Education, Theory & Practice

Matrescence

I am a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University where I revive the term Matrescence through teaching and writing. Our graduate-level courses and certificate program in Reproductive Psychology are the first of their kind.  I study mothers' development holistically, both their thriving and distress, and offer an empowering, strengths-based approach to normalize the transition to motherhood. I am in private practice and consult with women of all ages as well as professionals working to improve the wellbeing of mothers.

What is Matrescence?

My Working Definition

To attribute [APA Style] use: Athan, Aurelie. (Year, Month, Day of D/L). Working Definition. https://www.matrescence.com/

REPRODUCTIVE IDENTITY

AN EMERGING CONCEPT

RETHINKING ADULT DEVELOPMENT - NEW IDEAS FOR NEW TIMES

The newest emerging theory, Reproductive Identity, debuted in the June 2020 Special issue of the American Psychologist— Rethinking Adult Development: New Ideas for New Times.

Download the full article or click here. Visit the definitive guide to Reproductive Identity to learn more. To receive a FREE virtual training if you are a sexual or reproductive health educator apply here: RIF/T.

Reference: Athan, A. M. (2020). Reproductive identity: An emerging concept. American Psychologist, 75(4), 445-456.

Spread the Word

We lack language and theoretical paradigms for the psychology of mothers. I've tried to change that by reviving matrescence to provide a developmental framework for the transition to motherhood. I originally applied the term to maternal mental health in 2008 from anthropology to normalize mothers' experiences and offer them a nonpathological description. As an educator, I know the power of words to help people understand things in a new way. Use matrescence today and teach someone about this concept! 

Mother of Mothers

An Origin Story

For all who walk this path, we owe first and foremost a debt to our Mother of Matrescence, Dana Louise Raphael (1926–2016). We stand on the shoulders of others and must always acknowledge our foremothers, giving credit where credit is due.

During my years in Clinical Psychology, I was unable to find good explanatory models for the psychological transition to motherhood. I set out to find out everything I could from each related field from spirituality to cultural anthropology. With the help of my students, we also conducted an extensive literature review of all of the scientific studies in the past 25 years, in a variety of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry, medicine, nursing and others. This revealed a strange neglect of focus on mothers themselves without the impact on their children, and the vast majority spoke about their risk for illness with few other positive perspectives.

I was encouraged by the maternal developmental theorists that existed, but it was in the writing of another Columbia-trained scholar that I found the answer and ultimately the conceptual basis of my own theoretical work as a burgeoning reproductive psychologist. Dana Raphael coined the term matrescence (and "doula") and I immediately recognized it as ahead of its time. My unique contribution was to extend its application— from anthropology to psychology—to maternal mental health to challenge conventional diagnostic thinking. This was not just a biosocial experience, but a psychological one too! Better yet a bio-psycho-social-spiritual one— a holistic change in the multiple domains of a mother’s experience in which no area of life is left untouched. Now it was time to get the word out and start researching both the universal aspects and individual differences among mothers.

Raphael deserved a revival and in 2010, "matrescence like adolescence" became my new mantra - or public health slogan - to build upon her original idea and quickly educate others both in and out of the classroom. I called for a developmental model of motherhood to normalize rather than pathologize the psychological transition women were experiencing, to ease suffering, and finally shift the paradigm! In October of 2016, I presented my argument at a pivotal NYC conference of the Women’s Mental Health Consortium, and on Mother's Day of 2017 it was popularized by Alexandra Sacks in the New York Times article: The Birth of a Mother and later TED talk.

Matrescence has since been mainstreamed from academia to the general public, traveled globally, and continues to be amplified by many more voices. Now anyone can learn the concept and welcome the whole spectrum of experience from stress to wellness---the possibility of resilience and even flourishing while mothering!

Today, I proudly pay Dana Raphael back with another emerging theory to add to her legacy of reproductive health education and activism: Reproductive Identity."

- Aurélie Athan, Ph.D.

Press

Aurelie Athan, Ph.D.

