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About Bethany Webster
How my journey with the Mother Wound began
Like many people I was a perceptive, sensitive child who grew up in a dysfunctional family. I coped by trying to be helpful, pleasing, compliant and as invisible as possible. I was curious about psychology, human nature and spirituality from a very young age.
During my college years, even though I felt I’d had a normal childhood, I began to experience intense symptoms including panic attacks and depression, which spurred me to enter Holistic Depth Therapy at age 19.
This began a decades-long journey of healing from complex developmental trauma. I’ve been blessed to have the rare opportunity to work with one depth psychotherapist for 25 years. This therapeutic relationship continues to support my healing at ever-deeper levels, which translates into the fruits that I offer others in my work.
I started a blog in 2013 passionate to share with others what I was discovering on my own healing journey and to provide them with validation, support and tools. I now offer many different online courses, a private coaching program, workshops as well as a library of blog articles and my first book called “Discovering the Inner Mother.”
As a coach, speaker, and writer, I guide women to uncover the wounded children within and teach them how to embody a loving “inner mother” to those parts of us that had to go into hiding and develop traumatic adaptations in order to survive childhood abuse. Through a practice I teach called “inner mothering,” an inner climate of trust, unconditional love and emotional safety is gently cultivated over time, gradually making it easier to unapologetically step into one’s life purpose, authentic truth and deeper integrity. As the healing and clearing deepens, the transpersonal realm can open up more fully, making self-realization more accessible.
“I am blooming from the wound where I once bled.” ~Rumi
Healing the Mother Wound is not mother-blaming or making our mothers wrong or less-than. It’s about taking personal responsibility for our share of human pain that has been passed down to us as women and breaking the cycle so as not to unconsciously pass it on to others. This work is incredibly difficult, long-term, life-changing and transformative.
Healing the Mother Wound is important inner work for this time in history as it heals intergenerational trauma while breaking our hearts open to an unprecedented level of compassion for ourselves and for the human family as a whole. It is part of giving birth to oneself, our maturation as a species and playing our part in these evolutionary times. As we heal, we become more capable of consciously living in love and peace and in right-relationship to ourselves, one another and our beautiful home, planet Earth.
Here’s some of what I’ve learned along the way:
- Whether you accept it or not, your relationship with your mother has been one of the most significant forces shaping your life.
- The Mother Wound is something that is passed down from mothers to daughters, to some degree, and is partly a result of the toxic cultural atmosphere that devalues women as a whole.
- Each of us has our mother’s voice in our heads, the tone of which may range from supportive to harmful, wielding a subtle yet powerful influence over our choices and behaviors.
- Healing the Mother Wound requires transforming the inner mother from a duplicate of our outer mother, who has shortcomings to some degree, to an inner mother who can abundantly meet our needs and provide the inner safety we need to grow into our full potential.
- As we feel increasingly safer and supported from within, we become more capable of moving beyond our inherited “maternal horizon” and into greater levels of fulfillment, joy, belonging, innovation and individuation.
- There is no final “done” moment of healing. Nor is healing separate from daily life. Rather, healing and transformation become a way of life. Everyday triggers are opportunities to heal your past and make new choices, opening up new possibilities for your future.
- Taking the time to heal your Mother Wound is the most important personal development work you’ll ever do. It heals not only yourself but clears the way for future generations and transforms society as a whole.
the evolution of Bethany Webster's Work
I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology. I’ve completed training in Life Coaching from Joanna Lindenbaum and Holistic MBA. As a graduate student I focused on social psychology research on the intersection of race, class and gender. Post-grad school, I worked in academia in the area of research ethics and also as a writer/editor at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
I started a blog in 2013 that was focused on defining the “Mother Wound” and explaining its key role in women’s empowerment.
Although work by writers such as Adrienne Rich and Buddhist teacher, Phillip Moffitt had mentioned the phrase Mother Wound, no one had yet fleshed out exactly what the Mother Wound was and why it remains a universal experience of women the world over. My work aims to address a crucial gap in our understanding of women’s psychology and empowerment by comprehensively defining the Mother Wound, how it manifests in women’s lives and the path to healing and transformation.
I teach a 7-step method for how to navigate the process of healing the Mother Wound through cultivating a relationship with an Inner Mother, an unconditionally loving presence within. I teach this process in three different formats: an online course, workshops, and a mentorship program for female leaders & entrepreneurs. Through blending cutting-edge research on intergenerational trauma, feminist theory, and psychology with my own personal story, my work is the result of decades of research and my personal journey of healing.
My deepest gratitude and appreciation to my therapist and to all my teachers, mentors, and friends on the path. My influences have come from many places including the work of Audre Lorde, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, John Bowlby, Donald Winnicott, Marion Woodman, James Hollis, Gabor Maté, Adrienne Rich, Gina Lake, Rachel Cargle, Rachel Ricketts, bell hooks, Jeannie Zandi, John Bradshaw, Peter Levine, Adyashanti and many, many more.
Thank you for visiting my website. Please feel free to explore all the articles, interviews, courses and programs offered. I hope you find the information here to be helpful and supportive on your path.
Important Note: All written content on this website is copyrighted intellectual property, including but not limited to e-books, blog articles and online courses. Bethany Webster does not authorize others to teach or distribute her work. Any written material including from e-books, blogs, online courses are intended for personal use only. No written material from this website may be reproduced without explicit permission from Bethany Webster in writing.
”The Mother Wound isn’t something we need to avoid or feel shame about, it’s a doorway to our full power and potential.”
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