What kind of mother do you want to become? How does that differ from mainstream motherhood norms? How can we challenge the norms that contribute to mothers feeling lost, isolated, and alone? How can we reenvision mothering to help mothers feel rooted, connected, and revitalized? How can we extend mother work to include ourselves, our communities, and even our planet!?

Welcome to Mother Praxis, a podcast for mothers challenging norms and reenvisioning motherhood for themselves, their families, and our planet. 

I’m Dr. Allison Davis, a counselor, educator, and researcher of perinatal and maternal mental health and a mother walking this path with you. Join me in this second season to explore mothering theory/practice that includes mother work that nurtures personal and planetary wellness by protecting the knowledge and resources that sustain all life on our planet.

Viola Hug, channel and psychic expansion coach, talks about how the transition into motherhood (matrescence) helped her reclaim her sexuality as a source of her creative expression. We talk about pleasure, authenticity, and belonging and how the good mother mythology holds us back from all of these important aspects of creative connection to self and others. 

Viola Hug is a channel and psychic expansion coach, bestselling author, and host of the global charted SPIRIT SEX MONEY podcast. She works with high level spiritual leaders activating expansion of their soul, wealth, and impact through spirituality, sensuality, and strategy. Follow her on IG @violahug and visit her at www.violahug.com. 

Tiffany Paul shares how creativity was the thread that connected her mothering experiences from a teenage mother to a mother of three, exploring how the interconnections of mothering, creating art, and connecting with nature define her mothering practice. 

We'll be talking about aspects of Tiffany's mothering practice on Instagram @motherpraxis and I hope you'll join us!

Tiffany Paul is a homeschooling mother of three living close to the Earth in Central Texas. In her efforts to understand her own mothering role and support other women in theirs, she has worked as a birth doula and parenting coach. Currently she is exploring her relationship with nature and her ancestors through her work with The Folk Folk, a small creative studio focused on telling the story of nature and creating botanical magic. She is a life-long student and aims to include infusions of poetry, blessings, gratitude, and hope in all that she does.

Connect with Tiffany at https://www.instagram.com/the_folk_folk/

Chanda Branch, a mommy-caster at Modern Black Mommy, shares her journey into motherhood and how she forged creative community and supported her whole artistic self through the process. 

We're discussing aspects of this episode on Instagram @motherpraxis and I hope you'll join!

Chanda Branch is a fierce, fly and fantastic woman who lives by the motto, “Just watch me.”  Leadership and civic engagement were instilled in her as core values at a young age in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida and she remains committed to those concepts as she helps to build the community in Raleigh, North Carolina and bless those in communities throughout the nation.
Chanda is a wife, mommy, educator, arts advocate, and Pageant Queen whose passion and talents are aligned as a "Mommy-caster", founder, and cultural creator of Modern Black Mommy.

Connect with Chanda: 

Visit tinyurl.com/modernblackmommy to sign up for the monthly newsletter
Follow Chanda on Instagram at https://instagram.com/modernblackmommy

Lara Veleda Vesta shares her mothering journey and how it led her to take her place as ancestor,  mending and tending her motherline. Detailing ancestral connection and tending practices, Lara shares how her motherline has been a daily and embodied source of support and wisdom throughout her decades of the challenging and rewarding maternal practice. We also discuss how mothering rooted in ancestral connection can be a revolutionary act by helping you authorize your own empowering style of mothering through dialogue with your inner guidance. 

I hope you'll join our conversation and share your reflections with others on IG @motherpraxis. 

Lara Veleda Vesta, MFA, is an artist, author, storyteller and educator transforming chronic illness into a path of healing and reclaiming.   She is the author of The Moon Divas Guidebook, and The Moon Divas Oracle, illustrator of The Moon Divas Oracle Cards and the forthcoming Wild Soul Runes: Reawakening the Ancestral Feminine. Her research interests currently include ancestral connection, mythtelling and disability as initiation, and she is currently working on an illustrated guide to death transitions. She shares her path of myth, folk magic, ancestor lore and ritual practice with her Patreon community and through by donation classes at the Wild Soul School.

