Like a Wave We Break: A Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself

The courageous account of a globe-spanning quest to cultivate self-love, reject external validation, and reckon with the long-suppressed effects of a traumatic upbringing as the overachieving daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, by the former CEO and co-founder of Embrace Global.

On the surface, Jane Chen seemed to have it all together. She is a Harvard and Stanford graduate, TED fellow, and the CEO and co-founder of Embrace Global, which developed a low-cost incubator that has saved over seven hundred thousand newborns in impoverished communities worldwide. But despite her achievements and accolades, she couldn’t escape the intense feelings of self-doubt. The devastating collapse of Embrace triggered memories of childhood trauma suffered at the hands of her father. As a child of Taiwanese immigrants, she had internalized both the necessity of assimilation and the impossible standards of perfection held by her parents.   

She was suddenly forced to face the insecurity and pain she’d managed to hide underneath her overachieving persona, but didn't know where to start. As Jane spiraled deeper into crisis, she realized she had no choice but to try to fix herself and embarked on a globe-spanning quest to find healing. From ancient wisdom to pop psychology, from psychedelics to frog poison, from the cultish to the comical, Jane tried every modality on the market—only to realize that true healing was within her power the entire time.  

Like a Wave We Break is a deeply personal story that will inspire readers to confront their deepest wounds with compassion and embrace their truest selves.