2 | Matrescence Theory: What it is. How to start using it. 📚

Three things I want you to know about matrescence.

Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash

1. Matrescence was revived and applied to maternal mental health by Dr. Aurelie Athan (2008).

Matrescence is the process of becoming a mother, a developmental life stage encompassing all the ways people enter to motherhood. Similar to adolescence, during this time one may feel disoriented and experience rapid biological, psychological, social, ecological and spiritual changes.

Matrescence is a word ”revived” by Dr. Aurelie Athan, a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 2008 from its earlier use by Dana Raphael in anthropology. Athan applied the term to a person’s developmental process upon entry into motherhood.

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Here’s a timeline of how the term has evolved and feel free to listen to my conversation with Dr. Athan about the origins and development of the “matrescence like adolescence” theory in her research lab HERE!

A timeline for the revival of “matrescence” taken from www.matrescence.com.

2. Matrescence moves maternal distress from a biomedical approach that pathologizes the experience to a developmental one.

Disorienting and distressing changes across a mothers life are normal experiences that we can and should prepare for in matrescence. In reviving matrescence and applying it to developmental psychology, Athan drew on a long feminist lineage of holding psychological distress within a larger framework. I’m often asked if someone is experiencing “matrescence or postpartum depression.” I say it could could be both (but will only know if someone meets diagnostic criteria after a clinical assessment). It can be helpful to think about distress in matrescence as existing along a continuum as was discussed on the same podcast interview referenced above and also found HERE.!

An infographic from Sarah Ashton. Visit her at www.sarahashtonot.com.au or on IG @matrescencematters.

As Sarah Ashton, an Occupational Therapist in Australia, shares how she uses the continuum,

Where you land on the continuum is individually and uniquely *relevant* to the mother. The strength of the term matrescence in maternal mental health is that it is “evolving,” developmental AND growth producing. It’s not static, or 2 dimensional; and using the domains of matrescence in practice enables a therapist and mother to explore the impactful domains on “distress” and intervene. Consistent with models of OT practice, matrescence.

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3. Matrescence is an adult developmental phase… with no stage model (yet).

I’m also asked a lot about HOW matrescence unfolds in a mother. Many of us have a desire to break this period down into stages of when certain needs, behaviors, experiences and capabilities are common and different from other stages with their own new set of challenges and opportunities so we can understand what’s happening! This is the idea of a developmental stage model… and we don’t have one based in research (although some individual models are offered by individuals).

Instead, we can lean into our development in a way by centering our own experience as the only model that matters (and getting support in that if necessary and possible). I center my own developmental wisdom by drawing on metaphors for change, growth, cycles, and movement as in the growth of a tree.

It’s important that matrescence not become something (else) outside of mothers that we need to learn to do (right). Matrescence is a word that describes a mother’s unique transition into motherhood. There can only be one expert on a mother’s individual developmental — that specific mother. We don’t need prescriptive models, only support in building awareness and insight about our own process.

Tending Practice is a place to apply matrescence to our lives with expressive reflections. They are available for paid subscribers. Here is a sample:

Professional Reflection Journal Prompts

Matrescence theory is broad. It’s an emerging field that invites practitioners from all disciplines to contribute to this growing body of knowledge. My work, for instance, names and explores the “ecological domain.” Here are some reflection questions to spark insight about where you might contribute your unique perspective and skills to support mothers in this important life phase:

1. How do you identify professionally? What is the scope of your work? What ethical guidelines shape your profession?

2. How does maternal mental health or wellbeing intersect your work currently? What are you looking to add?

3. What are you interested in most about matrescence? What do you think is missing in the conversation around matrescence? Around motherhood?

4. How has matrescence or a parallel period of rapid development (re)shaped you? What felt most supportive to you in this experience?

5. What offerings do you have for mothers already? What are you dreaming about?

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How to cite this issue:

Davis, A. (2023, February 13). Matrescence Theory: What is is. How to start using it. Matrescence Monday.

1. Athan, A., & Reel, H. L. (2015). Maternal psychology: Reflections on the 20th anniversary of deconstructing developmental psychology. Feminism & Psychology, 25(3), 311-325. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0959353514562804

2. Ashton, S. (personal correspondence, February 11, 2023).