Overview

What if healing isn't about fixing what's broken-but remembering what's true? For decades, Amy Scott Rooker lived split in two: the bright, high-achieving woman everyone saw and the invisible girl inside who carried unspeakable wounds. She tried to outrun the pain with perfection-law school, prestigious jobs, an ever-shrinking body. But underneath it all, she was barely holding on. Then her mother died. With her death came rupture. The fragile order Amy had built her life around began to crumble. And in the midst of that collapse, a dragonfly appeared. So began her journey to heal. Through psychedelic medicine, mystical experiences, and unflinching self-inquiry, Amy discovered the strange intelligence of pain-how every hurt can become a doorway, every loss a lantern. She learned to forgive what almost broke her and to love the woman rising from the wreckage. My Mother Is a Dragonfly is a testament to the fierce, tender work of reclaiming your life-not as a story to be fixed, but as the one you came here to live.

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9781967510368

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Reviews

""This book offers a clear reminder that we do not heal by leaving parts of ourselves behind-we heal by bringing them forward with care, allowing for a greater truth and understanding. Rooker's writing becomes an act of love-toward the past and the future alike."" -Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author of Lovingkindness and Real Life ""In My Mother Is a Dragonfly, Amy Scott Rooker writes about the cost of silence, the weight of perfection, and the courage it takes to come home to oneself. Her prose is visceral and intimate-at times a gut punch-as she guides readers through fracture toward integration, truth, and self-remembrance. With a remarkable gift for words, Rooker turns devastation into something elemental and alive, transmuting pain into power. This book is about remembering who we were before we learned to disappear, and how love-real love-begins with truth. A transformative and deeply human work that reminds us our wounds are not detours from wholeness but portals back to it."" -Caitlin Riley, director, Psychedelic Society of Texas ""My Mother Is a Dragonfly is a courageous and deeply moving memoir that bears witness to the lifelong impact of trauma and the strength it takes to keep going. Amy Scott Rooker writes with rare honesty and heart, inviting readers to walk with her from childhood pain toward self-trust, peace, and wholeness. Her story lifts the voices of survivors and reminds us that hope is not naive-it is an act of bravery. This is the kind of truth-telling our culture needs to protect children, reduce shame, and ensure these stories are no longer carried in silence."" -Shonnery Pettit, former president of the board of directors, Center for Child Protection ""Amy Scott Rooker's exquisitely crafted memoir, My Mother Is a Dragonfly, is both riveting and revelatory. It is a book that had to be written-bold, beautiful, and brilliant. Amy is a profoundly gifted writer with a story of such fierce devotion to the Love that we are that it becomes a catalyst for awakening in others. You will not be able to put this book down until you've traveled to its end with her. There, in the silence after the words, you will rest in your own knowing of what is real and true."" -Suzanne Eder, award-winning author, teacher, healer, and guide ""My Mother Is a Dragonfly is a courageous and deeply honest memoir about what it means to heal at the root. With rare vulnerability, Amy Scott Rooker invites us into her inner world and shows how childhood trauma doesn't simply hurt-it lives in the body, shaping relationships, behaviors, and self-perception long after the original wounds are forgotten. ""Through therapy, self-inquiry, and a profound awakening, Rooker comes to understand her suffering not as evidence of something broken within her, but as intelligent, human responses to overwhelming and toxic early environments. This shift-from shame to compassion, from self-blame to forgiveness-marks a true turning point in healing, self-love, and acceptance. ""What unfolds is a powerful story of integration-mind and body reunited, truth spoken-and a woman coming to recognize her gifts and beauty. This book is a testament to the possibility of deep healing, forgiveness, and freedom-and a reminder that when we are met with compassion rather than judgment, we can finally come home to ourselves with peace in both mind and heart."" -Tamara Hostetler, licensed marriage and family therapist

Author Information

Amy Scott Rooker is an author and former attorney. Her work explores trauma and awakening through lived experience with identity collapse, psychedelic medicine, and forgiveness. She writes for those who sense the life they've built is not the life they are meant to live-and feel the quiet pull toward something truer. She lives in Austin, Texas.

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