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Restart and Restore
A Journal for Survivors of Manipulation

Have you left a manipulative relationship, cult, or high-control group and aren’t sure how to start over?

Leaving a life shaped by control, fear, and emotional abuse is one of the most courageous choices a person can make. Yet the path that follows, rebuilding your identity, finding your voice, and healing from trauma, can feel overwhelming, isolating, and confusing. Restart and Restore was created as a trauma-informed recovery tool to help you navigate that journey.

This guided healing journal offers a clear framework for recovery, and self-discovery. It was written by Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSEd, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with more than 30 years of experience helping survivors of narcissistic abuse, cults, spiritual abuse, toxic relationships, and high-demand groups. It draws on evidence-based counseling approaches, psychoeducation, and insights from Rachel’s internationally recognized IndoctriNATION Podcast, which has reached millions of listeners worldwide.

Who is this journal for?
This journal is designed for people who became involved in cults, spiritual abuse environments, manipulative relationships, or toxic groups as teenagers or adults and are now working to rebuild a healthy, autonomous life. It provides practical guidance, therapeutic writing prompts, and recovery exercises for those healing from coercive control, gaslighting, thought reform, and emotional manipulation.

Those who were born and raised in cults or highly controlling systems will also find validating words and meaningful exercises here. While their experiences often involve unique challenges such as overcoming childhood conditioning, attachment issues, identity formation, familial resentments, boundary setting, and learning to relate to and live in the world at large, the next journal in this series will focus specifically on their needs with targeted recovery tools.
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Restart and Restore allows you to work through the content at your own pace, without pressure, judgment, or timelines other than your own.
What will you find inside?
  • Psychoeducation to help you understand the mechanics of cult mind control, narcissistic abuse, and other forms of manipulation and how these tactics impact your mind, emotions, and sense of self.
  • Therapist-developed prompts to explore your history, conflicts and challenges, strengths and wishes.
  • Integration exercises to turn insight into small, achievable action steps.
  • Supportive reminders that recovery is not linear and there is no single “right” way to heal.
  • Ample space for self-reflection, creativity, and emotional processing.​
Why is this journal different?
Restart and Restore is more than a blank notebook, it’s a guided companion for your healing process. It offers structure, validation, and practical tools to strengthen self-compassion, resilience, and clarity. You’ll find strategies for grounding, building inner safety, and reclaiming your own voice after abuse or manipulation.
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It can be used alongside therapy, support groups, or as a standalone self-help resource. If a prompt feels too difficult, you can skip it, return to it later, or adapt it to meet your needs and comfort.

The Companion Notebook to Restart and Restore: Continuing the Journey of Discovering and Healing

The Companion Notebook to Restart and Restore was created as the partner to the Restart and Restore Journal. While the journal provides a structured path for healing, this companion notebook gives you additional space, inspiration, and guidance to continue your journey. It is designed for the survivors of cults, high-control groups, narcissistic abuse, and coercive relationships who want a safe and supportive place to process, reflect, and heal.
Within its pages are fifteen sections that expand on the themes of the journal, guiding you through grounding yourself, unmasking manipulation, untangling harmful beliefs, reclaiming your inner voice, setting boundaries, honoring grief, healing the body and mind, and rediscovering joy. Each section features a powerful quote from thought leaders such as Gabor Maté, Brené Brown, Gloria Steinem, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Judith Herman, and others. Survivor vignettes bring validation, reminding you that you are not alone. Writing prompts invite you to reflect deeply, uncover strengths, and take steady steps toward rebuilding confidence.
​This notebook is compact and portable so you can carry it with you and write whenever you feel ready. It is a helpful companion for anyone using the Restart and Restore Journal, and it also stands on its own as a healing tool for survivors, counselors, and supporters in the recovery process.

Now I Know: Kids Talking To Kids About Divorce

This is a unique book about divorce. This helpful, honest, and reassuring book takes the reader into the future one year after the divorce. The characters, inspired by author Rachel Bernstein's patients, share their new-found expertise with the reader by expressing feelings, new insights, and helpful tips that have benefitted other kids who have gone through this transition. Readers are invited to express their own thoughts in the journal that is included at the end. Now I Know also honors the fact that every family is different, and children from nearly all kinds of families will feel this book is for them.




​Check out this sneak peak of Now I Know: Kids Talking to Kids About Divorce and learn more about what this one-of-a-kind book is all about!

REVIEWS

Steven Hassan says:
"I have known Rachel Bernstein professionally for decades now and she is a thoughtful, kind, compassionate therapist. In her first book, designed for children, she has helped normalize the many issues kids face when their parents divorce. Rachel gives some concrete suggestions and guidance to help minimize the confusion, pain, and transitional issues kids go through. The illustrations are well done and support the message. Anyone undergoing a divorce will wish to consider this book for their children but also thoughtful friends, aunts, uncles, grandparents, guidance counselors will want to use this new resource."

LDouglas on Amazon says:
"Got this book for my niece and nephew, who are elementary school age. I got this originally thinking they would read it when they get older but they can handle it now--as the questions come up. I also purchased it because of the multicultural element to it. With this book, they can see that kids of all cultures and walks of life deal with divorce and they can get through it just fine!"