"The Wolf of Wall Street" Ex-Wife Nadine Macaluso Discusses Trauma Bonding

John Edmonds Kozma's Unimpressed Podcast

As a 22-year-old, Nadine never could have understood what she was committing to when marrying Jordan Belfort, the fraudulent stockbroker infamously known as "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Their eight-year marriage began as a fairytale, filled with romantic dinners, expensive gifts, and lavish parties. But once they were bonded, Jordan’s ‘mask’ began to slip, and acts of infidelity, narcissistic abuse, insatiable greed, and uncontrollable drug addiction became Nadine’s living nightmare. Nadine naively believed that their connection was real and that her love could save him, so she remained trauma-bonded until the pain of their relationship became too much to bear. It would be decades before she realized her story resembled thousands of other women’s relational experiences.

At 30, Nadine packed up her kids and her curtains and left Jordan, relocating to Los Angeles, California.

She began a transformative process of intensive therapy and deep self-reflection, which required facing her pain, admitting and owning her mistakes, and reconnecting with the authentic self she’d lost due to Jordan’s abuse. Through her healing, a passion for helping others was born. She returned to school at 39 to become a psychotherapist and, ten years later, graduated with a PhD in Counseling and Somatic Psychology.

Dr. Nae’s private practice quickly flooded with women recounting an all-too-familiar story of abuse with a pathological partner.

Her goal of helping people develop healthy relationships took on a life of its own as she realized that trauma bonds were increasingly prevalent and destroying the lives of hundreds of women. Nadine embarked on a twelve-year journey of learning about domestic violence. She combined her academic background with her experience and that of her patients, eventually leading her to become an industry expert in narcissistic abuse, trauma bonds, and complex PTSD.

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