When your relationship began you were bright, vibrant, confident.
Now you hardly recognize yourself and you don’t know how things went so horribly wrong…
Dr. Michelle Maegly
I wish I didn’t understand what it feels like to have one person do so much damage to my sense of self. To know what it is to drown in self-doubt to the point that I can’t trust my own decision making. To have one person push me so far off my path I wasn’t sure what I did wrong to get there. But I do.
I remember it vividly. Being gaslit (before I even knew the term) and manipulated to the point that I doubted my perception of reality and emotional experience. I started to wonder if I was “losing it,” being “dramatic,” or had memory issues, since I was constantly told I remembered it wrong or misunderstood.
I wasn’t sure who or what to trust anymore.
I couldn’t fathom that someone would purposefully mislead me and twist my reality. I would never want my partner to feel so awful…so it never crossed my mind that that would be their goal. I just knew that I felt awful, and something was very, very wrong. But no matter what I did, I was constantly told that “I'm too much,” or that “I want too much,” or that I'm misperceiving things. I got to a point where I had so much self-doubt, I didn’t even know what was real. I had felt loved and cherished before; couldn’t I just make some changes to bring back our moments of joy?
But here is the truth:
You aren’t crazy. And you didn’t do anything wrong.
You just happened to be in a relationship with someone who needs to come out on top and control the narrative; someone who is willing to skillfully use manipulation tactics. You may have found yourself stuck in a cycle of emotional and narcissistic abuse, needing to find a way out and rediscover your light.
Those lies can be woven into our fabric to the point it’s difficult to discern the truth. That is what I’m here to help with. To identify and dismantle every harmful message. To help you realize, just because somebody has said it about you doesn't mean you have to own it, or wear it. To replace those messages with the truth about you. That you are in fact capable, that you can make good decisions, that you do have value and worth. I’m here to help you rekindle the parts of yourself that were dampened or snuffed out.
It’s ok if you don’t have hope that things will get better yet. I will hold onto that hope for you.
You may not see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I do, and we will walk toward it together. Over time, you'll realize how strong you actually are, and how capable you are of moving past what you've been through. You'll come out on the other side with new insights, new hopes, maybe new goals, and new passions, because you'll finally be able to see the light around you. And more importantly, the light within you.
Let’s start that journey together.
Your empathy and compassion are beautiful. Those qualities are exactly what attracted them to you. And they were weaponized against you.
They knew they could twist your good intentions to serve their own needs, and they left you feeling like YOU were the problem. And because you have a kind heart you believed it- why would someone tell you that if it wasn’t true? Your flexible mind could see at least some truth in what they were saying.
It took a while for me to realize that the way I operate is NOT the way they operate. That my values are not their values, and that my empathy was being used to hurt me and make me small. I believed so many of the lies told to me until I started to see them for what they were- lies. Manipulations. Abuse.
Your sense of self was taken apart brick by brick. I’m here to help you rebuild.
Workplace Wellness
Leadership comes from within, not from titles. After getting licensed, I found a job reporting to a director who was warm, compassionate, strong, decisive, and discerning. He was at the helm of a thriving department, until he retired. Then…[cue ominous music]…the promotion of an insecure leader, one who led by title alone, ruined it. Staff morale was decimated, and resignations were swift. The pain of that experience lit a fire in me. I decided to harness my expertise and experience to improve the wellbeing of workforces across the hierarchy.
I hope to challenge current bosses to become leaders. I want to nurture staff to find the leaders within themselves so they can thrive.
Over a decade of valuable lessons and experiences were cultivated by that director who saw the leader in me. I earned opportunities to provide state-wide presentations, promote changes within the system, and nurture trainees under my guidance. I became a training director responsible for all psychology training at my organization and was eventually promoted to director of my department.
I have since reflected on how, for greater than a decade, I saw so many good people, with a little power, engage in poor behavior because their leadership style was “make it up as I go.”
Those good people were not good managers- but they could have been. That’s where I can step in.
“Dr. Maegly has that rare skillset of weaving together her expertise, deep understanding and relating to others in a way that is approachable, engaging, genuine, warm, and authentic.”
“Dr. Maegly can distill complex, clinical topics into accessible concepts we can actually take action on.”
“Michelle has the ability to push people outside their comfort zone and give difficult feedback in a way that is non-threatening and invites introspection.”
Recent Speaking Engagements: Paycor, Kroger Wellness Fair, The Trauma Informed Care Summit for Ohio, Talbert House’s Institute on Training and Development, numerous NAMI events.
FAQs about Dr. Michelle Maegly
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Doctorate of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) from Xavier University
APA Accredited Internship at Lexington Veterans Affairs
Postdoctoral training at Talbert House
Former Director of Psychology at Summit Behavioral Healthcare
Board of Directors for NAMI Southwest Ohio
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Anxiety
Depression
LQBTQ+
Narcissitic Abuse
Trauma and PTSD -
ACT
CBT
Spiritual integration -
I have two lovable rescue dogs, a pitbull mix named Bo and a lab mix named Bella. They are only minimally trained and well behaved because I have much more patience helping humans learn and grow- I just want to pet all the dogs.
I'm frustratingly good at forgetting things I don't use. I can't speak French after 8 years in school and can't read music after 15 years of playing the flute and piano!
Since so much of life is routine and constant progress, I LOVE projects that have a beginning, middle, and end. Things like crocheting, painting with watercolors, building furniture, hanging a ceiling fan, pressure washing a driveway, caulking a tub, (ok, maybe not that one) bring me a sense of joy and satisfaction- especially if I can listen to an audiobook or podcast while doing it!