You’re probably here because something doesn’t add up. On paper, nothing’s “that bad.” There were no broken bones, no single moment you can point to. And yet you’re exhausted in a way sleep doesn’t fix. You rehearse conversations before you have them. You apologize for things you didn’t do.
You’ve started saving screenshots not because you’re paranoid, but because your own memory keeps getting overwritten by someone else’s version of events. That’s where narcissistic abuse recovery actually starts: not with proof, but with naming it — and if you’re ready, you can book a free consultation and we’ll name it together.
One-on-one coaching for people rebuilding after covert narcissistic abuse with someone who actually knows the pattern.
That feeling has a name. And you’re not imagining it.
I’m Som Dutt, a certified coach specializing in covert narcissism, NPD, and narcissistic abuse recovery, with 7+ years of experience guiding 1,400+ trauma and abuse survivors. I work one-on-one, online, with people coming out of relationships with covert narcissists — partners, parents, siblings, in-laws, bosses — and trying to find their footing again. This page explains exactly what that work looks like, what it costs, and how to start.
If you’re still asking yourself whether it was “really that bad,” the people who’ve sat exactly where you are now say it better than I ever could. Read their words on the Narcissistic Abuse Recovery: Verified Client Testimonials page — real, verified stories from clients who once doubted themselves the same way, and what shifted once they finally stopped.
What Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Coaching Actually Is
Narcissistic abuse recovery coaching is structured, one-on-one support that helps you name what happened to you, protect yourself from continued harm, and rebuild the parts of you the relationship eroded. It’s practical and forward-facing: we work on your real situation, not theory.
Here’s the honest distinction up front. Coaching isn’t therapy, and I’m not a licensed clinician. Therapy often reaches back into your history to process trauma clinically. Coaching works on the present and the next step — the decision in front of you, the conversation you’re dreading, the boundary you can’t seem to hold. Many of my clients do both, and that’s a strong combination. But where therapy can feel slow and open-ended, coaching is built to move.
What makes this different from generic “life coaching” is the specialization. I don’t coach everything. I coach this. I know what a hoovering text looks like three weeks after you go quiet. I know why the discard often comes right after your best moment, not your worst. I know the specific exhaustion of explaining covert abuse to people who keep saying “but they seem so nice.” That recognition is the point — you stop spending energy convincing me, and we spend it on you.
Why Covert Abuse Is So Hard to Leave — and Even Harder to Explain
Covert narcissistic abuse is hard to escape because the harm is built to be deniable. There’s rarely one event you can hold up as proof. Instead there’s a slow pattern: small dismissals, rewritten conversations, affection that arrives exactly when you’re about to pull away.
The trauma bond
Your nervous system learns to chase the good moments and brace for the bad ones, and that loop is what keeps you stuck. This is the trauma bond, and it’s not a character flaw — it’s a physiological response to intermittent reward, the same mechanism that makes a slot machine hard to walk away from. The unpredictability isn’t a flaw in the relationship. For a narcissist, it’s the leash.
The self-doubt
Covert manipulation works through gaslighting, blame-shifting, and DARVO — deny, attack, reverse victim and offender. Over months and years, you stop trusting your own read on reality. By the time you reach out for help, the hardest part often isn’t leaving. It’s believing you’re allowed to.
That’s the gap I work in. Not telling you what to feel — helping you trust what you already sense, and turning that into a plan..
How I Work: My Five-Stage Recovery Framework
My coaching follows a clear arc, so you always know where you are and what comes next. We don’t wander.
1. Recognize
We name the pattern precisely — what type of narcissist, which tactics, which stage of the cycle. Clarity is its own relief. Most people walk out of the first real session lighter, because confusion is heavier than truth.
2. Reality-Anchor
We rebuild your trust in your own perception. We document patterns, separate fact from the story you were handed, and stop the self-doubt loop. This is where gaslighting starts to lose its grip.
3. Disengage
We work the practical exit — no contact or grey rock, a communication strategy, a safety and logistics plan if you’re leaving, or a containment plan if you can’t leave yet. Real steps, in real order.
4. Reconstruct
With the bleeding stopped, we rebuild: boundaries that hold, a nervous system that isn’t always braced, decisions that are yours again.
5. Reauthor
We change the story you tell about yourself — from “what’s wrong with me” to “here’s what happened, and here’s who I am now.” This is the part that lasts.
You won’t get a lecture on any of these. We work them, in your situation, with your specifics.
