Lynn Horan, PhD Leadership & Life Development

“I thought the mother-daughter wound was something I should have gotten over when I was a teenager.”

This is something I often hear among my coaching clients, as I explore intergenerational female relationships in family and workplace culture.

The prevalence of the MOTHER-DAUGHTER WOUND often comes as both a surprise and a source of shame for mid-career women leaders. Through my research and coaching work, I have found mid-career women are facing ENORMOUS BACKLASH in both their personal and professional lives because of this often silenced dynamic.

The Mother-Daughter Wound is a systemic reality based on patriarchal narratives of the self-sacrificial woman, in which women who have been denied agency and voice in their own lives resent those women who exhibit greater levels of self-actualization in their personal and professional lives.

How the Mother-Daughter Wound impacts mid-career women:

🟢 We are at the height of our own process of self-individuation in our personal and professional lives, causing women who are less self-actualized to judge, resent, and reject our own growth and self-development

🟢 We are the target of generational clashes over gendered understandings of servant-leadership in both family and workplace systems

🟢 We are exposing how gender expectations of people-pleasing and over-functioning are damaging and unsustainable, which confronts patriarchal narratives in both personal and professional relationships

🟢 We engage in healthy boundaries and self-differentiation, which can feel threatening to those who have benefited from narratives of female self-sacrifice

Naming and understanding these complex relational dynamics is the first step in healing generational trauma in family and workplace culture.

Learn more:
www.lynnhoran.com/coaching

PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW!

I am extremely grateful to be a contributing author in the final book in the International Leadership Association’s Transformative Women Leaders Book Series.

My research and coaching work focus on RECONSTITUTING SELF beyond toxic workplace culture and the deeply EMBODIED work of resilience.

Dominant narratives of resilience often focus on individual perseverance, building grit, and harmful messages of the “bounce-backable woman.” While these approaches may offer short-term stability during moments of crisis, this chapter shares alternative and SUSTAINABLE paths of resilience that --

🌿 Prioritize one’s own lived experiences
🌿 Re-claim leadership strengths and embodied intuition
🌿 Metabolize feelings of anger, guilt, and shame
🌿 Enhance personal agency and meaning-making

Thank you to the courageous women leaders who participated in this research and whose voices have been a catalyst for social change.

Learn more & PRE-ORDER!
https://www.lynnhoran.com/transformative-women-leaders-book-series.html

As a 43-year-old professional and mother of four children, I am at the height of my leadership and caregiving responsibilities, while at the same time navigating the often-silenced experience of perimenopause.

In solidarity of our shared experiences, my best friend just snail mailed me the article “The Summer I Turned Perimenopausal” and it validated much of what I’m seeing in my own life and in the lives of women I support:

🍃 Lower estrogen levels effect our body’s emotional resilience, nervous system regulation, temperature balance, and sleep patterns
🍃 Hormonal shifts create cognitive changes and rewiring of the brain that effects daily tasks and rhythms
🍃 Metabolism changes effect bone and joint health, inflammation, energy levels, and nutritional needs

Naming and understanding the REAL-LIFE IMPACT of these physical, emotional, and cognitive changes can promote:

💚 Agency and self-awareness for individual women
💚 Human-centered workplace environments
💚 Compassion and support within family systems
💚 Cultural shifts and greater equity within healthcare

Full article:
https://www.realsimple.com/the-summer-i-turned-perimenopausal-12017212

Learn more:
www.lynnhoran.com

Within today’s fractured world, countless caregivers and families are rebuilding a sense of CONNECTEDNESS through the ritual of summer vacation.

Whether spontaneous day trips or long-anticipated travel, the critical VALUE of VACATION LEADERSHIP, often shouldered by mothers and caregivers with limited budgets, is what makes these meaningful experiences possible.

This highly evolved form of leadership involves deep emotional intelligence and humanizing executive management skills that are often INVISIBILIZED and UNDERVALUED.

Whether you are preparing for a trip, in the midst of travel, or recovering from the intensity of family vacation, know that you are SEEN and VALUED.

Learn more:
www.lynnhoran.com

Coaching empathetic women leaders along their journeys of SELF-ACTUALIZATION doesn’t always involve seismic breakthroughs that suddenly usher in a new way of being and relating to the world.

Yes, big moments happen, and they should be celebrated, but the INCREMENTAL SHIFTS that germinate below the surface are what create the most deep and meaningful impact.

🌻 Gradual reorientation
🌻 Subtle reframing
🌻 Concrete language
🌻 Embodied awareness
🌻 Re-claiming narratives
🌻 Identifying strengths

Learn more:
https://www.lynnhoran.com/coaching.html

My research and coaching work center the deep work of EMBODIED RESILIENCE, which listens to the body, restores nervous system balance, and emphasizes agency and self-awareness.

