The Mother Tree

Hannah Naylor, an intuitive practicing the teaching/learning experience, shares her journey of healing "daughter spirituality" (Murdock) by leaving her evangelical Christian tradition and forging a new path free from cultural and familial conditioning. 

In our conversation Hannah shares how she learned power and authority were to be held outside of her through her religious upbringing, how this spiritual trauma rippled throughout her adolescence, and eventually how becoming a mother helped her leave this belief behind and authorize her own life going forward. A powerful discussion given so many of us were raised in belief systems that don't serve us well as we grow and change, so we must seek new frameworks for ourselves through the dynamic spiritual education that is motherhood. 

Hannah Naylor is a single mother of two, ex evangelical, and intuitive practicing the teaching/learning experience in Wimberley, TX. Raised in a fundamental Christian home in the "Bible Belt" and marrying at a young age, Hannah has used her transformative experience of breaking free from cultural and familial conditioning as a catalyst to shed a skin that was not fit for her and embrace a wild and free sense of self and true connection to Soul. She spends her time consulting with other mothers and womxn struggling with their own self identity process and sharing her experience on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/Solar_sister_insight 

Frances Walker, a mindset coach, shares her approach to working with mothers to connect with the wisdom of the body's natural guidance. We talk about her work where psychology meets Scripture and explore how she believes these two different approaches can peacefully co-exist and even support one another as we work towards life goals and personal development. 


Listen to our conversation where we discuss: 

• her initiation into motherhood
• her shift into mindset work for herself and her family
• how the wisdom of our embodied emotions are natural guidance
• how beliefs can drive change more than behaviors
• reinterpreting the Proverbs 31 
• her clock metaphor for creating internal and external change, and
• a reframing of the Christian creation story.

As a faith-based mindset coach, Frances Walker's mission is to help busy moms increase peace and productivity in their homes, businesses, and communities. Unlike most mindset coaches, her practical, step-by-step, nature-based approach is easy to replicate on one's own, even in the midst of chaos and challenges. She utilizes elements of neuroscience, metaphysics, and scripture to help clients break the bonds of procrastination, overwhelm, fear, and stress that hold them back in life, business, and motherhood.

As the founder of Women of Valor Community and lead mindset coach for The RecruiterU, Frances' clients consistently reduce distressing emotions by 80% while increasing work productivity and efficiency without falling into the trap of toxic perfectionism. In addition to earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from The University of Alabama – Huntsville, Frances has received multiple certifications and has been recognized as an expert on mindset and business as the lead coach for The Powerful Living Experience, which Inc. Magazine named as "a top 3 must attend personal development event for entrepreneurs."  Through her methodology, clients can create surprisingly quick mindset shifts with long-lasting results in a heart-centered way.

Connect with Frances at her website. 

Follow Frances on Instagram

Join the WOV community on Facebook

Annie Broadbent, a holistic psychosynthesis counselor, shares how the medicalized approach to maternal mental health and wellness may not serve mothers as well as one might think. We explore what shifts / changes/ transforms when a psychospiritual lens is applied to a mother's birth in matrescence.

Our conversation covers:

• Her understanding of the sacred and several archetypes of human interaction with the sacred
• The importance of bringing opposites and the resulting tension as opportunity for growth
• Why pathologizing mother's struggles does more harm than good for maternal health
• Discussion of the labels we put on mothers' experiences of the shadow of mothering
• Ways forward, both micro and macro, to shift the status quo approach to supporting mothers 

We're continuing the conversation on mothering as a revolutionary act on Instagram @motherpraxis and I hope you'll join us!

Annie is a psychosynthesis counsellor specialising in grief and bereavement and perinatal issues and on the training team at Psychosynthesis Trust in London. She is also author of Speaking of Death: What the Bereaved Really Need and writes for a range of outlets, exploring life’s major experiences, from motherhood, to death and grief and spirituality. Annie is particularly passionate about challenging the medicalised approach to health and wellness, advocating instead a holistic and psychospiritual lens on the individual and humanity. Previous to training she worked in corporate wellbeing and she was also a singer in a band and toured Europe. She still loves to sing.

Visit Annie's website

Follow Annie on Instagram

Soul coach Terri Kozlowski shares how to transcend fear, move beyond the egoic mind, and heal our motherlines.⁠
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I want to give a thorough trigger warning for this episode. Terri shares from her personal experience of sexual abuse and maternal abandonment as part of her story. She also shares of significant birth trauma that influenced her mothering and how she overcame the fear she carried from those experiences to heal her motherline. Media is an input I certainly try to be intentional about, so please skip this episode if your gut or anything else tells you this episode may not serve you at this time.

