Growing Your Inner Mother:
Soothing the Inner Critic
Offering ourselves the same kindness and care we offer others
|
The Inner Mother helps us grow beyond
our childhood family dynamics and befriend ourselves September 8 - November 17, 2026
Tuesdays 11am PDT/2pm EDT/7pm UK/8pm Paris We will gather on Zoom We will cover the Landscape of Mothers archetypes, how they inform the Inner Mother, support the Inner Child, and soothe the Inner Critic. $299 for the series $375 for the series + 1 hour 1:1 mentorship call |
Do you...
- Feel like you grew up too early and missed out on the sweetness of being cared for as a child?
- Find it easy to give compassion and care to others and somehow it never makes its way back to you?
- Tend to take on a lot of responsibility for keeping your relationships alive and functioning?
- Your inner voices are a bit mean and exacting, but outwardly you're kind and generous?
- Long for a sense of having a "nest" - a place that you belong and can rest into?
These difficulties are related. They are all based in the development of the Inner Mother.
She is the one who cares for, protects, and nourishes us. The Inner Mother drives our daily habits and thoughts about what we deserve, how we should be, and how much we can ask for. And when we find her amongst the Landscape Mothers they help us nourish her into one who makes good decisions on our behalf, and is willing to stand for our needs.
Our Inner Mother is initially made of the skills and capacities of our early caregivers, who teach us how to take care of ourselves, what is important and good about us, and what we can expect from others.
And so often, we end up at a place in our adult lives where we need more than this.
We need the Inner Mother to grow beyond what she learned from our caregivers, and to stand for us in other ways. We need her to care for the young ones in us who still harbor the wound of childhood and feel so sensitive to anything that looks like them. Growing the Inner Mother is about growing our capacity and skills for better relationships and a stronger sense of self.
She is the one who cares for, protects, and nourishes us. The Inner Mother drives our daily habits and thoughts about what we deserve, how we should be, and how much we can ask for. And when we find her amongst the Landscape Mothers they help us nourish her into one who makes good decisions on our behalf, and is willing to stand for our needs.
Our Inner Mother is initially made of the skills and capacities of our early caregivers, who teach us how to take care of ourselves, what is important and good about us, and what we can expect from others.
And so often, we end up at a place in our adult lives where we need more than this.
We need the Inner Mother to grow beyond what she learned from our caregivers, and to stand for us in other ways. We need her to care for the young ones in us who still harbor the wound of childhood and feel so sensitive to anything that looks like them. Growing the Inner Mother is about growing our capacity and skills for better relationships and a stronger sense of self.
How do we even start?
I've found from my personal work and working with others that the Inner Mother is often functioning well in tending to others, but has more trouble when it comes to taking care of our own needs.
She isn't a personality type, she is a set of rules and rubrics that we hold for who is worthy of being cared for and what that care looks like.
She needs to be loved, cared for, and cherished. That's how she learns to love, care for, and cherish herself and others. She learns though experience.
Landscape of Mothers provides an orientation to the natural world for the Inner Mother to learn from. Through the eight archetypes in Landscape of Mothers, the Inner Mother finds the support she needs and didn't have before. This guides her growth to fill in the gaps from your childhood experience.
She isn't a personality type, she is a set of rules and rubrics that we hold for who is worthy of being cared for and what that care looks like.
She needs to be loved, cared for, and cherished. That's how she learns to love, care for, and cherish herself and others. She learns though experience.
Landscape of Mothers provides an orientation to the natural world for the Inner Mother to learn from. Through the eight archetypes in Landscape of Mothers, the Inner Mother finds the support she needs and didn't have before. This guides her growth to fill in the gaps from your childhood experience.
In this journey we will:
|
Identify your Inner Mother Profile.