Coaching Packages and Pricing
I keep recovery deliberately affordable. I work online and global, so I don’t carry the overhead that forces clinic-based coaches to charge $250–$400 a session. Same depth of work, a price more people can actually reach.
| Package | Format | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free Clarity Call | 15 minutes | Free |
| Single Session | 50 minutes | $49 |
| Emergency Session | 50 minutes, same/next-day | $69 |
| Pattern Break | 4 × 50-minute sessions | $179 |
| Reclaim Program | 12 weekly sessions + email | $499 |
| 6-Month Deep Recovery | ~6 months + email | $949 |
| Email Coaching | 4 weeks, asynchronous | $99 |
Free Clarity Call — 15 minutes, free
A short, no-pressure call to see if we’re a fit. You tell me what’s going on; I tell you honestly whether and how I can help. No script, no sales pitch. If I’m not the right person, I’ll say so.
Single Session — 50 minutes, $49
One focused conversation. Good when you have a specific decision, a single situation to untangle, or you just need someone who gets it to help you think clearly. Many people start here.
Emergency Session — 50 minutes, $69
Same-day or next-day, for when something’s just happened: an active discard, a court date, a hoovering attempt you’re tempted to answer. Priced higher because I hold the slot open and reorder my day to reach you fast.
Pattern Break — 4 sessions, $179
My most popular starting point. A single session can feel like “is this worth it?”; four sessions is enough to actually break a pattern — name it, anchor your reality, and take the first real steps out. Includes brief email access between calls.
Reclaim Program — 12 weeks, $499
My flagship one-on-one container. Twelve weekly sessions that move you through the full arc, recognition to reauthoring, plus email support between sessions so you’re not alone when things flare up midweek. For people who are done managing the problem and ready to be free of it.
6-Month Deep Recovery — $949
The longest commitment, for the hardest situations — multi-narcissist family systems, ongoing co-parenting, or trauma that needs more room than twelve weeks allow. Roughly twice the contact of the Reclaim Program, with email support throughout, at a lower per-session rate.
Email Coaching — 4 weeks, $99
Asynchronous support for people who can’t safely schedule calls — a controlling partner still in the home, a brutal time-zone gap, or the simple fact that some things are easier to write than to say. You write; I respond with real guidance, several times a week.
Not sure which fits? That’s what the free call is for. I’d rather point you to a single session than sell you a program you don’t need.
Specialized Recovery Tracks
Within these packages, we focus on what’s actually happening in your life. These are the situations I work in most.
No Contact
The single hardest and most freeing step. We build your exit plan, your hoover-resistance scripts, and a week-one protocol for when the urge to break it hits hardest — because it will.
Exit Strategy Planning
For when you haven’t left yet. We map the logistics, the safety, the timing, and the order of operations, so leaving is a plan and not a panic.
Post-Separation Abuse
Leaving rarely ends it. We handle the campaign that comes after — the messages, the manipulation through other people, the slow grind designed to pull you back or wear you down.
Co-Parenting With a Narcissist
You can’t go no contact when you share a child. We work grey rock, communication that can’t be twisted, and protecting your kids without using them as messengers.
Workplace Narcissism & Narcissistic Coworker Recovery
When the narcissist signs your paycheck or sits two desks away. We protect your career and your sanity at once — documentation, boundaries, and deciding whether to stay, report, or leave.
Narcissistic Mother-in-Law Recovery
A specific, draining dynamic — managing the in-law while protecting your marriage, without becoming the family villain.
Female Narcissist Survivors
Abuse by a woman — a mother, wife, sister, friend, boss — is real, and it’s chronically under-served and disbelieved. I take it seriously, with no “but she’s your mother” minimizing.
Covert Narcissist Recognition
Sometimes you’re not even sure yet. We work through it honestly — no diagnosing anyone from afar, just helping you read the pattern clearly enough to decide what to do.
Whatever your situation, it’s delivered through the packages above. The track is the what; the package is the how much support.
Who This Is For — and Who It Isn’t
This is for you if you’re recovering from covert manipulation by a partner, parent, sibling, in-law, friend, or colleague, and you want someone who understands the pattern without a forty-minute explanation. It’s for people tired of being told to “just leave” or “set a boundary” by people who’ve never faced a narcissist. It works whether you’re still in it, planning your exit, freshly out, or years out and still untangling.