Connect with Lara:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veledavesta/   
Wild Soul School: https://wildsoulschool.teachable.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/laraveledavesta

Why is it important for white settlers to heal ancestral lineages? What special considerations and sensitivity do white bodied people need to bring to this work in order to avoid replication of colonialist patterns of erasure and appropriation? 

These questions are central to Erin Caitlin Sweeney's (she/they) work and what this week's episode focuses on! I hope you'll join our conversation and share your reflections with others on IG @motherpraxis. 

Erin Caitlin Sweeney (she/they) is a politicized healer, educator & group facilitator living in Huichin, the unceded Ohlone territory now known as Oakland, CA. Her people come from what’s now called Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. Erin offers 1:1 ancestral healing & remembrance work for folks of European descent aka white folks with an antiracist and decolonial lens as well as workshops and classes. She’s passionate about the intersection of healing and social justice and believes that when we look inward with accountability, honesty, and compassion we can bring healing to ourselves, our ancestors, and show up rooted for collective liberation.

Connect with Erin: 

Website: www.erincaitlinsweeney.com

Instagram: @erincaitlinsweeney

Apela Colorado's recent book sharing her theory "recovery of the indigenous mind": 
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671047/woman-between-the-worlds-by-apela-colorado-phd/

Hannah Naylor, an intuitive practicing the teaching/learning experience, shares her journey of healing "daughter spirituality" (Murdock) by leaving her evangelical Christian tradition and forging a new path free from cultural and familial conditioning. 

In our conversation Hannah shares how she learned power and authority were to be held outside of her through her religious upbringing, how this spiritual trauma rippled throughout her adolescence, and eventually how becoming a mother helped her leave this belief behind and authorize her own life going forward. A powerful discussion given so many of us were raised in belief systems that don't serve us well as we grow and change, so we must seek new frameworks for ourselves through the dynamic spiritual education that is motherhood. 

Hannah Naylor is a single mother of two, ex evangelical, and intuitive practicing the teaching/learning experience in Wimberley, TX. Raised in a fundamental Christian home in the "Bible Belt" and marrying at a young age, Hannah has used her transformative experience of breaking free from cultural and familial conditioning as a catalyst to shed a skin that was not fit for her and embrace a wild and free sense of self and true connection to Soul. She spends her time consulting with other mothers and womxn struggling with their own self identity process and sharing her experience on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/Solar_sister_insight 

Frances Walker, a mindset coach, shares her approach to working with mothers to connect with the wisdom of the body's natural guidance. We talk about her work where psychology meets Scripture and explore how she believes these two different approaches can peacefully co-exist and even support one another as we work towards life goals and personal development. 


Listen to our conversation where we discuss: 

• her initiation into motherhood
• her shift into mindset work for herself and her family
• how the wisdom of our embodied emotions are natural guidance
• how beliefs can drive change more than behaviors
• reinterpreting the Proverbs 31 
• her clock metaphor for creating internal and external change, and
• a reframing of the Christian creation story.

As a faith-based mindset coach, Frances Walker's mission is to help busy moms increase peace and productivity in their homes, businesses, and communities. Unlike most mindset coaches, her practical, step-by-step, nature-based approach is easy to replicate on one's own, even in the midst of chaos and challenges. She utilizes elements of neuroscience, metaphysics, and scripture to help clients break the bonds of procrastination, overwhelm, fear, and stress that hold them back in life, business, and motherhood.

As the founder of Women of Valor Community and lead mindset coach for The RecruiterU, Frances' clients consistently reduce distressing emotions by 80% while increasing work productivity and efficiency without falling into the trap of toxic perfectionism. In addition to earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from The University of Alabama – Huntsville, Frances has received multiple certifications and has been recognized as an expert on mindset and business as the lead coach for The Powerful Living Experience, which Inc. Magazine named as "a top 3 must attend personal development event for entrepreneurs."  Through her methodology, clients can create surprisingly quick mindset shifts with long-lasting results in a heart-centered way.

Connect with Frances at her website. 

Follow Frances on Instagram

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