We will begin the exploration by mapping our current capacity. Which Mothers do you feel represent your strengths? Which Mothers seem like they hold the strengths you wish for? Develop fluency with all eight Landscape Mothers. This allows you to meet yourself with exactly what you need. Sometimes you need Ocean Mother's deep acceptance, sometimes Desert Mother's firm boundaries, sometimes Wind Mother's playful release. Identify and Implement Practical Applications. We'll focus each week on one Mother to get to know her breadth and depth. We'll consider how she shows up in how you treat yourself and what it would look like to strengthen this aspect of your inner care. |
|
This might be a good fit for you if:
- You have been working on your childhood wounds and still something feels like it's missing
- It feels like your needs are always being met last and it feels frustrating -- you're ready for something different
- Having a structure you can relate to (nature) instead of one that tells you what to do (experts) feels like it finally puts you in the driver's seat
- You know that you want a kinder, more fulfilling world but aren't sure how to get there
- You enjoy small group explorations of deep and complex questions
- You place a high value on creating a world that works for all people
|
The presentation of the mothers by you is wonderful. I loved the discussions. On our last class when you told us what we had accomplished in our 10 weeks together was powerful. Growing my inner mother took on a completely new dimension with the Landscape of Mothers. My sense of belonging increased and my understanding of the ways I had abandoned myself, as my mother had, was a profound realization. I loved exploring my inner mother and found new ways to my empower myself." - A.C. 2025 |
Landscape of Mothers helps grow the Inner Mother:
Looking through the lens of nature, growth becomes easier.
We don't have to come at our struggles with the story that we're a failure from the start. The nature metaphors and archetypes give us a psychological distance so that we can come at our healing with openness.
The Landscape of Mothers map reveals the wholeness that we can't yet see.
Most self-development focuses on optimizing our strengths, but healthy relationships require us to not only be familiar with our strengths, but also our struggles. Someone might be brilliant at River Mother's organization but might leave people out of her vision because she never learned Island Mother's self-awareness or Forest Mother's collaborative skills.
We can see how our gifts can become our blind spots.
Each of the Mothers have a strength that naturally creates its own struggle. That's why "being your best self" often doesn't get the results you want. The person who's amazing at Wind Mother's joy and letting go might wonder why they can't sustain commitments (Mountain Mother territory).
Landscape of Mothers offers a developmental map, not a prescriptive dead end.
This framework is not about telling you who you are, but instead, shows the specific capacities you can cultivate. Desert Mother isn't saying "be more like a desert person" - she's teaching the learnable skill of healthy boundaries.
We don't have to come at our struggles with the story that we're a failure from the start. The nature metaphors and archetypes give us a psychological distance so that we can come at our healing with openness.
The Landscape of Mothers map reveals the wholeness that we can't yet see.
Most self-development focuses on optimizing our strengths, but healthy relationships require us to not only be familiar with our strengths, but also our struggles. Someone might be brilliant at River Mother's organization but might leave people out of her vision because she never learned Island Mother's self-awareness or Forest Mother's collaborative skills.
We can see how our gifts can become our blind spots.
Each of the Mothers have a strength that naturally creates its own struggle. That's why "being your best self" often doesn't get the results you want. The person who's amazing at Wind Mother's joy and letting go might wonder why they can't sustain commitments (Mountain Mother territory).
Landscape of Mothers offers a developmental map, not a prescriptive dead end.
This framework is not about telling you who you are, but instead, shows the specific capacities you can cultivate. Desert Mother isn't saying "be more like a desert person" - she's teaching the learnable skill of healthy boundaries.
I loved calling in the Mothers and then releasing them each and every single time. Along with so enjoying the ritual, I found it to be a lovely little review and reminder of each of the Mothers and their gifts. I also appreciated our review of the last week's Mother before turning our eyes towards our new Mother. And, it was good to close our time together with thinking together through traits of our new Mother." - D.H. 2025 |
|
Practical Matters:
We will meet on Zoom for Tuesdays:
September 8 - November 17 (no class October 13, 2026)
11am-12:30pm Pacific Time/2pm-3:30pm Eastern Time
Cost:
Option 1: Zoom course only - $299
Option 2: Zoom course + 1 hour mentorship call - $375
Class dates will be:
September 8, September 15, September 22, September 29, October 6,
Break: October 13
October 20, October 27, November 3, November 10, November 17
September 8 - November 17 (no class October 13, 2026)
11am-12:30pm Pacific Time/2pm-3:30pm Eastern Time
Cost:
Option 1: Zoom course only - $299
Option 2: Zoom course + 1 hour mentorship call - $375
Class dates will be:
September 8, September 15, September 22, September 29, October 6,
Break: October 13
October 20, October 27, November 3, November 10, November 17
I look forward to sharing Landscape of Mothers with you!