Cayman resident and wellness practitioner Mirabelle D’Cunha is among the voices featured in “The M Factor: Memoirs by Mothers”, a new anthology published by Penguin and edited by award-winning Indian entrepreneur and psychotherapist, Anubha Doshi.
The collection offers a deeply personal and unfiltered look at motherhood, told through the eyes of women who have lived its complexities.
D’Cunha, who has lived in the Cayman Islands with husband Rudy and daughter Sivaanaa since 2015, contributed an essay to the anthology, titled, “The Child Who Played Mamma”. In it, she shares the raw and honest account of her own journey through motherhood, unpacking the illusions she held about being a “perfect mother” and confronting the patterns she unknowingly passed down to her daughter.
“One of the greatest fears a mother can have is that she will fail at mothering,” D’Cunha says. In her story, it was a single moment – a simple, piercing observation from her daughter – that shattered the image she had held of herself. It forced her to reckon with the reality that despite years of personal healing, she had repeated many of the traumatic patterns she thought she had overcome. The process of writing the essay was as transformative as the story itself.
“It was a three-year process, with many drafts and a lot of back and forth,” she says. “By the time we got to each edit, I had changed more and my perspective had deepened.”
Editor Anubha Doshi first approached D’Cunha after attending one of her workshops, which prompted her to begin “quietly” following her work. Doshi, who is based in Pune, India, is the founder of two wellness centres, Artsphere and Soulsphere, and is a leading voice in expressive arts therapy.
D’Cunha’s essay stands out for its vulnerability and philosophical depth. It poses challenging questions: What drives mothers to fulfill every unexpressed dream on behalf of their children? Where does burnout originate? And what are the costs of trying to be the ever-smiling, ever-sacrificing “supermom”?
With lyrical honesty, she explores how motherhood can become an unexpected spiritual practice – one that urges women to strip away layers of conditioning and live in presence.
In Cayman, D’Cunha has found a home, not just for her family, but for her work as a facilitator and wellness coach. She offers programs on neuroscience, resilience, breathwork, and lifestyle design, drawing from years of study with yogic monks, ayurvedic doctors, scientists, and trauma experts.
A resident for the past decade, she treasures the island’s warmth and generosity, and deeply values the safe, uncomplicated childhood Cayman offers her daughter. “My daughter has no fear, no suspicion of humans. That’s the way kids should live – knowing they can trust. When kids grow up knowing trust, they can feel when something or someone is unsafe. That’s powerful.”
Sivaanaa, now 13 and a student at St. Ignatius Catholic School, is growing into her own. She hosts a podcast called Learners to Leaders, where she interviews successful people about their careers, habits, and mindset. She also enjoys gymnastics, baking, music, and has a budding interest in luxury real estate.
D’Cunha says she wanted to tell her story with honesty and reverence, mindful that her daughter would one day read the anthology.
“It is deeply personal,” she says. “I’m a private person. While I share personal experiences with my clients, I don’t do it publicly. Speaking about my inner journey, my ‘failures,’ was new to me and very humbling. I kept thinking, one day my daughter will grow up and read this. My mum will read this.”
D’Cunha has authored four books and contributed to others, including “Break The Career Code: The Future of Work” by Vibha Kagzi. She describes the opportunity to contribute to this anthology for Penguin – a globally respected publishing house – as “a beautiful acknowledgment”.