language, imagery, sensationalism, over-generalizations, minimizing, and disinformation
- To establish ‘best media practices’ to improve the quality of media information and support for this population related to trauma-informed guideline
Why
Research by The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction related to narcissistic abuse survivors indicated:
- 75-90% of this survivor population has trauma symptoms or trauma disorders (Institute Trauma Study)
- Their ‘Finding Competent Care Study’ indicated widespread treatment failure in this population in part, from non-trauma-informed care approaches and ‘helpers’ untrained in trauma
- Helper’s products and services to this population had trauma-activating elements inappropriate for a trauma ‘market’
- That trauma-informed care principles established by SAMHSAS/NCTIC should be incorporated to all forms of products and services for this trauma population
Resources
Trauma-Informed Media Workshop
The Media Association offers:
- A two hour workshop on contraindications in media related to traumatic imagery, language, inappropriate content for a trauma population, over-generalizations, minimizing and humorizing trauma, click bait marketing methods, disinformation, and the absence of solution focuses, identified as posing significant risk for triggering.
All forms of media produced for this ‘trauma population market,’ warrant the understanding of:
- their market and the survivors they serve
- that survivors as the consumer of this media, bring extraordinary vulnerabilities from trauma that need to be accommodated in specific ways
- and problematically, survivors are acquiring media from media producers who are often not trained in the ‘trauma population market’ they are trying to service; and consequently, are using marketing methods that are known to cause triggering in a vulnerable population.
In a review of hundreds of pages of media forms in the narcissistic abuse market, methods and content when ranked in harmfulness, ranged from:
- ‘unhelpful for recovery’ -to-
- ‘potentially traumatic’ -to-
- ‘exploitive’
The workshop introduces principles (and media examples) for trauma-informed care inclusion, and examples of harmful media taken from the narcissistic abuse media market.
The Workshop page is HERE.
Narcissistic Abuse Media Guidelines and Protocols Manual
This complimentary manual available to all media producers in any type of media to the narcissistic abuse field, was produced by The Media Association.
The Media Guidelines in the manual were created, in part, from:
- The ‘Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’ (SAMHSAS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, guiding the public efforts to advance behavioral health.
- SAMHSAS has subsequently created ‘The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care’ (NCTIC) which has developed the principles related to Trauma-Informed Care.
- Protocols in the manual were also cultivated from the practice guidelines set by The Association for NPD/Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research & Education, the field-body for the narcissistic abuse (pathological relationships) field.
Read more about and download your copy of Media Guidelines and Protocols HERE.
Media Content Development and Mentorship Program
In addition to the Trauma-Informed Media Workshop and the Media Protocols and Guidelines manual, The Media Association offers a year-long online program for a select group of media providers who desire to become a ‘preferred and referred’ site that is compliant with trauma-informed media principles for the narcissistic abuse market.
Details of the Content Development and Mentorship Program are found HERE.