An indispensable guide for the millions of adults who have a “complicated” relationship with their mother, helping them understand why their relationship feels wrong and how to finally set boundaries and heal.

For most of her life, if you'd asked Stephi Wagner, founder of the Mother Wound Project, who her best friend was, she would have said, “My mom!” It wasn't until Stephi became a mother herself that she realized something wasn't right—she had been seeing her mother through rose colored glasses. To be the parent, wife, and friend that she wanted to be, Stephi needed to rethink not only her relationship with her mother, but her relationship with herself.

Whether you call it mommy issues, abuse, trauma, or just a “difficult” relationship with your mom, the mother wound is the pain that comes from not receiving the love, care, safety, and support you deserved from your mother. It's a deeply unmooring experience that can be difficult to recognize, let alone acknowledge in a culture that says, “But she’s your mom! Of course she loves you.” That's where Stephi Wagner comes in.

Structured to follow the journey a reader will undergo as they begin to unpack their mother wound, this book delivers expert advice on navigating this process in a way that feels true to survivors and their experiences. It will show readers that they are not alone in their pain. It will validate their experiences of hurt or abuse. It will show them that healing is possible. And it will empower them to embrace their true selves and to live the lives they want, not the lives their mothers wanted for them.

Packed with the tools readers need to understand, name, and heal the mother wound, The Mother Wound offers a voice and a roadmap to everyone who has struggled with their relationship with their mother.