Thank You For an Amazing Year on Substack! A Recap of 2024 - and What's Ahead in 2025
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) continues to gain global attention worldwide - Together we can make a difference as we work together to legitimize the painful experiences of FSA adult survivors
UPDATE: See my new content release schedule for 2025: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/p/important-changes-for-2025-new-content
Dear Subscribers,
As we enter the new year, I want to take a moment to express my deep gratitude for each and every one of you who has been a part of the Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Education Substack community. Your unwavering support, engagement, and commitment to my mission to bring global attention to the painful reality of FSA and its effects on child victims and adult survivors have made a profound impact, and I am truly thankful to have you with me on this journey.
This year, we have worked together to raise awareness of FSA on Substack; shared valuable insights with each other; and co-created a "safe enough” private community Chat space where survivors can share their wisdom, strength, and hope to support FSA recovery.
Whether through reading, commenting, or sharing your own FSA-related experiences, you’ve helped to foster a sense of community, understanding, and support for so many. I am honored to be part of this community, and feel especially privileged to take part in your personal journey of healing, integration, transformation, and personal empowerment as we work collectively to shed the ‘scapegoat narrative’ and reclaim our unique life story, free of distorted projections imposed upon us by our family-of-origin.
Your feedback and participation in our Post comments and private Chats since I started this Substack seven months ago have shaped the content I provide, and I am always striving to bring more helpful, relevant resources to this space. I’m excited about what’s to come in the new year as we continue to grow, learn, and support one another in breaking the silence surrounding the devastating impact of family scapegoating abuse. You can access our new Community Site Directory to see our paid and free subscriber features here: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/p/explore-our-community
FSA Education in 2024
In addition to launching the FSA Education Substack, there were other important events that also occurred in 2024:
I was contacted by Research Fellow Dr. Kartheek R. Balapala and invited to serve as co-author and affiliate on the first peer-reviewed, quantitative research study on Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA). This now-completed study will soon be published in the European Journal of Public Health Studies. I cannot overstate the significance of this. The publication of peer-reviewed, quantitative research on FSA is pivotal in moving the conversation forward. Quantitative studies help validate the experiences of those affected by scapegoating, providing empirical evidence that supports the validity of their emotional and psychological struggles. This body of research - in addition to the years of qualitative research on FSA I’ve conducted - enhances the credibility of FSA as a distinct form of abuse and lays the groundwork for evidence-based interventions. I’ll be sharing this first published study with my subscribers here in early 2025. A second FSA study has been initiated by Dr. Balapala (which I have been invited to participate in), this time addressing FSA and Postpartum depression (PPD). Learn more about Dr. Balapala and his study here: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/p/first-quantitative-study-on-fsa-scapegoat
I finalized a contract for the audiobook version of my introductory book on FSA, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed, to be published through Tantor Media. Tantor is known for its high quality audio production so I was excited when they contacted me to inquire about rights to the English audio version of my book. Yesterday I gave final approval to one of the narrator options they sent me and I’m excited to hear the finished product. When the audiobook is available for purchase, you’ll be the first to know.
I finalized a contract with a foreign division of Simon & Schuster for Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed to be translated into Dutch. My hope is that my book will be translated into many foreign languages, now that I have a foreign rights agent.
My FSA research and book (Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed) were mentioned in several Ted Talks in 2024. On YouTube, Narcissistic Abuse expert, Prof. Sam Vaknin, also mentioned my FSA work in one of his recent YouTube videos on family scapegoating. Jerry Wise referred his viewers to my FSA work on YouTube as well.
Nearly 4 1/2 years after first publishing it, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed remains in the top 20 in its categories on Amazon; the Kindle version was frequently in the top 5, and international interest in FSA - and sales of my book - continues to increase.
In November, I released a 15-page online FSA Recovery Quick-Start Guide that includes many resources that have helped my private practice clients, which both free and paid subscribers receive free access to in their Welcome email after signing up to my Substack.
I released a User Guide for our Community Chats. We are now also using subthreads, which is helping to keep our Chat threads more organized. Link to the new Chat Guide here: https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/p/how-to-use-chat-on-the-substack-mobile
The FSA Education Substack became a Substack ‘best seller’ within three months of my launching it, thanks to the support of my monthly and annual paid subscribers and FSA Research Patrons. Having a committed paid subscriber base allows me to devote more time to researching and publishing articles on FSA, creating FSA affirmations and recovery tools for adult survivors, and facilitating my Substack community features and offerings, and I deeply thank you for this.
I met many amazing readers, writers, and therapists here on Substack in 2024, and was able to support their work by sharing some of their offerings in my Substack Notes (‘Notes’ are like ‘Tweets’ on Substack). You can see my Notes by visiting https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/notes.
A special shout out to
, who let me know about Substack when I first met her on the beach with our dogs this past May and then generously and consistently alerted her readers to my presence here; also, to my therapist/clinician colleagues here for all of the support and encouragement they’ve given me since I first got onto Substack: , who writes fantastic articles about in-law scapegoating and who profoundly ‘gets’ my FSA work; for valuing my FSA content and so generously sharing my posts and notes with her subscribers; for our collegial conversations and his amazing articles on narcissism, trauma, and celebrity; and , for his “sweary” posts(!).And last but not least: I finally figured out how to organize the home page of my Substack. If you get a chance, visit the FSA Education Substack using a browser (versus the Substack Mobile App) so you can check out my entire site and navigation menu (I also list resources on the lower right side of the home page): https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com
Thank you for being such an essential part of this community. I could not do this work without you, and I look forward to continuing this important mission of bringing attention to FSA with all of you in 2025. Scroll down to learn more about free and paid subscriptions.
Are you new to my Substack? You can check out my free and paid posts from 2024 in my archives at https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/archive (use the search feature to find topics of interest).
Free FSA Recovery Affirmation (with Audio option): https://familyscapegoathealing.substack.com/p/healing-from-family-scapegoating-abuse
Wishing you peace, healing, and strength in the year ahead.
With heartfelt appreciation,
Learn More About My Substack Offerings and How to Access My Free Online FSA Recovery Quick-Start Guide
Recovering from Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) is both a brave and challenging journey, often marked by isolation. However, you don’t have to navigate it on your own.
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 survivors.
Free vs. Paid Subscriptions
Free subscription:
At least one post (full article) each month addressing Family Scapegoating Abuse and recovery as well as 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 free articles and access to my entire archives, you’ll receive 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
Access to Community features such as our weekly and monthly topic-themed private Group Chats. Comments you make on Posts are paywall-protected and won’t be picked up by search engines.
Receive my popular FSA Affirmations - emailed to you every Monday
FSA Research Patron
All of the above
Advance previews of my FSA research findings before it is published 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.
Rebecca you have catapulted my recovery to levels I never dreamed of. Thank you for having such a profound impact on me. I am sooooooooooooooooooooo...grateful!
Thank you for the mention Rebecca! Sweary mental health science coming up very shortly.