By Danielle D. Jenkins, PsyD

Matrescence is a term created by Dana Raphael to define the time in a woman’s life as she moves from pre-conception through the postpartum period and beyond. It is a critical period that is full of transition, identity shifts, and hormonal fluctuations. It’s a term that is starting to become more well-known and an experience that is felt by everyone who becomes a mom.

Aurélie Athan, Ph.D. says this about matrescence, “The process of becoming a mother, coined by Dana Raphael, Ph.D. (1973), is a developmental passage where a woman transitions through pre-conception, pregnancy and birth, surrogacy or adoption, to the postnatal period and beyond. The exact length of matrescence is individual, recurs with each child, and may arguably last a lifetime! The scope of the changes encompass multiple domains --bio-psycho-social-political-spiritual-- and can be likened to the developmental push of adolescence.”

And just as...

Why can’t I be happy?

By Danielle D Jenkins, PsyD

I frequently have friends, family, and women I see in my private practice say, “I have everything I’ve ever wanted and I still can’t be happy.” They go on to describe that they have the fulfillment of most of the things they ever wanted and yet feel unable to connect to it or feel happy about it. This is actually quite universal. It is common to feel this way after any big thing in our lives – weddings, graduations, new homes, retirements. Often people expect to feel one way about something and then feel many other things on top of that one feeling.

Feelings are complex

One of the double-edged realities of adulthood is we feel multiple things simultaneously. Sometimes this works out to be a gift and sometimes it makes for a lot of confusion. The way we talk about feelings is that they are isolated, individual emotions that come and go as directed and expected. This just isn’t true. We...