The Reimagining Motherhood Summit
September 16th and 17th, 2026 — Virtual — 1pm to 5pm EST Daily
An interdisciplinary gathering exploring Motherhood, matrescence, maternal mental health, and the future of maternal care.
Free to Attend. Recorded for all who register. Watch DAY ONE here.
Why this Summit?
The Reimagining Motherhood Summit exists because no single field can fully explain the experience of becoming and being a mother.
Maternal mental health has transformed how we recognize and treat suffering. Developmental psychology helps us understand growth and identity across the lifespan. Motherhood Studies asks us to examine the historical, cultural, political, and social conditions that shape mothers' lives.
At the Reimagining Motherhood Summit, these conversations come together.
This is where we bridge disciplines, translate theory into practice, and explore what becomes possible when maternal mental health, matrescence, psychology and Motherhood Studies inform one another instead of existing in separate silos.
Our goal is to inspire, educate and to ask:
How does this change the way we understand mothers?
How does it change the questions we ask?
How does it change the care we provide?
Through presentations, discussions, panels, and community dialogue, we'll explore what theory can do when it's lived, practiced, and integrated into real-world clinical work, education, advocacy, and family life.
Because when we bridge disciplines, we transform practice.
Who Should Attend?
The Reimagining Motherhood Summit is designed for both the professionals who support mothers and mothers themselves.
Whether you're a mental health professional, physician, nurse, midwife, doula, educator, researcher, coach, advocate—or a mother seeking a deeper understanding of your own experience—this Summit offers an opportunity to explore motherhood through the lenses of maternal mental health, matrescence, developmental psychology, and Motherhood Studies.
Together, we'll bridge research with real-world practice, connect across disciplines and lived experience, and reimagine how we understand and support mothers.
Meet the Speakers
The Reimagining Motherhood Summit is designed differently: it does not belong to one discipline—it brings them together.
Rooted in The Matricentric Way, the Summit gathers graduates alongside invited scholars and experts who share a commitment to expanding how we understand and support mothers. Together, we are exploring what becomes possible when maternal mental health, matrescence, and Motherhood Studies inform the many places mothers already receive care and support.
Across the two days, therapists, midwives, doulas, educators, yoga teachers, researchers, advocates, artists, and community leaders will bring their own expertise, experience, and ways of knowing into conversation.
As the founder of The Matricentric Way and host of the Summit, Chelsea Robinson, MSW, LCSW, will open Day One by sharing why this interdisciplinary gathering is needed—and why reimagining maternal care is shared work. On Day Two, she will introduce the Zoom In–Zoom Out framework, demonstrating how maternal mental health, matrescence, and Motherhood can work together to help us see and support the whole mother.
We believe this is the future of maternal care, and we are honored to gather the people helping build it.
Wednesday, Sept. 16th Speakers
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Dr. Jodi Vandenberg-Daves
Mothers at Work: Maternal Social Imagination in History and Today
1:20pm-1:50pm EST
Jodi is a scholar, professor and coach (and a Matricentric Way expert) who will be sharing a brief overview of the history of Motherhood followed by mothers in leadership at work.
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Richelle Clayton
Matrescence Across the LIfespan
1:50pm-2:20pm Wednesday 9/16
Richelle will expand the conversation beyond postpartum, exploring how maternal identity continues to grow and transform across a mother’s life.
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Heather Magill
Matrescence to Matriarchy
2:20pm-2:50pm EST
Heather will uncover how Christian patriarchy has shaped our ideas about motherhood and invite us to imagine what moving from matrescence toward matriarchy could make possible.
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Dr. Kelsey Green, DNP, MPH, RN, PHN
Pink Flags, Red Flags: Meeting Mothers Where They Are
3:00pm-3:30pm EST
Kelsey will help us recognize the pink flags and red flags in maternal care and consider how we can meet mothers with greater curiosity, compassion, and responsiveness.
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Staci Morey, LCSW, PMH-C
The Losses We Don’t Name: Grief in Motherhood
3:30pm-4:00pm EST
Staci will name the visible and invisible losses woven throughout motherhood and explore what becomes possible when maternal grief is finally acknowledged.
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Anny Agudelo
The Unnamed Grief Circle
4:00pm-4:30pm EST
Anny will create space for the unnamed losses of motherhood through a circle honoring the grief mothers are so often expected to carry silently.
Thursday, Sept. 17th Speakers
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Dawn Moore, CNM, WHNP-BC, PMHNP-BC
Let’s Talk about Sex…and Matrescence
1:20pm-1:50pm
Dawn is bringing sex into the matrescence conversation—breaking the silence and making space for sexual health and wellness within maternal care.
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Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez
How would I mother if I knew I were free?
1:50pm-2:20pm EST
Ambreia is a community wellness advocate and facilitator, founder of Free Black Motherhood an expert in The Matricentric Way.
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Jenn White
Mothering the Shadow: How Our Disowned Parts Point Us Forward
2:20pm-2:50pm EST
Jenn will explore how the parts of ourselves we have pushed away can reappear in motherhood and point us toward deeper healing, wholeness, and growth.
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Elise Rhodes, LPC-MHSP, PMH-C
3 Keys to Mothering “Should Free” in Modern Motherhood
3:00pm-4:30pm EST
Elise will share three powerful keys for releasing the maternal “shoulds” stemming from Patriarchal Motherhood and creating a more authentic way of mothering.
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Courtney Mackey Wilbur
Mama Metamorphosis
3:30pm-4:00pm EST
Courtney will invite us into Mama Metamorphosis, using embodiment, expressive arts, and astrology as creative languages for understanding maternal transformation.
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Jenny Robberson
Restorative Movement for Caretakers
4:00pm-4:30pm EST
Jenny will guide us through restorative movement designed to help those who care for everyone else reconnect with and care for themselves.
What We’ll Explore
Everything—and anything—at the intersection of maternal mental health, matrescence, and Motherhood.
This Summit is intentionally interdisciplinary, bringing together perspectives that are rarely explored in the same space. Think...
Maternal mental health across the maternal lifespan
Matrescence and maternal identity development with Richelle Clayton of From Pregnant to Parent
Motherhood and sexuality with Dawn Moore, Certified Nurse Midwife, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner of Matricentric Health and Well Care
Creativity in motherhood with Courtney Mackey Wilbur of Creative Mother and Woman
Maternal Burnout and Anxiety
Relationships, caregiving, and the mental load
History, culture, and Motherhood Studies
Clinical practice, research, advocacy, and education
But this Summit isn't just about learning—it's about experiencing these ideas in practice.
Alongside presentations and discussions, you'll be invited into community circles, embodied practices, and restorative experiences led by graduates of The Matricentric Way, including yoga with Jenny Robberson of Freckle Face Yoga, reflection, and opportunities to connect with one another.
Because understanding motherhood is one thing. Living it, practicing it, and building community around it is another.
Continue the Conversation this Fall
Community Documentary Screening
August 27 | 6–9 PM EDT
A virtual screening of No Country for Mothers followed by a live discussion exploring motherhood, maternal mental health, caregiving, and culture.
The Matricentric Way
Fall Cohort Begins September 18
Ready to go deeper? Join our 12-week interdisciplinary training exploring matrescence, maternal mental health and Motherhood Studies.