Coaching Post Toxic Relationship
(314) 296-4404
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Roula al-Dahhak, M.D
Pronounced: Roola aldahak
Neurologist, and Certified Health and Life Coach
I am a neurologist and a Health Coach. I have 20 plus years of experience as neurologist. I have been board certified in neurology since 2004. I worked at St. Louis University until recently.
​ I am a mother of 2 teenage children. I do have a dog. I enjoy my time with them and with my books. I do exercise regularly, and I enjoy traveling when possible.
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My Story & Philosophy
I came across many victims of toxic relationships over my years of practice of neurology, and I never understood the difficulty the victims face when -and even after- exiting the relationship. It was not until recently when I became a victim of a toxic relationship myself that I started to understand.
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Through my experience as well as my work with those victims, I realized that most victims of toxic relationships allow the voice of their abusers to occupy much more space within their brains than needed. They learn to develop toxic relationship with themselves (their bodies included) based on the previous opinion of their abusers (long after exiting that relationship). Additionally, they blame themselves and they find it very difficult to forgive themselves for not seeing the signs earlier, and for not stopping the mental/emotional abuse when it was occurring. The victims-myself included- often felt lonely and hopeless. they felt stuck in the past unable-at times- to see an end of the tunnel. The narcissists are- at the same time- relentless, and they spare no effort to continue to hurt their victims and that makes the victims' struggle to heal much worse.
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The abusers within those toxic relationships are often narcissists. They have their tools that they use to try to destroy their victims who dared to end that relationship. Examples of their strategies include manipulation, triangulation, victimization, smear campaign, and narcissistic revenge, to name a few. Many of these tools were utilized toward their victims during the relationship and are not ending by ending that relationship.
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Unfortunately, the narcissists are often more supported than their victims, so the victims are left to fight for themselves against relentless enemies, and sometimes against their friends and relatives and even leaders within the religious institutions who believed the lies spread by those narcissists.
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Fortunately, more awareness regarding this personality disorder started to develop. Social media definitely helped spreading the awareness of this disorder and provided tools to how to survive relationships with narcissists and also how to survive after ending those relationships.
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Since then, I became interested in studying psychology and counseling, and I decided to pursuit further education on coaching. I studied psychology and counseling, and I became a certified health and life coach since then. I started working with clients who were mainly victims of toxic relationships with neurological disorders, and I proceeded to work with others who were looking for someone to listen and believe their stories after they lost their social network based on the lies spread about them by their abusers!
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That is why I decided to help empower those victims and provide them with the tools and the support to help them win that battle and to help them claim their previous healthy selves and to guide them through the journey toward healing.
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