Our conversation covers: 

• Her mothering journey through grandmothering
• How her mothering experiences started in childhood
• Her experiences of sexual abuse as a child and how that affected her mothering
• Birth trauma, and how expert advice served as a secondary adversity for her birthing experience
• How she approached healing her maternal line with nature and ancestral connection
• Tips for developing an eco-consciousness rather than an ego-consciousness 

Terri Kozlowski is a proud Native American warrior: Athabascan; Tlinglet Tribe - Raven Clan.   Rediscovering her true path in life, one of joy and love, she learned to transcend the fear that the egoic mind keeps bringing to the forefront of our lives. Terri is now a successful soul and life coach whose mission is to inspire others to master their fear.  She is the author of Raven Transcending Fear: a memoir about overcoming sexual abuse, abandonment, and discover your authentic self. And she’s offering a free downloadable excerpt from this book for listeners at the link in the show notes. ⁠

More information:

Visit Terri's website

Website for Terri's book Raven Transcending Fear

Check out Terri's podcast: Soul Solutions 

Find her on social media: 

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

YouTube

Twitter

FREE DOWNLOAD - Blueprint to Overcoming Fears: You weren't born fearful. Learn how you can overcome your fears. 

Dr. Sophie Brock, Motherhood Studies Sociologist, explains how motherhood (institution) is different than mothering (experience). Starting from a place of WHY things are like they are for mothers, our discussion moves to HOW to advocate for a more liberatory experience of being a mother. ⁠

Our conversations covers:

• Sophie's mothering and academic intersections
• Her theory of "hegemonic maternality"
• What the "good mother myth" is and how it is what we're all swimming within
• How motherhood is different than mothering
• How social constructions of motherhood negatively affect mothers 
• What is meant by the "good enough mother" and why she named her podcast this phrase
• How cultivating our power as mothers can help us shift the social construction
• How to approach supporting ourselves in this shift

Dr. Sophie Brock is a Motherhood Studies Sociologist and single mother to her 3 year old daughter, living in Sydney, Australia. She supports both mothers and professionals who work with mothers to understand the sociological construction of Motherhood and how this shapes individual mothers’ lives. Sophie advocates for a reimagined version of Motherhood that sees mothers supported, valued, and empowered. She offers online courses, mentoring packages, and her Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification program. She hosts The Good Enough Mother podcast and is President of the non-profit association, Maternal Scholars Australia. 

More information:

Visit Sophie's website https://drsophiebrock.com/

Find her @drsophiebrock on Instagram and Facebook

Listen in to her podcast The Good Enough Mother Podcast 

Email her at [email protected]

After taking a DNA test last year, Lindsay Blount found out she had a father and twenty+ siblings she had never met. As a result, she finds herself becoming more fully herself by living in the liminal space of identity. 

Our conversation covers:

• Her mothering journey so far
• The surprising discovery that shifted her understanding of herself and her family
• The effects on this knowledge on herself, her family, and her worldview
• How she coped through the disorientation of such a large shift in her identity
• How the shift changed how she mothers
• Her greatest takeaways about identity itself and how we can work with the possibility of the liminal space

Lindsay Blount has a lot of labels: she’s a wife, a mom, a doctoral student, an assistant to a Dean, a writer, and a photographer. Recently, she had her identity completely uprooted when she took a 23andMe DNA test during the pandemic and found out some shocking news. In the last year, Lindsay has taken a deep dive into identity and it’s meaning down to the root. She challenges everyone to consider identity has something that is not a fixed part of your being, rather it is something you can learn and relearn.

Lindsay is currently writing her first book on identity shake ups and she hopes her story will inspire everyone to rip out the roots of their own identity and start creating a more true and authentic one.

More information:

Connect with Lindsay on Instagram

Jessie Harrold, doula and a coach for new mothers, discusses how matrescence, or the developmental period of motherhood, initiates a profound shift in a mother's identity. Although there are many challenges associated with this period of rapid change, it can also be approaches as a time ripe with the potential of profound and positive self transformation.

Our conversation covers: 

• Jessie's background as a couch and doula
• Her early matrescence journey and who she's becoming as a mother now
• Matresence as an identity shift 
• Why time is important in the transition into a new mothering identity
• Her passion to explore "how" this shift happens
• The role of unbecoming in any transition and the normal grief, sadness, and anger common in this shift
• The power of the liminal, or in-between space, and why the discomfort doesn't need to be pathologized
• The fruitfulness of the in-between space and why time is essential 
• Patterns of challenges and competencies in this mothering life transition
• 7 skills of competencies Jessie calls "mother powers"
• Why mothering against motherhood through the mother powers is possible

Jessie is a coach, women's mentor, and doula who has been supporting women through radical life transformations and other rites of passage for over a decade. She works one-on-one with women and mothers, facilitates mentorship programs, women’s circles and rituals, and hosts retreats and wilderness quests.  She is the author of the book Project Body Love:  my quest to love my body and the surprising truth I found instead, and the upcoming title Mothershift:  Reclaiming Motherhood as a Rite of Passage.  Jessie lives on the East Coast of Canada where she homeschools her two kids and tends to her land.

