When Motherhood Changes Everthing

£9.99

Course Overview and Description

When Motherhood Changes Everything: Attachment and Matrescence explores the profound psychological, emotional, relational and identity transition that can take place during pregnancy, birth and early motherhood. Rather than viewing this period only through the language of postnatal adjustment or perinatal mental health, the course introduces matrescence as a process of “mother-becoming”: a significant developmental transition that can reshape a woman’s sense of self, body, relationships, needs and vulnerabilities.

Through an attachment-informed lens, the course considers how becoming a mother may activate existing attachment patterns and defences. Participants are invited to look beneath surface presentations such as anxiety, overwhelm, reassurance-seeking, emotional withdrawal, shame, hypervigilance or difficulty asking for help, and to consider the deeper attachment needs and protective strategies that may be present.

The course uses the case example of Emma, a first-time mother experiencing anxiety, self-doubt, sleep difficulties, body shame and fear of being alone with her baby. Her presentation is explored not simply as a set of symptoms, but as a meaningful response to an activated attachment system during a period of intense change.

Key areas include the nervous system, co-regulation, mentalisation, shame, grief and loss, the wider relational system, intergenerational stories of motherhood, and the therapist’s own countertransference. The course also considers how cultural expectations of the “good mother” can intensify shame when a mother’s lived experience does not match idealised narratives of natural confidence, bonding or enjoyment.

By the end of the course, participants will have a richer understanding of matrescence as an attachment transition and will be encouraged to apply this learning in assessment, formulation, therapeutic pacing, supervision and reflective practice. The course is particularly relevant for counsellors, psychotherapists and helping professionals working with pregnancy, birth, early motherhood, maternal mental health, fertility, baby loss, attachment and identity transitions.