Healing Trauma in the Body: Somatic Recovery from Narcissistic Abuse | ANEW Ep 132

In this powerful second half of the ANEW Insight interview, Dr. Supatra Tovar and trauma expert Dr. Meg Haworth dive deep into healing trauma stored in the body, focusing on somatic recovery from narcissistic abuse. They explore how the body holds trauma from narcissistic abuse and reveal what it truly takes for healing trauma and effective recovery. Dr. Meg begins with a vital insight: “The body remembers what the mind forgets.” Survivors of narcissistic abuse experience chronic emotional charges such as guilt, shame, fear, and rage that become trapped in muscles, fascia, the nervous system, and the gut, leading to symptoms like chronic pain, anxiety, and emotional numbness. 

This episode unpacks trauma stored in the body, the dissociation survivors face, and why talk therapy is often insufficient. Dr. Meg presents the Whole Person Integration Technique, a somatic healing modality designed to help clients connect with stored emotional energy, communicate with the psyche’s symbolic language, and release wounds through nervous system regulation, intuitive insight, and self-compassion—key steps in the journey of narcissistic abuse recovery and healing trauma.

Want to know more about Dr Meg Haworth? Here are her social media Links: https://meghaworth.com/. https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghaworth, https://www.instagram.com/drmeghaworth/?hl=en, https://www.youtube.com/c/DrMegHaworth, https://www.facebook.com/coachdrmeghaworth/.

Listeners learn how toxic emotions such as shame, guilt, and rage wear down internal energy, and how loving emotions like joy, peace, and compassion can rebuild resilience. Dr. Meg and Dr. Supatra also explore breathwork, meditation, intuitive listening, visualization, and spiritual reconnecting—practices that help survivors rebuild identity, reclaim authenticity, and reconnect with their intuitive voice.

The conversation expands into the powerful intersection of nutrition and trauma recovery, exploring how inflammation, toxic food environments, hidden food sensitivities, and ultra-processed foods can worsen anxiety, depression, irritability, fatigue, or emotional reactivity. They emphasize mindful eating, body awareness, and learning how food impacts mood and energy.

Dr. Meg concludes with guidance on how to join her Toxic Parent Recovery Summit, access her courses, and explore her extensive content on narcissistic abuse, holistic healing, and spiritual integration.

If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body, struggled with persistent symptoms, or sensed you were carrying emotions that “didn’t belong to you,” this episode offers a roadmap toward embodied healing, nervous system repair, and reclaiming self-trust.

#narcissisticabuserecovery, #traumastoredinthebody, #somatichealing, #d

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:00

Welcome back to the ANEW Insight podcast. We are back for the second half of our interview with amazing transpersonal psychologist, mind-body medicine practitioner and trauma expert Dr. Meg Hayworth. Meg gave us some astute insight into her path towards treating narcissistic abuse recovery, and I cannot wait to learn more.

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:01

Yes. Oh boy. So when you go through traumatic experiences, whether it be single traumatic experience or many, 'cause that's what we're looking at with narcissistic abuse, parental, there is an emotional response. Now in narcissistic abuse. They're literally using emotions to wear away at you. So they use shame, guilt, anger. Rage, envy, jealousy. Those are the main six that they use. Fear tactics, all of those things as part of their manipulation. So, so they're throwing these emotions towards you, but then you have your response to the emotion. You have anger, fear, sadness, extreme hurt, betrayal. All these emotions. So you think about what's happening in your body, and the science tells us that every single emotion that you register, every single cell in your body is registering that emotion too. So if you have years and years of anger and rage being thrown at you, shame and guilt being thrown at you, and then your own response to it, But trying always to sort of walk on this tightrope. So. So these emotions are wearing away at your energy field, the way that we see it in energy medicine is that those emotions come into the field and then come into the body, and we store them all very differently. I know when I was first introduced to this in somatic therapies and psychosomatic therapy, which is really the core of my work I was like. What how, what do you mean? The tissue is holding the muscle tissue is holding the memory. And yes. Conclusively yes. That it does hold the memory and we're holding it in our system. And then our system, which I think of the energy system as the nervous system, it's direct connect to the brain and the energy field and the nervous system, the central nervous system. And so those fight, flight, freeze responses that we get into when we have complex trauma, that is part of how you're stuck. And you feel it. And those, my clients will tell me all the time, I feel stuck and I can feel that stuckness in me. I feel it's in my stomach and you know what I am, I'm getting stomach aches all the time now. It could be in your elbow, it could be in your left temple, it could be in your knee in, but it, you could have aches and pains all over your body that are, that have an emotional root cause they're, that are being expressed by your body talking to you.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:05

