About Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education™
A Trauma-Informed Educational Community for Family Scapegoating Abuse Survivors… Here, You Are Believed.
Facilitated by the researcher and clinician who coined the term ‘Family Scapegoating Abuse’ (FSA)
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education is proud to be a Substack Best Seller in 2024 and 2025 thanks to the support of our paid subscriber community.
Visit my Substack from a browser (versus the Substack Mobile App) to access all of my content, free and paid: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com
You can access more of my free FSA-related content by visiting my notes page: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/notes
“Thank you for providing a place to share the truth, a place to “tell” the until now hidden stories of our lives. A place where it’s held in a respectful manner for us so we can see it in the light and so we can objectively learn about it from a different perspective.”
- FSA Education Subscriber
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) can happen in any type of dysfunctional family system, not just a narcissistic one. Learn about the impact my research on FSA is having around the world.
Welcome to a space where your journey is honored, your voice is heard, and your path to healing is supported by a community of compassionate peers. Together, we can navigate the complexities of recovery and celebrate the power of community connection.
On my Substack, I combine clinically valid education; relevant research (my own qualitative research on FSA as well as peer-reviewed FSA-focused quantitative research studies I contribute to); my 20-plus years of professional experience as a clinician specializing in family abuse and complex trauma; and my own lived experience as an FSA adult survivor to provide a unique online space that is proven to benefit subscribers. Your paid subscription (or FSA Research patronage) allows me to devote more time to these endeavors as I seek to publicize the painful lived reality of FSA within clinical and academic settings to benefit child victims and adult survivors.
Recovering from family scapegoating abuse (FSA) is a courageous and often solitary journey, but it doesn’t have to be walked alone. Embracing active community participation and taking the leap to connect with other survivors can play a crucial role in your healing process. Engaging with a supportive community that understands FSA and its effects provides not just a sense of belonging, but also invaluable opportunities for shared experiences, mutual understanding, and collective empowerment.
Scapegoating typically isolates the victim, creating deep emotional wounds that affect self-identity and self-worth. By incorporating transpersonal principles and theory into my Substack offerings, such as mindfulness, connection to a higher sense of self, connection to community, and a focus on healing beyond the ego, survivors of FSA may transcend the limiting beliefs and emotional patterns resulting from negative childhood conditioning associated with being in the ‘family scapegoat’ role.
Free vs. Paid Subscriptions
Free subscription:
You’ll receive an article from me at least once a month addressing Family Scapegoating Abuse and recovery as well as my FSA Monthly Newsletter.
Access to my public post archives. Here are examples of my most popular posts free subscribers have received:
Sibling Estrangement in Families That Scapegoat
Understanding Structural Dissociation and the Value of Noticing 'Parts'
Paid subscription (monthly or annual):
In addition to my public posts and access to my entire archive, you’ll also receive the below exclusive Paid Subscriber posts from me every other Wednesday:
Practical ‘How to’ posts like this one addressing how to respond to ‘no contact’ questions from people who don’t understand FSA.
Tools and tips like this list of Journal Prompts specific to FSA recovery.
Paid subscribers also enjoy the following exclusive weekly benefits:
Access to Community features such as our weekly and monthly topic-themed private Group Chats, as well as an Ask the Community feature. Comments and replies you make in Chat are paywall-protected and won’t be picked up by search engines.
Every Friday morning (PST) you’ll receive an email invitation to participate in our private ‘Small Gains’ Chat where community members share any FSA recovery gains they experienced during the previous week.
My popular FSA Recovery Affirmations with audio feature - emailed to you every Monday.
FSA Research Patron
All of the above.
Advance previews of my FSA research findings before they are published independently by me or in peer-reviewed journals.
Your generous contribution helps me to spend more time researching on FSA and bringing international attention to this poorly-understood form of abuse via my publications, further legitimizing the experiences of scapegoated adult survivors.
All subscribers (free and paid) receive online access to my FSA Recovery Quick-Start Guide - the link will be included in the ‘Welcome’ email you’ll receive after subscribing.