The term “matrescence,” coined by anthropologist Dana Raphael in the mid-’70s and brought into common use in psychology by clinical psychologist Aurelie Athan, head of the maternal psychology lab at Columbia University, describes a woman’s transition into parenthood. The term deliberately evokes the passage into adulthood — adolescence — though the two aren’t exactly on equal footing in our collective consciousness.

- ERIN ZIMMERMAN, THE CUT (2018)

 

Perhaps reviving the conceptual term matrescence, coined by and borrowed from anthropologist Dana Raphael (1975), would be most apt within the landscape of maternity. Much like adolescence, it is an experience of dis-orientation and re-orientation marked by an acceleration of changes in multiple domains: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. We are indeed indebted to the early ‘maternal developmentalists’ who aptly characterized motherhood in its multi-dimension and dynamism, both the oppressive and the liberating—the dichotomous phenomena that are often the hallmark of any major life transition. Their perspectives equalized and served to normalize, rather than pathologize, the 'mixed-feelings’ of women.

- AURÉLIE ATHAN, FEMINISM & PSYCHOLOGY (2015)

Athan & Reel argue that there is little interest or up-take of research in the psychology of mothers or maternal development per se. They call for a study of ‘matrescence’, to explore women’s lived experience of becoming and being mothers, to challenge the pathologisation of women’s ‘mixed feelings’ about mothering, and to normalise more complex and varied experiences of motherhood than just fulfilment or illness narratives enable.

- JANE CALAGHAN, FEMINISM & PSYCHOLOGY (2015)

Athan has helped put matrescence — a term coined by the late medical anthropologist Dana Raphael — front and center in the larger discourse. She helped create TC’s new curriculum in Reproductive & Maternal Well-being (including) her own “Mother Matrix: Developmental and Clinical Implications...

- EARLY RISERS, TC TODAY ALUMNI MAGAZINE (2016)

Mothers’ experiences are largely invisible because we haven’t asked, “What is this like for you?” Generally, in psychology, the best practice is to understand what’s normative and what the challenges, expectations and setbacks are for a given subject. Then we try and understand the risk factors for when things go off course. We can’t begin to understand why things go wrong for some mothers if we don’t understand the whole passage. We also only focus on motherhood within a very limited time frame from conception to childbearing and then, that’s about it.

- EVERY MOTHER COUNTS, INTERVIEW (2016)

We must give a nod to Dr. Raphael. She coined the term “matrescence” and by doing so gave us the word to imagine a new, unexplored territory. Motherhood, like adolescence, is a stage of human physical, psychological, social, and spiritual development. Unfortunately, women’s experiences of this transition remain one of most under-developed areas of scholarship and training. Each year I revive “matrescence” in my classroom to awaken students and enlarge their scope of understanding from a simple focus on the child. Mothers may form the cornerstone of our most precious theories, yet the process of becoming a mother has not been examined sufficiently despite the fact that we all, every living being, are brought forth by one. There also remains a stronghold of maternal psychopathology and crisis as the core area of interest, with fewer formulations mapping out both the costs and benefits of the psychological work that is undergone. Understanding the birth of a mother can hopefully allow a more holistic view of this adaptation and with it new fields of study can be born. The creation of more research laboratories and coursework such as my own on Maternal Psychology and Reproductive Mental Health and Wellbeing, while at their infancy, can help the next generation of scholars and practitioners to get started.

- NEW YORK TIMES, COMMENTS (2017)

Last fall, Hansen took The Mother Matrix, taught by Aurelie Athan, director of TC’s Maternal Psychology Laboratory. Athan is a leader in the fledgling field of “matrescence,” which views the transition to motherhood as a developmental phase like adolescence and other periods of major physical change. Her course is part of a broader initiative, The Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project (SWG)... Hansen says about Athan's class, “We read articles, mostly from the nursing field. We interviewed mothers. It was exciting, because growing up you see a lot of images that don’t reflect what it feels like to be female. TC is creating a counter-narrative.

- DIVERSITY HITS THE BOOKS, TC TODAY ALUMNI MAGAZINE (2014)