Search for Mother Journaling

By Valerie Albercht

In her first book, Search for Mother, author Valerie Albrecht related her natural therapy birthing work in Australia, India and North America. Through this she unearthed profound questions about the idea of motherher forms, her essences, her joy and her dualities. Valeries work, writing and relationship with her own mother brought a longing to connect with the who and why of mother: the one we have, the one we yearn for, the one we become and the one we strive to be.

Responding to the need to fathom mother and to puzzle out the persistent emergence of complexity and dichotomies in motherhood, Albrecht presents this companion volume. It offers a structure and writing process for the exploration of mother through organizing our experiences with our Mothers of Origin, the forms in which we encounter her in our lives, and with our Mothers of Power, the intrinsic natures and essences of her, which we may or may not have encountered. By reflecting on and journaling these mother connections it is Valeries heartfelt hope that we:

deepen our knowledge of motherhood embrace our mother experiences, both positive and negative enhance and inspire our innate resources to mother ourselves and others

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Jan 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781452501673

Valerie Albercht

Valerie Albrecht holds a Bachelor of Speech and Hearing Pathology with a double major in psychology. She created a programme called Honoured Birth which is accredited with the Australian College of Midwifery and which she teaches in maternity hospitals around Australia. Search for Mother Journaling will be her third book.

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Copyright © 2011, 2015 Valerie Albrecht .

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-0166-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-0167-3 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/16/2015

Contents

The Way Forward Emerges

Search for Mother Journaling

Mothers of Origin

Biological Mother

Significant Mothers

Community and Organization Mothers

Cultural Mother Country

Mythological Biblical Spiritual Mothers

Mother Earth

The Inside Mother

Mothers of Power

Unconditional Love

Acceptance

Strength

Forgiveness

Loyalty

Connection

Creation

Nurture

Protection

Wisdom Teaching

The Way Forward Emerges

Search for Mother Journaling

When I look back on my time as a new mother I remember an overabundance of feelings and thoughts, the beauty and innocence on my babies’ faces and being exhausted from breast feeding nights. I recall falling in unconditional love with my babies along with falling into despair over mothering expectations, mine and others’. Some days, I did not understand my ways of mothering, or my reactions to my children and my mother. Other days, I understood with both grateful and alarming revelation. Time and again my positive, joyful experiences of mothering and being mothered were overwhelmed by conflicting, confusing emotions and a longing to make sense of mother.

My first book Search for Mother addressed this longing by relating my natural therapy birthing work in Australia, India and North America. It also unearthed profound questions about mother, her forms, her essences and her dualities. Additionally it was an impetus for both men and women readers to share with me fulfilling and heartbreaking searches, connections and disconnections. Search for Mother also had the wonderful, unexpected outcome of birthing practitioners and organizations incorporating its’ tools into their practices. From this, Search for Mother developed its’ own momentum and became Honored Birth, a Natural Therapies in Birthing Program, credited with the Australian College of Midwifery.

But what to do, where to go, with the unearthed mother questions, sentiments, beliefs and expectations? How to puzzle out the persistent emergence of her complexities and the apparent dichotomies of her - all of which birthing people, non-birthing people and practitioners continued to voice? It was clear that fathoming mother faced many. The way forward care-fully wrote itself into this companion Search for Mother Journaling.

Search for Mother Journaling offers a structure and a process for fathoming mother. The structure is through organizing her into Mothers of Origin, the forms in which we encounter her in our lives; and