S1 E15 Matrescence: The Identity Shift That Follows You From Motherhood to Midlife With Linda Anderson

There's a word for what happens to a woman when she becomes a mother. Most of us have never heard it. And in midlife, when the shifting starts all over again, that silence still costs us.

In this episode, Margit sits down with Linda Anderson, a coach of over 20 years whose work centres on identity, transition, and the experience of becoming, in motherhood, and beyond. Linda lives on Waiheke Island in New Zealand, a place she chose with intention and with her whole body, and that same quality of attentiveness runs through everything she shares.

The conversation centres on matrescence, a word coined 50 years ago that still isn't in the dictionary, and still isn't part of the conversation we have with women before, during, or after they become mothers. Linda unpacks why that matters, and what becomes possible when women finally have language for what they're actually experiencing.

But this episode quickly moves beyond early motherhood. The identity shifts that matrescence describes don't stop at the baby stage; they keep unfolding through every season of a woman's life, including right here in midlife. Linda is also living what she teaches: finding her way back to herself not through a grand plan, but one small, honest step at a time.

In this episode we explore:

• The word most women have never heard and why it changes everything

• Why the gap between who you were and who you're becoming feels so disorienting and so necessary

• How matrescence doesn't end with babies it keeps unfolding into midlife and beyond

• The quiet cost of clinging to who you were supposed to be

• What surrender actually looks like when life doesn't go to plan

• Small, powerful practices for finding your way back to yourself