More information: 

You can find out more about Jessie's coaching services at www.jessieharrold.com 

Follow Jessie on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jessie.es.harrold/

Get her free  Momifesto Workbook https://www.jessieharrold.com/the-momifesto-workbook/

Dr. Richelle Whittaker shares from both her professional knowledge and personal experience about the natural developmental challenges of motherhood and how these are too often pathologized or made into disorders. She shares how viewing matrescence, or the transition into motherhood, within a wellness perspective can help us support ourselves and others throughout the many liminal spaces on our mothering journeys.

Our conversation covers: 

• Dr. Whittaker's own challenging transition into motherhood
• Her goals for who she is becoming as a mother now
• Why she started Mahogony Moms podcast
• Why we need to normalize the challenges of motherhood
• Institutional racism in maternal mental health 
• Barriers to postpartum mental health support
• Why we need to depathologize mothering transitions 
• How to support mothers through natural progressions versus saying something is “wrong with you”
• How journaling can support your mental health
• How faith supported her through her mothering transitions
• Why spirituality is good for your mental health
• Why she chooses to work within a coaching model versus a medical model to support mothers
• Why it’s important to ask for help

Dr. Richelle Whittaker is an educational psychologist board certified in perinatal mental health, a parenting coach, trainer, and author.  She is devoted to educating, equipping, and empowering women struggling with emotional challenges through pregnancy, postpartum, and parenthood.  Her primary goal is to help moms become strong advocates for themselves and their children when it comes to making decisions about their mental health & education. 

Dr. Whittaker has more than 17 years of experience in the education and mental health field.  She is the author of Burps, Bibs, and Breakdowns: A 90 Day Journal for Moms and Embracing What’s Next: A 30 Day Journal for Parents.  She is also the host of the Mahogany Moms podcast.  

More information: 

You can find out more about Dr. Whittaker's parent coaching services www.nextstepseducation.com

Listen to Mahogony Moms podcast on Apple or wherever you listen

Follow her on Instagram

Buy her journal for mothers Bibs, Burps, and Breakdowns

Danielle Smith, owner of Garden Like a Mother and a professional gardening mentor, shares the health benefits of gardening and advice on how to get outside, get in the dirt, and grow your own food starting today. 

Our conversation covers: 

Danielle Smith is a professional garden mentor and founder of Garden Like a Mother. She helps moms grow fresh food at home with ease and confidence so they can lead their families in living healthier, happier, and more intentional lives. She believes that gardening is much more than a hobby-- it's holistic lifestyle that creates better lives for gardeners and sends out positive ripple effects across communities and our planet. She is a self-taught gardener and holds a master's degree in Public Health, with an emphasis on food systems and chronic disease prevention.

More information:

Connect with Danielle in her Facebook group, where she shares a lot of gardening resources  and offers a live weekly show with tips and trainings on how to garden successfully as a mom!

Follow Danielle on Instagram and Clubhouse @daniellesmith

Learn about nature therapy and how it can help support your mental health and wellness as a mother. I share about my orientation as an nature therapist and a bit about how it transforms the conventional psychological approach to maternal mental wellness. 

In this episode, I share:

• The main mental health assumptions of ecopsychology and nature therapy (applied ecopsychology)
• How a human-centered "anthropocentric"mindset is rooted in values of control and domination
• How nature therapy transforms our approach to mental health and wellness
• What it means to approach developmental challenges of mothering from a wellness and strength-based model rather than a medical model
• Why we have to consider personal, social, cultural, and enviornmental dimensions of mental wellness in our healing journeys
• What I mean when I say mental health is both personal and planetary (Roszak)
• How I see my mothering clients resonate with this approach: including ecogrief, alienation from modern mothering consumption, and the importance of spirituality 
• The first stage of nature therapy, or "upwork" (Clineball)
• Why your therapist's theoretical orientation is important 

Dr. Allison Davis is a researcher, writer, counselor, and educator of maternal mental health. With an ecofeminist-informed, strength-based developmental framework she helps mothers challenge and reenvision motherhood norms and practices. Her upcoming book "The 6 Initiations of Earth-Honoring Motherhood: A Nature-Guided Rite-of-Passage for New Mothers" weaves together modern research and ancient wisdom to help new mothers root into who they are and who they are becoming.

More information: 

Connect with me and podcast listeners on Instagram @motherpraxis