Why is it common for women to become angry when another woman asks for what she needs? I know that I am not alone in having had girlfriends, some of them close friends, become angry with me when I set my boundaries, said no, told them that I felt hurt…

In her book “Mother Hunger”, Kelly McDaniel writes how she coined the term “Mother Hunger” to describe the emotional hunger daughters feel when their mother couldn’t emotionally bond with them when they were a baby. McDaniel describes “Mother Hunger” as a feeling of “emptiness in the soul that is hard…

While I was visiting my daughter and grandson in England, I bought the book “Why Did You Stay?” by Rebecca Humphries. I saw it advertised in the Guardian newspaper, and I knew that I needed to read it. Even though Humphries’ book is about staying in an emotionally abusive relationship…

The familiar yearning about needing a mother figure has risen to the surface again. I have felt this visceral yearning for a mother figure who listens and understands many times, often when I am tired, upset, or not feeling well. I have ‘battled’ with this visceral need for a listening…

This year, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, I wonder how far we have really come? After reading in the Guardian newspaper, how European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was barely acknowledged by the Ugandan foreign minister, General Jeje Odongo, I see little change to the age-old patriarchal attitude…

Patriarchy teaches daughters to blame their mother for their low self-esteem, their anxiety and depression, their disordered eating, their anxious attachment, and their “mother wound”. As Paula Caplan explains in “The new don’t blame mother”, mother blaming is the norm, the dominant language that we learn to speak and believe…

My mother could not celebrate me when I graduated with a Bachelor of Education from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. I had invited her to the graduation ceremony at the Christchurch Town Hall, and I know that she attended because she sat with my partner during the…

The term ‘mother wound’ has become a popular catch-all description of the disempowering messages daughters inherit from their mother and the pain daughters feel when their mother cannot emotionally connect. Articles and videos on how to heal your ‘mother wound’ are all over the internet, including goop.com …

Amongst the awfulness of 2020, I created something amazing! …