Self-differentiated women who engage in embodied resilience can face pushback from organizational and family systems that benefit from TOXIC RESILIENCE, which reinforces harmful narratives of the self-sacrificial woman, prioritizes grit and perseverance, weaponizes survival mode, and leads to dissociation from self and chronic burnout.

Learn more in my UPCOMING chapter:
“Reconstituting Self Beyond Toxic Workplace Culture”
in the Transformative Women Leaders Book Series
https://www.lynnhoran.com/transformative-women-leaders-book-series.html

✨ 2 MORE WEEKS TO JOIN ✨ an exciting new qualitative study on SACRED FEMININE SPIRITUAL PRACTICES as a Pathway of Embodied Resilience for Women Leaders Navigating Workplace Trauma and Professional Change:

PARTICIPANT CRITERIA:

*️⃣ Mid-career women professionals across ALL fields who have experienced some form of significant professional change or work-related trauma during which they found support, healing, and/or recovery in and through sacred feminine spiritual practices (as defined by the research participant).

*️⃣ Be able to articulate the ways in which specific sacred feminine spiritual practices promoted elements of resilience and recovery (as defined by the research participant).

*️⃣ Be at least 6 months removed from any workplace trauma or toxic workplace environment and have a trusted mental health professional you can contact should your participation bring emotional distress.

*️⃣ Feel comfortable sharing your experiences in a small-group Zoom format of 5-8 participants and a follow-up Zoom discussion including all participants (10-16 total). Option for participants to have an individual Zoom interview if preferred.

LEARN MORE:

Please DM or email me at [email protected] or Dr. Elaine Gale at [email protected] if you are interested in participating in this study, after which you will be sent an informed consent form and participant questionnaire to review.

It is such an honor to be a contributing author in the upcoming release of "INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN LEADERS: The Challenges and Rewards of Religion, Spirituality, Purpose, and Calling in Leadership" - final book in the International Leadership Association’s Transformative Women Leaders Book Series.

My research explores the lived experiences of empathetic women leaders and the process of embodied healing and reconstituting of self beyond toxic workplace culture.

Learn more:
https://www.lynnhoran.com/transformative-women-leaders-book-series.html

Several of my coaching clients are launching new and CREATIVE ENDEAVORS that will usher in an important next chapter in their careers.

However -- in our work together, past professional trauma is resurfacing in the form of increased SELF-CRITICISM and INTERNALIZED GASLIGHTING, preventing impactful women leaders from fully engaging these bold, new thresholds of AGENCY and VISION.

Empathetic women leaders can experience the long-term effects of toxic or abusive workplace contexts through chronic:

➡️ SELF-PROTECTION
➡️ PERFECTIONISM
➡️ PROCRASTINATION
➡️ PARALYSIS

Recognizing that each of these areas of doubt and uncertainty are rooted in our body’s TRAUMA RESPONSE system, allows us to name and identify where we may need further healing, particularly when embarking on new professional ventures.

Recovering from toxic workplace dynamics is an ongoing, non-linear, and EMBODIED PROCESS that calls for deep SELF-COMPASSION and systems awareness.

Learn more:
www.lynnhoran.com/coaching

CALL FOR RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS!

I’m excited to embark on a new research project with my colleague Dr. Elaine Gale (California State University & Antioch University), with formal Ethics Review Board approval by Antioch University:

SACRED FEMININE SPIRITUAL PRACTICES: A Pathway of Embodied Resilience for Women Leaders Navigating Workplace Trauma and Professional Change
_ _ _

Through an expansive feminist-critical approach to integrating sacred feminine spirituality and trauma-informed leadership, this Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) study explores meaningful pathways of empowerment and self-actualization for women leaders seeking to 1) embrace the divine feminine; 2) uphold the need for healing, rest, and resilience; and 3) create sustainable pathways for personal and professional growth.

PARTICIPANT CRITERIA:

*️⃣ Mid-career women professionals across all fields who have experienced some form of significant professional change or work-related trauma during which they found support, healing, and/or recovery in and through sacred feminine spiritual practices (as defined by the research participant).

*️⃣ Be able to articulate the ways in which specific sacred feminine spiritual practices promoted elements of resilience and recovery (as defined by the research participant).

*️⃣ Be at least 6 months removed from any workplace trauma or toxic workplace environment and have the contact information of a trusted mental health professional with whom you can contact should your participation bring emotional distress.

*️⃣ Feel comfortable sharing your experiences in a small-group Zoom format of 5-8 participants and a follow-up Zoom discussion including all participants (10-16 total). Option for participants to have an individual Zoom interview if preferred.

LEARN MORE:

Please DM or email Lynn Horan, PhD at [email protected] if you are interested in participating in this study, after which you will be sent an informed consent form and participant questionnaire to review.