Narcissistic personality
Since 2012 we have held a medically supervised iboga retreat on the Mayan Riviera near Cancun, Mexico. A traditional Missoko Bwiti ceremony is paired with a psychologist, then three months of follow-up at home. If you have been called narcissistic, or you recognize yourself in the word and are tired of what it costs you, this page explains how we help, honestly.
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Beneath the Surface
Narcissistic personality: the ceremony, the numbers, the research and how to prepare.
How it works
Narcissistic traits are common, and having them does not make anyone a bad person. For some people the pattern runs deep: a need to be admired, a fragile sense of worth underneath, relationships that keep breaking. Wanting to look at that takes courage.
No study has tested iboga or ibogaine for narcissistic personality disorder. What follows is our experience with 7,677 guests since 2012. It is a supervised opening alongside psychotherapy, never a replacement for it.
Every guest has a medical screening and bloodwork before travel. The physician reviews every medicine and substance you use, then stays in the room through the ceremony.
The Missoko Bwiti tradition of Gabon is built around a life review: seeing your choices and their effect on others. Many guests describe facing what they had kept hidden from themselves, and feeling less alone with it.
Tania, our psychologist, prepares you before you travel and guides the life review the day after. Three months of integration calls follow at home. With your consent, we send a summary to your own therapist.
How iboga acts on the brain
Ibogaine, the main alkaloid in iboga, dampens one of the brain's glutamate learning channels in lab tests, a little like a weak ketamine-site drug. The body turns it into noribogaine, which stays for days and raises serotonin signaling. In theory, these actions could loosen fixed, self-protective patterns of thinking. In animal studies, a single dose switches on growth-factor genes linked to plasticity.
People often describe a dream-like state while awake: in one clinical study, 14 patients reported vivid memories for 3 to 7 hours. That may be why a life review feels so direct. An open-label study of 30 veterans found large drops in PTSD, depression and anxiety a month after ibogaine, with no control group (Cherian et al., Nature Medicine, 2024). None of this shows an effect on narcissistic personality. Read more on how iboga works.
What we have seen since 2012
Since 2012, with 7,677 guests, we have seen a traditional treatment help people with this kind of struggle, sometimes profoundly and lastingly. Guests who have lived behind a strong front often describe seeing the people they hurt, or old wounds they had never let themselves feel, with a clarity that surprised them.
Afterwards, some speak of less need to win every exchange, and more room to listen. Others find the night hard to accept, and that is part of the work too. This is our experience, not a clinical study. Change in personality is slow, and it continues in therapy at home.
Who holds it
Michael and Cory open and hold the ceremony. Tania, our psychologist with close to a decade at Mexico's National Institute of Psychiatry, screens for what iboga cannot hold and carries the integration. Dr Villarreal keeps the body safe.
Safety
Behind a confident front there can be real despair. Studies on suicide in narcissistic personality are mixed, but in some, attempts were more frequent or more serious. The psychologist asks about suicidal thoughts directly, and without judgment.
Psychedelic medicines are not proven safe for personality disorders. Among people using psychedelics on their own, one small study suggested a higher risk of feeling worse a month later for those who reported a personality disorder. Depression and substance use often come with narcissistic personality, cocaine in particular, so we screen for both. We also check for bipolar disorder or psychosis. Mania has been reported after unsupervised ibogaine.
Never stop a medicine on your own: our physician plans any change with your prescribing doctor. A heart condition needs a careful look first: read how we protect your heart.
Who it is for
The psychologist and the physician decide together. Sometimes the answer is a later date.
Adults 18 or older who see a pattern in themselves and want to understand it, whether or not they have a diagnosis. People who come by their own choice, are willing to hear hard things about themselves, and plan to keep working with a therapist at home.
Suicidal thoughts with a plan, a recent suicide attempt, bipolar disorder, psychosis or a family history of it, or pregnancy. Heavy current cocaine, alcohol or other drug use needs its own plan first. If you are coming only because someone else demands it, we would rather talk first.
Why it is hard
A pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and low empathy often protects something fragile underneath. Letting it down can feel like danger, so change tends to be slow, usually over a year of work or more. Estimates of how many adults meet the diagnosis range from about 1% to 6.2%, depending on the study.
The hopeful part: long-term studies suggest people with narcissistic personality can improve, and many traits ease with age. Wanting to understand your pattern is already a beginning.
How to cope
Psychotherapy is the first step. No medicine is approved for any personality disorder, though a doctor may prescribe for depression or anxiety that comes with it.
Look for a therapist experienced with personality, in psychodynamic therapy, an adapted transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP-N), mentalization-based treatment or schema therapy. In a trial of 323 patients with several personality disorders, including narcissistic, schema therapy did better than usual care. Research on narcissistic personality alone is still thin, so expect a long road, not a quick fix.
If you love someone with narcissistic traits, you are allowed to protect yourself. Clear limits are not cruelty. If you are being hurt in a relationship, whatever the other person's diagnosis, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is open 24/7 at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), or text START to 88788. The NAMI HelpLine offers information for families at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264); it is not a crisis line.
If you have thoughts of ending your life, call or text 988 in the United States, or call or text 9-8-8 in Canada, at any hour. In the US, you can also text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line.
Dates
Open retreats and the dedicated veterans' dates. Eight guests each; full list on the schedule.
It takes strength to come here and look at yourself honestly. We meet that with respect, not judgment.
Pricing, US dollars
All inclusive from Cancún airport: screening, ceremonies, room, meals, three months of follow-up. All payments are final, see the terms. Full pricing.
Questions about narcissistic personality
No study has tested iboga or ibogaine for narcissistic personality, so we make no medical claim for it. What guests describe since 2012 is an honest life review, often with a new view of the people around them. We offer it as a supervised opening alongside psychotherapy.
A lasting pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and low empathy, beginning by early adulthood, that causes real distress or harm to daily life. It sits in Cluster B of the DSM-5-TR. The ICD-11 does not name it; it describes personality disorder by severity and traits.
No. Narcissistic traits are common and come in degrees. A diagnosis needs a pervasive, long-standing pattern that causes significant distress or impairment, and only a clinician can make it.
Estimates range from about 1% to 6.2% of adults, depending on how a study measures it. It is diagnosed more often in men.
None is approved. Medicines may help with depression or anxiety that comes with it. Never stop a medicine on your own.
Yes, slowly. Long-term studies suggest improvement is possible, and many traits ease with age. Psychotherapy is the first step, even though trial evidence for narcissistic personality alone is limited.
A retreat only makes sense when the person chooses it for themselves. You can share this page, but your own safety and support come first. If you are being hurt, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
That is common, and it can hurt. Someone stays beside you all night. The next day, the practitioner and the psychologist help you make sense of it without shame.
Yes, with your consent. We can send a summary to your therapist, and integration calls can include them if you want.
You've carried this long enough. Start with a conversation with our medical team.
