Raising Ona
A Mother and Daughter Learning to Flourish Through the Neuroscience of Connection and Repair
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Pub Date 12 Jan 2027 | Archive Date 15 Jan 2027
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Description
This is not a book about resilience.
It is about what happens before you call yourself resilient.
When you are still sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, bargaining with air.
When the word future feels like a language you no longer speak.
My daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and nothing dramatic happened. No violins. No clarity. Just a slow, interior collapse that no one could see—including me.
I did what educated people do. I researched. I optimized. I chased therapies. I learned the vocabulary of damage. I tried to outsmart fate with information. And then, years later, while studying neuroscience, something unsettling surfaced:
The real injury was not only in my daughter’s brain.
It was in the way my own brain had learned to interpret her existence.
The words. The diagnoses. The glances. The quiet pity.
They had been quietly training my nervous system to live in permanent emergency.
This book is the story of realizing that caregiving is not a burden to survive, but a form of intelligence that emerges under impossible conditions—a rewiring of perception, love, vigilance, and adaptation that the world has no category for yet.
It is about the moment you understand that surrender is not collapse.
It is a neurological event.
A shift that returns you to yourself. A HOMECOMING.
If you are a caregiver, this book will feel uncomfortably familiar.
If you are not, it will change how you see those who are.
Advance Praise
"A work of relentless positivity, the memoir and caregiver’s guide Raising Ona draws upon brain science and a mother’s experiences to suggest effectual ways of caring for special-needs children."
—Foreword Clarion Reviews
"Readers interested in disability, caregiving, and the social world children inherit will find a candid memoir that insists acceptance must be built into the structures around a family, not simply felt in the heart."
—Manhattan Book Review
“This is a revolutionary book about embracing life’s inevitable changes and challenges. Emilia Ferreira shares profound insights into nurturing a person with special needs, encouraging us all to trust our practical instincts and adaptability, showing us how to flourish amid uncertainty with open minds. She is a gifted storyteller with a brilliant mind and heart to go with it.”
—Liz Krakow, author of Happy Mother’s Daze
“At its heart, Raising Ona is about far more than motherhood. It’s about discovering who we become when life doesn’t unfold as we imagined. Emilia Ferreira beautifully explores resilience, healing, and the lifelong search for belonging, reminding us that our greatest challenges can become powerful invitations to grow. A moving and deeply hopeful book.”
—Dr. Nicole LePera, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers How to Do the Work, How to Be the Love You Seek, and Reparenting the Inner Child
“If motherhood has ever made you think, ‘HELP! I CANNOT DO THIS!’ read this book. Emilia Ferreira has insights backed by neuroscience, zero judgment, and the kind of honesty that makes you laugh, cry, and realize maybe you’re not failing at motherhood; you’re being transformed by it.”
—Deva Dalporto, viral video creator @MyLifeSuckers
“In Raising Ona, Emilia Ferreira’s exploration of what she calls ‘biohacking motherhood’ invites us to question fixed stories about diagnosis, identity, and what’s possible for our minds, bodies, and families. This is a powerful book for caregivers because it faces reality head-on while reminding us that the brain, like the human spirit, is capable of extraordinary transformation.”
—Heather Lord, philanthropist, senior advisor for the Centre for Social Impact, and founder of MemoryWriting.com
“Raising Ona is a compelling call to rethink how we support parents and kids. We often think resilience comes from enduring more. Emilia shows us that resilience grows from relating differently—to our bodies, our children, and the stories we’ve inherited about what it means to be a family.”
—Meredith Haberfeld, CEO and founder of ThinkHuman
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9798891388420 |
| PRICE | $18.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 224 |