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Hi, I'm Jackie, your identity and motherhood coach
Most advice out there wasn't built for the identity crisis you're actually in. "Bounce back." "Get easier routines." None of that touches what's actually happening: you don't know who you are anymore, and no amount of self-care fixes an identity crisis.
My story started with the words
“I'm not even excited anymore.”
What I said, crying in my mother's arms, one day before boarding a two-month trip to Mexico, our first as a family of three.
And if you're thinking, "wait, what does a trip to Mexico have to do with becoming a matrescence coach?" Stay with me.
I had it all planned out: take the 4 months of maternity leave, get a nanny and go back into my corporate job. I never thought motherhood would get in the way of my plan to keep climbing the corporate ladder.
But three weeks later, recovering from an unplanned and early emergency C-section with a very, very tiny baby in my arms, I wrote this in my journal:
“If my personality was a cup, I feel it has been shattered on the floor, and there is no chance this can be put back together.”
I felt like I'd been driving on a motorway at full speed, but I'd slammed the brakes on and gone from 100 miles an hour to 0, with no warning. And then I was sitting on my sofa. No back-to-back meetings, no external validation, no bonuses or targets, just me and my son.
That, combined with an awful amount of pain thanks to a shrinking uterus (nobody warns you about that one), made for quiet, slow days. Supposedly "the most beautiful time ever," if you listened to the people around me. But my nervous system wasn't prepared for this.
When you go from being the expert in the room to barely being able to move, with no idea how to keep a human alive, you come up with the most ridiculous stuff.
The obvious ones: getting obsessed with sleep schedules, ticking off tasks on my to-do list like my life depended on it, and signing up for a pre- and postnatal yoga teacher training.
I did all this while I hadn't even mentally recovered from an emergency C-section, because I was trying to get back up to 100 miles an hour.
By then I had reached an abnormal level of exhaustion. Those months pretending I was okay, trying to become better and do more, being deeply confused because what once was my whole life wasn't in first place anymore.
I obviously still managed to stay on top of anything that happened at work, but I had actually requested an extended leave by then.
Meaning I had just become the mother I would have judged before. For nothing in this world would I have expected myself to want to stay home longer. I was so worried I had lost my edge, and I questioned my ambition. By then, the tiniest sense of worth that was left had disappeared.
Once we landed, something changed. I was deeply exhausted, yes, but I finally had distance from my old life: colleagues, my boss, keeping up appearances to hide how tired and unsure I actually was.
For the first time in months, I had the space to look at what I had lived through. And eventually, one word came back to me, one I'd heard once during my yoga teacher training: matrescence. I started reading more, and by the end of the trip I'd registered for a Matrescence Coach certification. In that moment it wasn't to help others, it was to help me.
It was on that trip that I finally gave myself permission to slow down. I pulled into the slow lane, and that's when I had my greatest realisation: I knew what my next career would be.
Mexico, where I finally pulled into the slow lane.
Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
My first client was me. I had to study this, I couldn't just go through it. I had to realise I needed to let go of the old version of myself to let the new version come in, and I really had to own that I had to do this for myself before I could do it for anyone else.
Now I move through the world at a different pace. I'm present, and I get to actually enjoy my child without this constant rush or need to accomplish something.
Once I did it for myself, I couldn't not do it for you too. And this is where BECOME came in.
Free 3-episode podcast: "Why Quitting Your Corporate Job Won't Fix Your Identity Crisis as a New Mum."
Get episode 1 →This isn't just identity coaching
“You always knew exactly how to summarise anything I would throw at you. Every session, I slowly shifted into the right direction. The insights I got really stayed with me.”
Annick W.“She showed genuine interest and was fully present during our call. Through her coaching questions, I experienced a real breakthrough, a daily mantra that has supported me ever since.”
Munirah Razak“I loved speaking to someone who is also a mum. I realised anything is good enough. I could start slowly, with as little as I had the capacity for.”
Atieh A.“No fixed framework, no rulebook for feelings. Jackie shows you what's possible within your own space. I'd recommend multiple sessions.”
Renata Altamirano“Small changes, immensely important. Before leaving to collect my daughter, I now take ten minutes to enjoy a tea and reflect.”
Beth Anderson“After coaching, I feel calmer, more self-aware, and more compassionate towards myself.”
Eva Sanz CastelNotes on Becoming
Here's how I'm different
01
This isn't like therapy. We also focus on breathwork, yoga and somatic exercises, because after motherhood your body changed as much as your identity did, and healing needs to happen in both.
02
I'm still two years into my own matrescence, coaching from real, lived experience rather than theory alone. I know what you're going through because I'm going through it too.
03
10 years in corporate, 5+ of them leading global tech teams across three continents, means I understand ambition, high-performer conditioning and what it takes to lead while your whole identity is changing underneath you.
I believe
If this is how you see it too, keep reading.
If any part of this felt like your story too, let's talk.
Book a connection callA 30-minute conversation to explore where you are in your transition into motherhood and what feels unclear or in tension right now. This is a space to reflect, get perspective and see whether working together would be helpful for you.