The Mother Tree

Dr. Aurelie Athan, a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University, revived the term matrescence in 2008 and applied it to maternal development. In doing so she created a new conceptual model of the life transition into motherhood and redefined maternal mental health.

Dr. Athan studies, teaches, and writes about mothers' development holistically, both their thriving and distress, and offers an empowering, strengths-based approach to understand the transition to motherhood. This conversation discusses her long-term interest and work in mothers’ psychospiritual growth in matrescence as well as how that is evolving into the ecological domain.

You can find out more about her work at www.matrescence.com including her Maternal Psychology (aka Matrescence) Lab where she leads research on the matrescence experience.

This is a re-release of an interview I did with her for my previous podcast. So many mothers ask me to share this again and so we are since it is foundational to our understanding of Animate Mother. I hope it serves you well! ~Allison

Animate Mother reenvisions motherhood as a rite of passage and recognises the deep ecological awakening and initiations that often accompany the profound bio-psycho-social-ecological-spiritual changes within matrescence.  

We explore mothering ecoconsciousness as a provocation toward a growing awareness of living within and ‘in relation to’ an ecological community of beings and discover the joy of being held within a greater web of kinship.

We are Allison Davis, a maternal wellness ecotherapist and Kamya O’Keeffe, an ecofeminist rites of passage guide… both mothers walking this path with you.

Join us for stories of diversity in mothering across generations, geographies, intelligences, and species that help us tend and mend the web of support in mothering. Unravel and unlearn with us the ways of thinking that have separated us from our true nature and from our interdependence with the natural world.

In a time of climate, reproductive and racial injustice, we can root into our Earth-honoring pasts and channel the transformative power of matrescence to become the guides we envision for ourselves, our families, our communities and the planet.  

We hope you will join us and become part of a growing mothering movement.

Dr. Stephanie Mines, neuropsychologist specializing in trauma and shock healing and climate activist, shares how grand/mothering sparked a transformation in her consciousness, inviting her to deepen her connection with the living world. We discuss how our culture can reframe mothering and climate change and protect this vital psychoecological development in motherhood as part of personal and planetary wellness. 

Show notes: https://www.southwestperinatalcounseling.com/blog/203

Yolanda Williams of Parenting Decolonized shares her personal path to becoming a status quo disruptor by centering her activism on decolonization techniques, helping white parents and educators address white supremacy and guiding Black parents through the process of healing intergenerational traumas by offering tools and techniques that will help free Black children from fear-based, oppressive parenting and educational practices. As Yolanda says, the time to commit to decolonize our minds and commit to liberated parenting practices is NOW.

Show notes: https://www.southwestperinatalcounseling.com/blog/202 

Dr. Aurelie Athan, the clinical psychologist reviving the developmental approach to motherhood known as matrescence, shares her expertise on a mother's psychospiritual growth in the transition to motherhood and how that intersects with our work articulating mothers' psychoecological growth too.

Show notes: https://www.southwestperinatalcounseling.com/blog/201 

Viola Hug, channel and psychic expansion coach, talks about how the transition into motherhood (matrescence) helped her reclaim her sexuality as a source of her creative expression. We talk about pleasure, authenticity, and belonging and how the good mother mythology holds us back from all of these important aspects of creative connection to self and others. 

Viola Hug is a channel and psychic expansion coach, bestselling author, and host of the global charted SPIRIT SEX MONEY podcast. She works with high level spiritual leaders activating expansion of their soul, wealth, and impact through spirituality, sensuality, and strategy. Follow her on IG @violahug and visit her at www.violahug.com. 

Tiffany Paul shares how creativity was the thread that connected her mothering experiences from a teenage mother to a mother of three, exploring how the interconnections of mothering, creating art, and connecting with nature define her mothering practice. 

We'll be talking about aspects of Tiffany's mothering practice on Instagram @motherpraxis and I hope you'll join us!

Tiffany Paul is a homeschooling mother of three living close to the Earth in Central Texas. In her efforts to understand her own mothering role and support other women in theirs, she has worked as a birth doula and parenting coach. Currently she is exploring her relationship with nature and her ancestors through her work with The Folk Folk, a small creative studio focused on telling the story of nature and creating botanical magic. She is a life-long student and aims to include infusions of poetry, blessings, gratitude, and hope in all that she does.

Connect with Tiffany at https://www.instagram.com/the_folk_folk/

Chanda Branch, a mommy-caster at Modern Black Mommy, shares her journey into motherhood and how she forged creative community and supported her whole artistic self through the process. 

We're discussing aspects of this episode on Instagram @motherpraxis and I hope you'll join!

Chanda Branch is a fierce, fly and fantastic woman who lives by the motto, “Just watch me.”  Leadership and civic engagement were instilled in her as core values at a young age in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida and she remains committed to those concepts as she helps to build the community in Raleigh, North Carolina and bless those in communities throughout the nation.
Chanda is a wife, mommy, educator, arts advocate, and Pageant Queen whose passion and talents are aligned as a "Mommy-caster", founder, and cultural creator of Modern Black Mommy.

Connect with Chanda: 

Visit tinyurl.com/modernblackmommy to sign up for the monthly newsletter
Follow Chanda on Instagram at https://instagram.com/modernblackmommy

Lara Veleda Vesta shares her mothering journey and how it led her to take her place as ancestor,  mending and tending her motherline. Detailing ancestral connection and tending practices, Lara shares how her motherline has been a daily and embodied source of support and wisdom throughout her decades of the challenging and rewarding maternal practice. We also discuss how mothering rooted in ancestral connection can be a revolutionary act by helping you authorize your own empowering style of mothering through dialogue with your inner guidance. 

I hope you'll join our conversation and share your reflections with others on IG @motherpraxis. 

Lara Veleda Vesta, MFA, is an artist, author, storyteller and educator transforming chronic illness into a path of healing and reclaiming.   She is the author of The Moon Divas Guidebook, and The Moon Divas Oracle, illustrator of The Moon Divas Oracle Cards and the forthcoming Wild Soul Runes: Reawakening the Ancestral Feminine. Her research interests currently include ancestral connection, mythtelling and disability as initiation, and she is currently working on an illustrated guide to death transitions. She shares her path of myth, folk magic, ancestor lore and ritual practice with her Patreon community and through by donation classes at the Wild Soul School.

Connect with Lara:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veledavesta/   
Wild Soul School: https://wildsoulschool.teachable.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/laraveledavesta

Why is it important for white settlers to heal ancestral lineages? What special considerations and sensitivity do white bodied people need to bring to this work in order to avoid replication of colonialist patterns of erasure and appropriation? 

These questions are central to Erin Caitlin Sweeney's (she/they) work and what this week's episode focuses on! I hope you'll join our conversation and share your reflections with others on IG @motherpraxis. 

Erin Caitlin Sweeney (she/they) is a politicized healer, educator & group facilitator living in Huichin, the unceded Ohlone territory now known as Oakland, CA. Her people come from what’s now called Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. Erin offers 1:1 ancestral healing & remembrance work for folks of European descent aka white folks with an antiracist and decolonial lens as well as workshops and classes. She’s passionate about the intersection of healing and social justice and believes that when we look inward with accountability, honesty, and compassion we can bring healing to ourselves, our ancestors, and show up rooted for collective liberation.

Connect with Erin: 

Website: www.erincaitlinsweeney.com

Instagram: @erincaitlinsweeney

Apela Colorado's recent book sharing her theory "recovery of the indigenous mind": 
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671047/woman-between-the-worlds-by-apela-colorado-phd/