The Mother-Daughter Project: How Mothers and Daughters Can Band Together, Beat the Odds,and Thrive Through Ad olescence

by SuEllen Hamkins, Renee Schultz

Overview

Few things are more meaningful—or more complicated—than mother-daughter relationships. This helpful parenting guide helps moms navigate their relationships with their daughters to create strong ties and a close, respectful connection that will last a lifetime. 

SuEllen Hamkins, MD, and Renée Schultz, MA, originally created the Mother-Daughter Project with other women in their community in the hopes of strengthening their bonds with their then seven-year-old girls. The group met regularly to speak frankly about such issues as friendships and aggression, puberty, body image, drugs, and sexuality.

The results were amazing: confident, assertive teenage girls with strong self-images and close ties to their moms. Equally important, the mothers navigated their own concerns about adolescence with integrity and grace.

From their dedication and efforts arose The Mother-Daughter Project, an incredibly useful parenting handbook that details the success of the Project’s groundbreaking model, providing mothers with a road map for staying close with their own daughters through adolescence and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440623196
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	449 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

SuEllen Hamkins, MD, is a psychiatrist and an author. She served as the psychiatrist for Smith College for 12 years before becoming assistant director of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a clinical adjunct assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She is the coauthor, with Renee Shultz, of The Mother-Daughter Project.

Renee Schultz is the coauthor, with SuEllen Hamkins, of The Mother-Daughter Project. She has worked in the field of mental health for more than 30 years and is currently in private practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist. She lives in western Massachusetts.

What People are Saying About This

Christiane Northrup

The Mother-Daughter Project is a treasure . . . a beautiful road map for strengthening the crucial bond between mothers and daughters.

Sara Shandler

Kudos to Hamkins and Schultz for breaking through the isolation of adolescence and offering inspiration for mothers and daughters alike. (Sara Shandler, author of the New York Times bestseller Ophelia Speaks)

Sharon Lamb

Every mother of a girl should read this book, try out some of the exercises with her daughter, and start their own mother-daughter group. (Sharon Lamb, EdD, coauthor of Packaging Girlhood)

Editorial Reviews

"Just wait 'til she grows up and hates you"—Hamkins and Schultz, psychotherapists and mothers, dreaded the day when they might hear those words from their own daughters. In an effort to avoid that scene, keep their relationships close and loving, and create ongoing communication between mothers and daughters, they started a group of mothers and daughters in 1997. They conversed, supported one another, played a bit, and talked out problems. Eventually, this led to the creation of the Mother-Daughter Project in 2002—a model for sustaining loving mother/daughter relationships throughout the stormy years of adolescence and into adulthood. This book describes how the project got started, what it attempted to do, how it succeeded (and where it could be improved), and what to expect from daughters each year from ages seven to 12. The authors' approach is realistic, taking "supermom" off her pedestal, addressing big questions (sex, drugs) early, and offering moms support. The initial assumption is that mothers and daughters can have close, loving relationships at any age, a premise well supported by the project. An excellent approach for all public libraries.
—Linda Beck

Library Journal