From Wounded to ICON: Dr. Meg Haworth’s Journey to Healing Adult Children of Narcissists

Dr. Meg Haworth, a transpersonal psychologist, holistic nutritional chef, international speaker, and bestselling author, has dedicated her life to helping adult children of narcissists transform from wounded individuals into empowered, independent icons. She offers a unique blend of emotional healing and holistic wellness through her ICONIC ME coaching program, intuitive therapy, and online courses. As a survivor of narcissistic abuse, a dozen illnesses, and even being struck by lightning, Dr. Meg draws on her personal experiences to guide others through their healing journeys. Her Whole Person Integration Technique helps release the deep emotional trauma that can lead to illness, fostering long-term recovery. Combining her expertise as a former private chef with celebrities, she also uses nutrition to support the body’s natural ability to heal. Featured on NBC, Fox11 LA, and the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Meg is a leader in holistic recovery. She hosts the Toxic Parent Recovery Summit and shares her wisdom on YouTube, reaching thousands worldwide. With nearly three decades of experience, Dr. Meg Haworth continues to empower others to break free from their past and reclaim their health and confidence.

Your therapeutic coaching program, ICONIC ME, helps adult children of narcissistic parents transition from wounded ACONs to healed ICONs. Could you share the core principles behind this transformation and how your journey influenced its creation?

The core principles behind the transformation I provide to my clients in my ICONIC ME therapeutic coaching program are first meeting them where they are and working with what is directly affecting their lives. I work in a holistic way that includes, the mental, emotional, physical & energetic/spiritual aspects of the client. This means that they get a well-rounded, deep, and thorough healing that unites the parts of their selves rather than separating them. True and lasting healing requires the energetic and spiritual parts of the self to be engaged in the healing process. It requires diving into the subconscious mind & body to release the negative emotional energies of the past so that the client will have the energy available to them to live the lives they desire to live. This work takes them into healing self-esteem, self-expression, self-trust, identity and the wounds of the physical body while also providing nutritional guidance so that the body can heal itself with food and the power of the mind and heart. My journey is that I was physically, sexually and narcissistically abused as a child. I grew to develop over a dozen illnesses by the time I was in my twenties. I set about healing those illnesses with food and alternative medicines when Western medical treatments were only making me sicker. When I learned the keys to healing are about including all parts of the holistic system, taking my healing into my own hands, developing and following my intuition and spiritual/energetic growth and development, that led me to the work that I do today. 

As someone who has overcome narcissistic abuse and a dozen illnesses, what advice would you give to individuals who are just beginning their healing journey from toxic family dynamics?

Decide to heal. Make a full-body, emphatic decision that you will do whatever it takes to heal. Then learn to follow your intuitive inner voice to let it guide you along your healing pathway. Then seek help. As soon as the decision is made, everyone and everything you need will come to you. 

The Whole Person Integration Technique is a holistic approach that addresses emotional energy and core negative beliefs. Can you explain how this technique works and why it’s important to address the emotional aspect of healing in the body?

Whole Person Integration Technique allows the client to see the holistic connections simultaneously – mental, emotional, physical, and energetic/spiritual. It delves into the subconscious mind and body in a way that places the client in the observer mode. This way they are not caught up in their story but rather, in the story of the negative emotion itself and how it connects to the physical body. Seeing how this emotion damages the body, along with its limiting belief, puts the client in a state of deeply wanting to let it go. We do a release process and a replacement process that connects the client with love, peace, confidence, joy, or any other positive quality that is naturally in all of us but it gets shrouded by trauma, abuse, and difficult life experiences. Emotions can make you sick but they can also make you well. After the session, the client feels lighter and freer in mind and body. They find that the things they attached to before are no longer an issue. Triggers change and the client can heal the body, have more energy, and carry out the desires they have for their lives.  

You’ve had an incredible journey, from being struck by lightning to being a private chef for celebrities. How have these life experiences shaped your perspective on holistic healing and resilience?

Being struck by lightning changed my life for good. I was a successful private chef to celebrities at the time, but I was perplexed about why I was cooking for people when I had this whole background as a doctor of transpersonal psychology. I wanted to put it all together in some way that could truly help others heal. I already had that proven track record in my private practice. That lightning bolt would be my initiation into the creation of what I do today. The experiences have built the resilience I already had. I had healed a dozen illnesses. I stuck to the idea that I could not give up on myself and that come what may, I would help myself heal and then teach others about how I did it. The lightning helped me to go deeper into myself physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually so that I could deepen my understanding of holistic medicine. 