dissociating just like spacing out, not remembering not really being in the body, just like floating around in your head and not being connected and aware of the body and that it is just a protective mechanism to try to keep your, your body yourself safe.

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:06

Maybe you're in a narcissistically abusive relationship and you're feeling anger and hatred, and you're just like, Ugh, this is really overwhelming me. So when we do the technique together, your eyes are closed, you're in an altered state of consciousness, but 100% aware, And the reason your eyes are closed is so that you can have reference to the archetypes and the symbols that your psyche is going to send you to help you understand these holistic connections. The great things about it is that, first of all, it puts you in observer mode so you're not in the center of your story. I watch people when they're talking about their stories, I'll see them tense up. 'Cause they're just like in the middle of it. But this allows you to look at the experience and the narrative of the emotion itself. So we're talking directly to that anger you're holding. How are you holding it? Have you scan your body so you have that mind body awareness going on and you're like, I feel it in my chest. It's just, it's so tight. In fact, it's burning. And you know what? Every year I get bronchitis every single year. So then you start to make those connections holistically.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:08

Yes. I had one client who said, I, we were working on that kind of core belief and she said and one of the ways to work through that I do an method I employee is using mantra work to get into the body, to relax the body through this repetitive mantra work that also helps to recondition thoughts.

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:09

Yeah, so with whole person integration technique, once we kind of understand the entire narrative of, and we get all these insights, and a lot of times memories will float in, oh, that's connected to that I see so they start to see the whole. All these different connections. Mental, emotional, physical, energetic, and spiritual. And so they get to a place where I, when I feel intuitively they're ready I'll say, do you wanna keep this in your heart? And they'll be like, oh my gosh, no. And this actually gives me a lot of information because if they're telling me no way, and sometimes, well, it's, I don't know. I don't know who I'll be on the other side of this. Then I'll remind them this is a layer. This is not you releasing all of this for all time. We can only do so much. You're only built to handle so much each day, but you're never gonna be given more than you can handle. At any rate, we get them to that place and then we do the technique brings them into the part of themselves that's loving the loving self and the loving self is the part that really does the healing. So they're literally doing a self-loving act while they're releasing or forgiving, releasing and letting go of this toxic anger. Anger's a normal emotion, of course, but I'm talking about when it becomes toxic to the system where it's blocking you, it's keeping you from moving forward in your business and your life and your relationship. So. So it, they get to that place where we help them release it, love it, release it, let it go. But not just that, replace it and we replace it with spiritual qualities, with a soul quality, like peace, love, kindness, caring, because we know emotions can make us sick. And we say this all the time in our language, right? Like, that person makes me sick to my stomach, or I'm so worried sick about this thing . But emotions can also make us well. And so when we start to embody and shift into emotions like peace and love and joy and flood our body with that, we flood our body with that love from that most loving part of ourselves. it's so empowering to watch, by the end of the session when the person feels like, oh, you know what? My chest feels calm, I feel lighter, I feel freer, and then that continues happening as they go through the process. And not just that, they also will have shifts in their reality as they move forward. How they perceive themselves starts to shift. I've had clients call me up and say, oh my gosh, I was in the car on the way home from this business trip and I was like, I love me. So I just started saying, I love me. Because that is a, it's a real thing, and it's not easy to feel love for the self when you've been abused your whole life,

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:12

Oh my gosh. Dr. Meg I swear to God, I think we're sisters because it seems like we really do operate very similarly in our therapy room. And I am curious too, I really wanna get into any of the somatic work, maybe breath work, these emotions go and replace them with loving, soulful, spiritually minded thoughts. You and I are like, woo. Yes. So I'm wondering if we're even more alike on what we do somatically. Do you do breath work with your clients? Do you do any particular techniques and explain them for our listeners so they might be able to learn how to do them themselves as well.

