Rebecca C. Mandeville, MACP, LMFT, CCTP
Licensed Clinician; Certified Complex Trauma Treatment Professional; Researcher, Author, YouTube Health Partner; Founder of FSA Education
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About Rebecca
Rebecca C. Mandeville is a licensed Psychotherapist (LMFT); Certified Complex Trauma Treatment Professional (CCTP); Researcher; and YouTube Health Partner with over 25,000 channel subscribers. She coined the term Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) – a term that has gained global recognition and is now being used within academic research and Mental Health settings internationally. She is the author of the best-selling introductory book on FSA dynamics, Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed: Help and Hope for Adults in the Family Scapegoat Role – a resource that has helped tens of thousands of FSA adult survivors around the world. She is also the creator of the FSA Recovery Coaching Process℠ and facilitates an online community on Substack for FSA adult survivors and interested clinicians and coaches.
Rebecca’s research-based FSA Questionnaire is now used by researchers and clinicians all over the world. In addition to her original qualitative research on FSA, Rebecca is also co-author of the first peer-reviewed quantitative research study on Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA), conducted by Research Fellow Dr. Kartheek Balapala (MD/Psych). This research project on medical students in the copperbelt University of Zambia will be published by 2025. Learn more about Rebecca’s original FSA research and her efforts to bring global attention to this form of family abuse.
The now widely used terms Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) is a result of Rebecca’s original Family Systems research conducted while serving as Core Faculty at the world-renowned Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and is also informed by her personal experience of FSA as well over two decades of clinical experience treating adult survivors of this poorly understood form of ‘invisible’ (psycho-emotional) systemic abuse.
Most recently Rebecca’s research on family systems and cult dynamics was referenced by Dr. Sam Vaknin (who popularized the term ‘Narcissistic Abuse’ decades ago) in his video on Family Mobbing, (you can watch Rebecca’s video on Family Mobbing, which preceded Dr. Vaknin’s, here).
In my work in the area of psycho-emotional (‘invisible’) abuse and related trauma, I support child victims and adult children survivors. I believe what victims and survivors tell me and give them the space to share their stories, free of judgment. Escaping the Gordian knot of family dysfunction and scapegoating abuse can seem impossible, particularly when abuse dynamics are insidious, invisible, and subtle. But it is not impossible to recover from the ravages of family scapegoating abuse. How do I know? Because I don’t just research on and teach others about this form of abuse: I’m an FSA adult survivor, too.
– Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP
Rebecca has been serving clients in clinics and in her Psychotherapy and FSA Recovery Coaching℠ practices for over 20 years. She developed the Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA) Recovery Coaching℠ method to assist adult survivors of FSA in their healing efforts. She writes regularly on her ‘Scapegoat Recovery’ blog and is a guest author for various online Mental Health organizations, including Psych Central, Paces Connection, and the C-PTSD Foundation. She has been a featured speaker at conferences addressing a wide-range of topics, including Non-Dual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Integral Psychology, and Systemic Dysfunction in the Workplace. She is also a featured podcast and online summit guest expert.
In her role as a YouTube Health Partner, Rebecca is also the host of Beyond Family Scapegoating Abuse, an online educational platform created for both FSA adult survivors and clinicians. Learn more about Rebecca’s academic and professional background by visiting her LinkedIn page.
Family Scapegoating Abuse (FSA)™ is a term that specifically describes a unique systemic phenomenon identified by the research of Rebecca C. Mandeville, LMFT, CCTP. Email Rebecca to submit a permissions request if you plan to use this term in your own work beyond the allowed 100-word quote.