Siblinghood

For readers of Drama Free and The Origins of You, popular mental health educator Minaa B., LMSW, explores one of our most influential yet least examined family bonds: adult sibling relationships.

Do you ever wonder why it can be so hard to get along with your siblings, even as adults? Maybe you’re the eldest daughter, frustrated that you’re still emotionally caring for your siblings. Maybe your parents still favor your younger sibling who is the golden child and can do no wrong. Or maybe you just aren’t that close to your siblings, and feel grief over the bond that never formed.

Siblinghood is a compassionate guide to understanding, navigating, and healing our complex relationships with our adult siblings—whether we’re close, estranged, or somewhere in between. Blending personal experience, insight, and psychological expertise, Minaa explores how sibling bonds are shaped, exploring birth order, gender roles, family systems, cultural customs, and shared trauma. With warmth and realness, Siblinghood gives readers the tools to reflect on their childhood, the patterns they inherited, and most importantly, equips readers to find peace in whatever sibling relationship they currently have.

Siblinghood will show you:

• How birth order and family roles shape our sibling dynamics (are you the “scapegoat” blamed for all the family’s problems or the eldest son expected to provide for the family?)
• Strategies for managing sibling relationships impacted by trauma and mental health conditions, like setting boundaries with your narcissistic sibling or practicing radical acceptance of the sibling struggling with an addiction
• The difference between sibling rivalry and sibling abuse (and why we aren’t talking about this enough)
• Tips for navigating low contact relationships and sibling estrangement; and 
• How to thoughtfully create chosen siblings and seek out healthy, meaningful relationships 

Whether you’re seeking reconciliation, trying to set boundaries, or simply looking to understand your siblings better, this book offers a path forward rooted in acceptance and self-compassion.

• “Siblinghood is a masterful guide to understanding, repairing, and redefining one of life's most influential relationships. Thoughtful, compassionate, and deeply insightful, this book doesn't just transform how you understand your siblings—it transforms how you understand yourself.” 
  Dr. Mariel Buqué, bestselling author and founder of Break the Cycle
• “Siblings are our first peers, witnesses, and the people who share an intimate understanding of the family we came from, yet few of us are given the language to understand how deeply these relationships shape us. In Siblinghood, Minaa brings her warmth, wisdom, and clinical insight to this under-explored familial dynamic, offering the reader a new way to understand, navigate, and make peace with the sibling relationships that have shaped their lives. Siblinghood is a much-needed book for reflection, growth, and ultimately healing, and we are so lucky to have Minaa B's voice guiding the way.”
  Vienna Pharaon, LMFT, author of the bestselling book The Origins of You
• “In Siblinghood, Minaa B. skillfully explains how sibling relationships shape our development into adulthood, how these bonds are strengthened, and how they can be broken over time. This book serves as a helpful guide for anyone seeking to understand and improve their sibling connections—whether that means becoming closer, creating more space, or accepting the relationship as it is. Siblinghood will transform how we understand the impact our sibling relationships have on us.” 
  Dr. Judith Joseph, TIME100 Creator and author of the bestselling book High Functioning
• “Not once in my training as a licensed psychotherapist did anyone so much as mention the sibling relationship. We give much weight to intimate partnerships and parent-child bonds, but the sibling connection is a crucial part of human development and one that is too often overlooked. Minaa B’s Siblinghood is here to change that. With her personal story woven in with years of clinical experience, Minaa B provides a roadmap for one of life’s most important relationships. Whether your sibling is your best friend or someone you’ve been estranged from for years, there’s hope and guidance in this book for you. Highly recommend.” 
  Britt Frank, LSCSW, SEP, author of The Science of Stuck and Align Your Mind
• “Siblinghood finally gives us language, research, and frameworks to navigate a relationship that many of us were not taught not to examine; and a relationship that is often overlooked as being impactful to our development and identity: our siblings. Minaa writes with the clarity of a clinician and the warmth of a friend, making complex concepts easy to understand and offering tools you can use immediately. This book fills a real gap in how we talk about family healing, which is often focused on the parent-child relationship alone. Siblinghood doesn't offer any resolutions; instead, it is an invitation for you to reflect on the earliest relationship in your life and how it has shaped you. This book will live in my resources toolkit for friends and clients who might be struggling with their sibling relationships, or those just trying to understand themselves and their families better.” 
  Israa Nasir, author of Toxic Productivity