THE MIRROR DAUGHTER

Living Through, and Beyond, an invisible Mother

A grounded guide to making sense of your story—when your mother couldn’t make sense of her own.

What happens when the person who shaped your world couldn’t hold their own shape?

This book is a compassionate, clear-eyed exploration of what it means to grow up as the daughter of a mother with Borderline tendencies—without turning the story into a clinical case file or a dramatic confessional. Blending personal insight, trauma research, systemic theory, and case studies, it speaks directly to the adult daughters who still carry invisible wounds from a volatile, confusing, or enmeshed maternal bond.

Told from the perspective of a woman who lived it, researched it, and eventually broke the cycle, the book offers guidance not from a therapist’s couch, but from inside the experience. It is at once a survival map and a mirror, helping readers name what they’ve lived through, understand the emotional legacy, and reclaim a grounded sense of self.

Topics include:

• The emotional cost of being the first-born daughter

• Understanding the “Golden Child” / “Scapegoat” dynamic

• Systemic family constellations and inherited trauma

• Creating boundaries without hostility or guilt

• Why asking for responsibility—not forgiveness—can be healing

• Breaking the silence across generations

• Leading yourself when no adult ever led you
  

Each chapter includes reflection prompts, cultural references, and spotlights from memoirs, films, and songs that echo this deep, often hidden experience.

This is not a book about blaming. It’s a book about seeing clearly, stepping back, and choosing differently—for yourself, and for whatever comes next.

by Minerva Gulay

CA$40