Mother Hunger

How Adult Daughters Can Understand and Heal from Lost Nurturance, Protection, and Guidance

By: Kelly McDaniel

Narrated by: Kelly McDaniel

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

An insatiable need for sex and love. Periods of overeating or starving. A pattern of unstable and painful relationships.

Does this sound painfully familiar?

Trauma counselor Kelly McDaniel has seen these traits over and over in clients who feel trapped in cycles of harmful behaviors - and are unable to stop.

Many of us find ourselves stuck in unhealthy habits simply because we don't see a better way. With Mother Hunger, McDaniel helps women break the cycle of destructive behavior by taking a fresh look at childhood trauma and its lasting impact. In doing so, she destigmatizes the shame that comes with being under-mothered and misdiagnosed. McDaniel offers a healing path with powerful tools that include therapeutic interventions and lifestyle changes in service to healthy relationships.

The constant search for mother love can be a lifelong emotional burden, but healing begins with knowing and naming what we are missing. McDaniel is the first clinician to identify Mother Hunger, which demystifies the search for love and provides the compass that each woman needs to end the struggle with achy, lonely emptiness, and come home to herself.

This audio product contains a PDF with supporting material, and the PDF is available to download.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2021 Hay House (P)2021 Hay House

Finally found someone who put into words what I’ve felt for many years!

Mother-Daughter relationships are very complicated and this book dives deep into the EMOTIONAL HUNGER daughters face when some mothers “did the best with what the knew” (oftentimes, not much!)

If you ever have a longing to understand that void you have in your mother-daughter relationship then this book is for you!

Beyond excellent!

I have no idea how I found this book,but it was one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read. I knew I had a mother hunger, but I didn’t have a clear grasp on the scope of the damage that happens to a child when there’s anxious and insecure attachment. Furthermore, I didn’t have a blueprint or a path forward terms of how to heal from that lingering simmering pain that was forever seeking self soothing. I was aware that I had an ocean of grief inside me, I even talked about it, and I consciously knew a piece of it was the lack of nurturing and connection to my mother, Ibut I didn’t realize that a lack of a mother’s love,, nurturing, guidance and protection is the primary trauma. At least it was for me. This book was beautifully written, and exquisitely read in the author’s ind and gentle voice. It has made me very hopeful that I can and I will heal my mother hunger. And that on the other side i’ll be the love, security, joy and even peace of mind I’ve been seeking my whole life and all the wrong places. And that I will arrive by learning how to give myself what was inconsistently and insufficiently given to me by my mother who I can clearly see has a mother hunger of her own. I feel compassion and kindness towards her, and I hope that in her lifetime she’s able to do the healing the Kelly holds out for all mothers, and all daughters. Thank you Kelly for this exceptional book. I recall you stating in the conclusion that it was a difficult book to write. I understand why. But you nailed it. What a gift to all of us. May you be abundantly blessed with the love and gratitude of women the world over.

Bac quality audio

I have enjoyed the book very much however the audio is a really bad quality.

Great content poor audio

Book is great and content is on point; however, listening to the book was frustrating as there were frequent audio issues, where you could hear the reader breathing, stuttering, pausing, and adjusting and/ or hitting the mic.

Beautiful Content!

The content itself is beautiful. Very informative and helpful. The audio mix has room for improvement. Audio would benefit from additional editing in post for clean mix, as there were several occurrences of popping and had some difficulties at higher read speeds.

I’m so glad I found this book! Must read!!!

This book has so eloquently and beautifully put into words what I’ve experienced for my entire life: mother hunger. Now that I have the root of all the pain, I can finally begin to heal…thanks to this amazing book.

I Found What I Have Been Craving All My Life.

From the first paragraph... I was won over, totally memorized, crying, because someone finally got ME and wrote it down, I was reading about where all my pain and sadness had began. What I'd been missing and still crave to this day... In all I do and all the relationships I've forged, all I've been subconsciously doing was urning to fill this void within me, to feed my mothers hunger... I've felt so detached from my mom... And couldn't understand what others had with their mother's. Why not me? Why can't I have that unconditional love, Mother's love... What was wrong with me? So many why's! This opened up my eyes and I have realized a lot of my issues through out my 46 years has been bc of the absence of just that. My mother's inability to "take" to me. No bond ever formed. And I don't blame her (to much) bc i have learned that her situation wąsnt the most pleasent. I only wish she had learned to take that baby (me) out of the negative life changing situation and love the baby... Just a little!? The burning and urning is still there. But I know I am differnt from her bc of how I am with my babies... Singing, holding, hugging, holding them close, telling them everyday love you's. Is the Mama I am... I love them unconditionally always will. Can't fatium any other feeling with my 2. Thank you for writing.... About me... Lol j/k

Painful but Necessary

I have suggested this book to everyone I love knowing if I suffer the ones I love the most also suffer. It is full of profoundly beautiful insights that help process experience I didn’t know I needed to process or how to process. You can hear the gentleness in both the writing and reading of this book.

Outstanding…..

As a male therapist, I mainly read this to be able to bring some light and reflection to the female clients I see struggling, precisely, with this issue. They have never had a name for it before and now they do. I’m recommending this book on an almost daily basis in my practice. But I also found it personally valuable to me even though I was not a “daughter“, I bore the wound the author so passionately describes. I would highly recommend it to anyone who feels alone, without nurture, without guidance, without protection and cannot figure out why.

Wow… Insightful

I really appreciated the frameworks presented alongside tools that can be leveraged. I feel empowered after listening to this.