About

The Motherless Daughters Ministry is a Christian organization dedicated to serving women who have lost or missed the nurturing care of a mother. We fulfill our mission by freeing women from the bondage of grief and loss through self-discovery, understanding how loss has shaped their lives, and by empowering them to journey towards healing themselves and helping others. A motherless daughter can be a woman who has experienced mother loss through death of her mother, either by early loss before her 20’s or later loss after her 20’s. A motherless daughter could be a woman who has experienced a mother who may have quit nurturing her at an earlier age, and then she loses her mother again through death as an adult. This is defined as a double loss. A motherless daughter might be a woman who has a living mother but has never experienced her mother’s nurturing care. Donating to Motherless Daughters Ministry supports our Core Values *Courage: We acknowledge the courage it takes to embark on the journey to healing and to explore the scars left by mother loss. Transformational change always takes courage. *Respect: We respect each motherless daughter who participates in this ministry or volunteers to serve in this ministry. *Education: We help motherless daughters explore how mother loss has shaped their lives. Education equals empowerment. Empowerment contributes to emotional health. *Equip: We equip motherless daughters with the knowledge to journey toward freedom and experience the gifts God has for them. *Empower: We empower motherless daughters to make choices that will help them heal and change the way they look at their past and their future. Empowered motherless daughters decide how they wish to react to the loss instead of letting the loss decide for them. *Community: We are a community of women who welcome any woman who is motherless regardless of age, race, or religious background. Motherloss knows no age, denomination, or ethnicity. It crosses all groups and binds us together into one community. *Integrity: We maintain the integrity, safety, and privacy of each woman. We value the trust women place in us by sharing their stories. *Commitment to Helping Others: We value the commitment of our volunteers and the gift of their time to the ministry. We will equip our servant leaders with the knowledge, skills, and resources to help others. We embrace growth that advances the ministry. We serve Woman by offering programs and services such as these: Daughters of the Narcissistic Mother This class instills an understanding and realization of your mother’s condition and the effects that her narcissism has had on your life. Narcissism is often rooted in family history. It is a life long struggle to break the bonds. This understanding empowers self-trust and self-acceptance of who you are today and that YOU are good enough. Will I ever be good enough is not really a question but it is a judgment. It is a message that you may have received from your mother. It implies that we are not good enough and so what may happen is: • We judge ourselves and assume others are judging us critically • We are unsure of ourselves and may be • Oversensitive • Indecisive • Self-conscious • Lack self-trust • Have the inability to sustain relationships • Lack confidence • Have a sense of insecurity We will be using the book Will I Ever Be Good Enough: Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers by Dr. Karyl McBride Ph.D. along with handouts, and experiential exercises ********************************************************** The Emotionally Absent Mother Focusing on women who have missed mothering in their lives whether their mother is deceased or living. This is called being “under-mothered.” For whatever reason, she just was not there for you. We will explore what impact the absence of mothering has had on your life and explore what you can do to support your healing. The study will:  1. Identify “Good Mother” messages and the effects of the lack of these messages. 2.    The toughest things about having an emotionally absent mother. 3.    Explore the many faces of the Good Mother and evaluate their impact. 4.    Identify attachment patterns and explore the building blocks that have shaped your foundation. 5.    Express your attachment pattern and foundation graphically. 6.    Determine how the issues and concerns related to the absence of your mother have impacted your life. 7.    Be able to choose to give these issues and concerns to God. 8.    Explore your mother’s story. 9.    Identify the abilities and blessings you have today because of her absence. 10.    Create an action plan of how you will continue to heal and get the support you need. We will be using the book The Emotionally Absent Mother: A Guide to Self-Healing and Getting the Love You Missed by Jasmin Lee Cori along with handouts, and experiential exercises. ********************************************************************************* The Road to Forgiveness Forgiveness is a journey. Ever wonder why you keep forgiving the same thing or person over and over? It maybe you really have not understood what you really need to forgive. What are your losses? How did the losses affect your life?  Each time we lose something, it changes who we are. Our identity is different. Each loss forges a new road to forgiveness. When you can become clearer about what you need to forgive, the road becomes straighter. Each loss plays a central part of being alive and to avoid loss is to avoid being alive. The Road to Forgiveness focuses on the following objectives: • Identifying the top 3 losses that still affect you today. • Identifying when they happened, how these losses changed your life, your feelings, and your reactions to these losses. • Feeling the pain associated with these losses. • Understanding the unfamiliar territory of the grief process. • Creating a journal related to feelings, beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes of anger. • Identifying the issues, events, and emotions that you have been holding on to in regards to your loss and making a decision about what you want to do with these. • Begin to forge a new identity as you peel back the layers of who you are. • Create a memorial to your loss. • Identify and seek out persons who may be companions on your journey. •  Discover new parts of yourself that you might miss if you were to walk alone. We will be using the book, “Lose Love Live” by Dan Moseley, along with handouts, and experiential exercises. ***************************************************************************** Connections and Conversations As we face life’s daily challenges, we might ask ourselves, “Why am I feeling this way? How should I respond? I’m overwhelmed, what should I do or who can I talk to?”  We all have relationship issues, whether at work, home or in our community. Know that you are not alone in this journey of “womanhood.” Motherless Daughters Ministry’s “Connections & Conversations” group can help you process your feelings and choices. We meet monthly, in an informal, yet supportive setting to discuss how mother loss, whether through death, neglect or absence, has affected us as women. Motherless Daughters is a non-profit organization that hopes to serve you; join us to connect, laugh, talk and know you are not alone. Join us for discussions of topics such as • Its a Matter of Time – Age of Loss • Am I becoming my mother • Boundaries in Relationships • Getting through the holidays • How not to make a New Year’s Resolution • Loving to the end • From Slave to Saint • Newness – Transitions of Womanhood • Muddling Through Mothers Day • Defining Dad ****************************************************************** The Journey Have you ever felt that losing your mother was much more than a physical death or loss of nurturing? The emotional loss is almost as overpowering. Have you wondered if there are other women who feel the same way and long to connect to each other? You are not alone! Maybe you've never even talked about your mother loss experience because it's just too painful or uncomfortable. You need to read on...this is for you, your time to be affirmed, feel loved, have some time to quiet yourself and reflect and begin healing. The Journey focuses on mother loss & its effect on your life, how her absence shapes your identity, influences your style of mothering and relationships, how your grief surfaces throughout your lifetime, and how you experience living beyond your mother’s final years. This could literally change your life. Are you ready? We will be using the book, Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition by Hope Edelman along with the Motherless Daughters Ministry Workbook by Mary Ellen Collins, PhD The Journey: Healing the Wounds of Mother Loss One Step at a Time is offered in several formats. Go to the web