Your Toxic Parent Recovery Summit brings together experts to help people heal from the effects of toxic families. What are some key takeaways or strategies you hope attendees gain from this summit?

 The toxic parent recovery summit is designed to help attendees understand that we must look at all parts of the self to heal from the damage that toxic and narcissistic parents inflict on us. The summit is meant to give them a broad perspective on how to heal from the many potential issues that plague ACONs (Adult Children of Narcissists). From hormone health to detoxing the body, environment, and coaching to have better relationships with the self, this summit covers the potential needs that attendees have for their healing. 

As a holistic nutritional chef, you focus on how nutrition can support healing. How do you incorporate food into your therapeutic work, and what role does nutrition play in the recovery from emotional and physical trauma?

Food is the baseline for everything we do as humans. When you load in toxic foods it affects your mood, your rates of inflammation, and your overall health and wellness. To address the emotions without adding the element of food is leaving out an essential ingredient that speeds up the healing process for those in need of healing. Food has a frequency, just like our thoughts and feelings do. When you load in high-frequency foods, it creates fertile ground for your emotional & mental work to move faster.

You’ve worked with thousands of people over nearly three decades. What are the most common challenges your clients face, and how do you help them navigate these obstacles to achieve long-lasting healing? 

The most common challenges that clients face are multi-layered. One thing I see very often is that ACONs aren’t accustomed to focusing on themselves. They tend to be co-dependent, people-pleasing, and perfectionistic – not wanting to get things “wrong”. This can make it hard to do the inner work necessary to heal. Helping them move from co-dependent (focusing on others) to being independent, confident, original, and naturally themselves (ICONs) takes a holistic perspective that moves them through the layers at a much faster rate than traditional psychotherapy. Other challenges that they commonly face are related to self-trust and intuitive development, ruminating, needing to know how to speak to the narcissist in their lives in an empowering way for them, self-worth, identity, and learning to stop taking responsibility for their narcissistic parent or sibling and start making themselves number one. 

What are some of the biggest misconceptions about narcissistic abuse and its long-term impact, particularly in terms of how it affects one’s physical health and well-being? 

The word narcissist gets thrown around a lot these days. People use it to describe people who are probably just emotionally immature liars and cheaters who have never done any introspective work on themselves. Without understanding the role of empathy, people may grossly misuse the term and throw away what could have been good relationships had they sought good help. People also don’t seem to know how narcissistic abuse affects them in a long-term way. People who have been through terrible abuse may belittle or dismiss the damage that it does to them. There’s a whiplash effect that happens when you’ve been through lifelong narcissistic abuse. When they are being sweet and nice to us it makes us so happy. When they suddenly become mean and nasty, our hopes for change get dashed and we are depressed and sad again. Herein lies the trauma bond and addiction to the narcissistic person. What people don’t understand is that you must give up hope that people with the disorder are capable of change and you must learn to focus on your healing. Most people are unaware of the massive impact that emotions have on our physical bodies. Even many doctors deem the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study to be nonsense, and they dismiss this impact. If we could all understand that our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are made up of energy that determines everything in our lives, we would have more healed people. If we would only start with the energy system first, we would have healthier individuals and a better world.  

You are a bestselling author, speaker, and a seasoned practitioner in intuitive therapy. What has been the most rewarding aspect of your multi-faceted career, and how do you stay grounded and connected to your purpose through it all? 

The most rewarding aspect of my career is to watch people become who they were always meant to be. I watch them heal in mind, body, and soul is the most incredible gift I could ever imagine. To see a person who could barely get out of bed transform to create their own dreams and lead a healthy life is the most amazing thing ever. I stay grounded and connected through the intentional action of connecting with people I love, meeting new people, playing with and caring for my dog, spending time in nature, and always seeking the next thing I need for my healing. I often say that as long as you’re in a body the fun never stops! There is always something to learn, grow, and evolve from to embody who you were always meant to be!

 For those unfamiliar with holistic and intuitive therapies, how would you explain the importance of integrating mind, body, and spirit in the healing process? How does this approach differ from traditional methods of dealing with trauma and illness? 

Because this approach to healing encompasses the entire person, it is comprehensive. It leaves no stone unturned when it comes to helping people get complete healing. This approach differs in that it is not focused on pathology and treatment of disorders – as in what is wrong with you – but is focused on what are the best parts of you and how do we bring those out in you. Also, what is in the way of you expressing your best self to the world? Let’s find those blocks and let them go so that you can thrive and be the person you know in your heart that you can be. When we holistically integrate the self, we cover all the bases and help people to become who they were meant to be.