It’s not for everyone, and I’ll be straight about that:
- If you’re in immediate danger, you need emergency services and a domestic-violence advocate first, not a coaching call.
- If you want someone to confirm your ex is evil and you’re flawless, I’m not your coach — recovery means getting your power back, which sometimes means looking at your own patterns too.
- If you need clinical treatment for a diagnosed condition, coaching supports that work but doesn’t replace it.
How It Works, Step by Step
- Book the free 15-minute clarity call. We talk, I listen, and we decide together whether and how I can help.
- Choose your package. Most people begin with a Single Session or the Pattern Break. You’ll get a short intake so I walk into our first session already knowing your situation, instead of spending paid time on background.
- We work. Sessions are over video (or audio if you’d rather not be on camera). I take notes so you don’t have to hold everything. Between sessions, in packages that include it, you can email me when something flares up.
- You move at your pace. Some people do four sessions and feel solid. Others move into the Reclaim Program for the full arc. No upsell pressure — you’ll always know what’s working and what the honest next step is.
A Pattern You Might Recognize
This isn’t one client — it’s a composite, with identifying details removed, because the shape repeats so often it’s almost predictable.
She came in convinced she was the problem. Her mother had spent thirty years being warm in public and cutting in private, and the whole family had agreed, silently, that Mom was wonderful and the daughter was “too sensitive.” By the time we talked, she’d stopped trusting her own memory of her own childhood.
We started with recognition — naming the covert pattern, the role she’d been cast in, the tactics. The relief in that first session was visible. Then we anchored her reality: she started keeping a private record, and slowly the gaslighting lost its hold. We built a low-contact plan she could sustain, scripts for the holidays, and a way to handle the relatives relaying her mother’s messages.
Months later, the change wasn’t that her mother had changed — she hadn’t. It was that the daughter had stopped auditioning for a love that was never on offer, and started spending that energy on her own life.
Your details are different. The shape, often, is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does coaching cost?
The first call is a free 15-minute clarity call. After that: a Single Session is $49 for 50 minutes; an Emergency Session is $79; the 4-session Pattern Break is $179; the 12-Week Reclaim Program is $499; the 6-Month Deep Recovery is $949; and Email Coaching is $99 for four weeks. Most people start with a single session or the Pattern Break.
Is the first call really free?
Yes — genuinely free, 15 minutes, no card required. It exists so you can find out whether I’m the right fit before you spend anything. If I’m not the right person for your situation, I’ll tell you and, where I can, point you somewhere better.
Is coaching the same as therapy?
No. Therapy is clinical treatment delivered by a licensed professional, often working through your past. Coaching is practical, present-focused support for the decisions and patterns in front of you — I’m a coach, not a therapist, and I don’t diagnose or treat conditions. Many clients do both, and they pair well.
Why is it only $49 when other coaches charge hundreds?
Because I work online and globally, without the office overhead that pushes clinic-based rates to $250–$400 a session. The work is the same depth; the price reflects my costs, not my belief in the value. I built this to make recovery reachable for people who can’t drop thousands of dollars to feel sane again.
Do you work with people outside your country, and what about time zones?
Yes. I coach worldwide, entirely online. We’ll find a time that works across our zones, and if scheduling live calls is genuinely impossible, Email Coaching exists precisely for that.
How do I know which package is right for me?
Bring that exact question to the free call. As a rough guide: one clear decision → Single Session; a pattern you want to break → Pattern Break; full recovery from the ground up → Reclaim Program; a complex or long-term family or co-parenting situation → 6-Month Deep Recovery.
What if I’m not even sure it’s narcissistic abuse?
That uncertainty is normal — covert abuse is engineered to keep you doubting. You don’t need a diagnosis or proof to book a call. We’ll look at the pattern together, honestly, and you’ll leave with more clarity than you came in with, whatever we conclude.
You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone
The first step in recovery isn’t leaving, or forgiving, or “moving on.” It’s naming the pattern out loud, with someone who already knows it — so you stop carrying the weight of proving it.
If any of this sounded like your life, book a free 15-minute clarity call. No pressure, no script. Just a conversation to see whether I can help, and what the next honest step looks like.
A note on scope and safety: coaching is supportive guidance — not therapy, medical care, legal advice, or crisis services — and I’m a coach rather than a licensed clinician. If you’re in immediate danger or having thoughts of harming yourself, please contact your local emergency number or a domestic-violence or crisis helpline right now. That help exists, and you deserve it.