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:14

Yeah, absolutely. And I do give them things that they can do on their own. But the technique itself, Whole Person Integration Technique starts with breathing together. So we're doing cleansing breaths to help reset the nervous system so that you can really have reference to the internal scape. because it's so hard you first start trying to have reference to your body and your mind and your emotions and all of it all at once. It's just like, oh my. 'cause we're not used to it again. We've dissociated so much. So yes, so the breathing meditation is a huge thing that I huge proponent of. But I also will always say, please take a course this. It, trying to do it on your own. When you've got all this mental chatter, you've got this hyper critical voice inside of yourself that's not even really yours. It's your parents,

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:15

Mainly this is through diet culture, but this is. It's for anyone who has been disconnected from their body and the way back toward you know, really being in tune and connected is to learn how to listen to that intuitive voice. And there are very easy things that you can do to get back in touch with it. Through, uh, narcissistic abuse. How do you rebuild self trust and recognize one's authentic self? It's most likely, I'm gonna say probably through listening to their intuition, correct?

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:17

You've been told so many things about yourselfthat simply aren't true. And then you con yourself because you're now wrapped up in this con game

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:18

We all have this voice and you've had it since you were a kid and it often just gets suppressed or just ignored. And when we return to it, it's, it's insane how intuitive and correct it is.

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:19

Yeah, so really I employ visualization quite a bit with my clients, reminding them like. What is the life you desire to create? Do you desire to create health in your body? If you're sick, visualize. See yourself healed. yourself as the way you'd like yourself to be. Jumping around dancing, having a good time, feeling pain-free. All of those things, and spending some time every single day visualizing that, writing it down, creating the experience, but feeling it. So it's not just about miracle thinking, it's miracle feeling, it's feeling that energy and it's really those principles of manifestation and creation. So these things are possible. as you enter into the, that field of consciousness where you're just imagining and becoming what you imagine yourself to be.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:21

reframe your thinking and then practice that thinking through meditations, through visualizations. And it,

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:22

I take an inventory of what do you eat every day? What's like the basic things that you eat? Because I wanna look at the connection between what's happening with you emotionally and physically, and what you're putting into your body. Create anxiety, they create depression. They create rage. If I get gluten, it has to be a fair amount. Like if I were to eat a brownie, for instance I will have crying jags for two days. I will have extreme fatigue. My hair will start falling out. I'll even have like rage. which is so not me.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:24

'cause that may not be necessary. It's really important to gauge how you feel after you eat anything, but you are absolutely 100% correct that we live in pretty toxic food environment when you look at commercial food and agricultural practices. That can be from anything from our, you know, fruits and vegetables to the animal proteins that are out there.

Dr. Meg Haworth: Very detailed food journals. Woke up at 8:00 AM had my first cup of coffee, had a stomach ache by, 9: 0:25

00 AM and so you're looking at the mind body connection with food. I.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:26

And let your body decide for you what's best for you, because you'll see it in your digestion, you'll see it, your skin, hair, nails. You'll see it in your mood. You'll see it in, in your energy levels,

Dr. Meg Haworth: 0:27

Yeah, absolutely. So, I go to my website at www.meghaworth.com. It's M-E-G-H-A-W-O-R-T -H.com. And I'm sure you'll have all the links there available. And there's a whole tab on narcissistic abuse recovery where you can, go and look at my YouTube channel where I've got hundreds of videos to help people heal. There's also the summits and online courses. So every year I do the Toxic Parent Recovery Summit, and it's really empowering because it's a holistic approach. So I have all different types of doctors and healers and energy medicine practitioners talking about the ways that they help heal people from their traumatic experiences. So it's a really empowering thing and you can actually, you can buy the summit now. There's two seasons up there.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:28

So we have all sorts of ways that we can move forward and heal from something very damaging in our lives. And we're so grateful that there are people like Dr. Meg out there who are providing help in such a holistic way. We do need to, I think, look at ourselves from mind, body, and spirit and see how we can optimize our health and heal and recover from these kinds of wounds.