Though Niko doesn’t know exactly when he became aware he could move things with his mind, he remembers that his dad never seemed worried by it–in fact, it was something that they shared, something his father encouraged in him. It terrified his mother the first time she saw it, and he later found out it was the reason she hated him so much. It only grew stronger as he got older, and his mother’s hatred for him grew with it. She used his ability as justification for her abuse (and by this point it had turned physical as well as emotional). 

Nikolas Sr was a loving father, but a very busy man; he didn't know about the abuse Niko's mother put him through for quite some time. As soon as he found out how she treated his son, though, he left her immediately. The separation was the best time of Niko's childhood, because it was just him and his dad. However, in the divorce, his mother somehow managed to get sole custody of Niko (he would later find out that there were many more people in the world with special abilities, and his mother's lawyer--a telepath--was one of them).

From the age of 12, up until he was 18, his religious zealot mother subjected him to multiple exorcisms, each more aggressive than the last, and all of them traumatizing. She was convinced his telekinesis was evidence of her son being possessed, and determined to rid him of the demon within. Niko barely understood what was happening the first few times, and then he only understood all-too-well. . . Around age 15, his mother stopped letting him go to school, and would hardly let him leave the house. He had private (religious) tutors, and a mother who was happy to punish him for the smallest mistake or emotional outburst (which was usually accompanied by outbursts of his power).

When he was 18, his dad’s lawyer (and old friend) Mr. Constantine, came to get him; he was a legal adult, now, and no longer bound by the custody agreement (or his mother's rules of no contact), and his dad very much wanted to reconnect. Mr. Constantine and Nikolas got Niko out of that house and brought him home. He kept in contact with her for the first year, because she was his mom, and all he really knew, but Mr. Constantine and his dad finally forced her out of his life after Niko had a bit of a nervous breakdown–a whole story in and of itself.

It took a restraining order, bodyguards, extensive home security, and a whole lot of time for Niko to finally start to relax. Though even now, he deals with the aftermath of his mother’s abuse, not the least of which being extreme anxiety and OCD (with religion driving many of his compulsions). Despite knowing he would never need to work a day in his life, Niko chose to go to school to get a psych degree when he was 20--which his father fully supported, because it was the first thing to make him excited since leaving his mother's influence. In some ways, it helped him to understand his trauma (though he refuses to do more than the therapy sessions that were required for the program). Mostly, Niko wanted to become a psychologist because he wanted to help others--especially others like him, with powers. That became the large bulk of his clientele.