My Role in Our Community
In our Substack community I serve as a facilitator while also being a community member. I am not able to act as your therapist, counselor, or coach. While all of your comments are important and valuable, I am not always able to reply to every comment due to the size of our community and the time I spend producing quality FSA-related content for this community, in addition to publicizing the clinical reality of FSA worldwide through my research studies and publications. I do regularly engage with our community in Chat to provide additional insights based on my personal and professional experience of FSA, as well as applicable information or resources to support members in their recovery.All subscribers (free and paid) receive online access to my FSA Recovery Quick-Start Guide - the link will be included in the ‘Welcome’ email you’ll receive after subscribing.
“Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education with Rebecca C Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP, is a source of community support, articles and education for those struggling with controlling or abusive family relationships.
Dr. Simon Rogoff, author of Narcissism, Trauma, and Celebrity (Subscriber)
The Value of Community
Embracing community involvement and reaching out to connect with fellow survivors can be transformative for your healing. By engaging with a supportive community that understands FSA and its devastating effects as well as recovery challenges, adult survivors gain more than just a sense of belonging - they also open doors to shared experiences, mutual understanding, and collective empowerment.
I VALUE AND PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY: ALL Chat threads are protected by a paywall, allowing for private community discussions on sensitive material, such as our Ask the Community Chats. Your Chat replies or comments are not accessible to search engines nor are they accessible anywhere else on Substack. I also block AI Training on my Substack.
Via the Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education Substack, our community of paid subscribers have co-created an online community that is both validating and supportive. Many of these subscribers have shared they are experiencing significant forward movement in their recovery as they engage with other survivors of FSA who understand their experiences via our private Chat space where I post topic-themed threads each week.
Many of our Chat community participants are between 40 and 80 years old, so there is a great deal of life wisdom and experience we are able to offer each other. We welcome members of all ages. Our paid subscriber members live all around the world; hence, our online community of FSA adult survivors is diverse and international in scope.
“Misfits, outsiders, scapegoats. This is groundbreaking work.”
Kelly Thompson, author of There’s Nothing Wrong With You and There Never Was (Subscriber)
Subscription Process - READ CAREFULLY
Signing Up to My Substack and ‘Recommendations’: While signing up, you’ll be invited to follow my ‘scene’ by subscribing to other Substack’s that I recommend due to their quality content (free or paid). If you prefer not to subscribe to these Substack’s you can simply ‘deselect’ one or more of these Substack’s or click on ‘deselect all’ by unchecking the appropriate boxes to decline specific recommendations - You can also just click ‘skip’ at the bottom of the screen to bypass all of my recommendations.
Confirm Your Subscription (Double Opt-In): Once you subscribe, you’ll need to confirm your subscription via the email you’ll receive from my Substack.
After confirming your subscription, you’ll receive a very important, detailed Welcome email that you’ll want to read in its entirety to ensure you have the best experience of my Substack site. If you don’t see these emails, check your Promotions, Spam, or All Mail folders as they may have ended up there. You’ll want to then move those emails into your inbox so our emails don’t end up in those folders again.
PLEASE NOTE: Your monthly subscription renews automatically every billing period until you cancel it. Annual subscriptions are not always automatically renewed unless you choose this setting via the Stripe customer portal. You may cancel your monthly subscription anytime by going to your Substack Account Settings.
UPGRADING FROM FREE TO PAID: If you sign up for free to my Substack but want to upgrade to a paid subscription later, you’ll want to visit my home page using a BROWSER and not the Substack Mobile App.
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) is a trademarked term. By requiring that permissions be granted for associating goods and services with the term Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA), I have an opportunity to ensure that the planned content or group offerings(s) accurately reflect my research findings on this unique systemic phenomenon associated with dysfunctional and narcissistic family systems, thereby protecting consumers from distorted or erroneous interpretations of my original FSA research (I do not charge for the granted permissions).
