Motherhood and the Loss of Self: Reconnecting With the Body’s Wisdom

Motherhood brings profound love and profound change. Amid sleepless nights, shifting hormones, and constant caregiving, many mothers quietly ask: Where did I go?

At the Center for Embodiment Medicine, we offer an integrative approach to maternal mental health, grounded in somatic therapy, trauma-informed care, and mind-body-spirit healing. We recognize that the transition into motherhood is not only psychological, it is deeply embodied.

The maternal body becomes a vessel for creation, nourishment, and protection. Yet in that process, many lose touch with their own needs, rhythms, and sense of self. Reconnecting with the body’s wisdom can help mothers rediscover who they are, not apart from motherhood, but within it.

1. The Invisible Transformation of the Maternal Body

Motherhood transforms every system of the body — physical, hormonal, emotional, and nervous. Yet much of this transformation remains unseen and unspoken.

Culturally, new mothers are praised for resilience and selflessness, but rarely invited to honor their vulnerability, exhaustion, or complexity. When attention turns only to the baby, a quiet disconnection can emerge, a sense that one’s body exists for others, not as one’s own home.

Through somatic psychotherapy and mindful awareness, mothers can reclaim authorship of their bodies. By listening inward, from to fatigue, longing, or subtle sensations, they rebuild the bridge between identity and embodiment. Healing begins not through striving, but by remembering that the body carries innate intelligence and power to restore balance.

2. The Nervous System in Motherhood

The maternal nervous system is exquisitely attuned to a baby’s needs, a biological dance called co-regulation, where the baby learns safety through the mother’s presence.

But when mothers are under-supported, their systems can remain in chronic activation: scanning, responding, giving, without pause. This can manifest as postpartum anxiety, overwhelm, or numbness.

Somatic therapy offers gentle ways to restore nervous system regulation:

• Grounding through breath and body awareness

• Reconnecting to sensations of rest and ease

• Allowing moments of stillness as nourishment

  
  

A regulated mother is not a perfect mother, she is a mother whose body knows how to return home to safety. Through these small embodied practices, healing happens from the inside out.

3. Reclaiming Identity Through Embodied Motherhood

Many mothers describe feeling like they have “lost themselves.” This loss often reflects not an absence of self, but a shift in how self is accessed. The roles of caregiver, partner, or provider can eclipse the felt sense of being a whole person.

Embodiment practices create a path home. By slowing down and sensing the body, a mother reconnects to her emotions, intuition, and vitality, the parts that existed long before motherhood.

Practices such as gentle movement, somatic meditation, yoga, or ecotherapy help mothers re-inhabit their bodies and reawaken a sense of rhythm and belonging.

Each moment of embodiment whispers: I am still here. I belong to myself, too.

4. A Gentle Practice: Listening for Yourself

Try this simple embodiment exercise when you feel scattered or disconnected:

Settle: Find a quiet space, even for one minute. Feel your feet on the ground. Let your breath deepen.

Sense: Bring awareness to your heart or belly. Ask softly, How am I, right now?

Notice sensations, the warmth, heaviness, ache, or stillness without judgment.

Name: Silently name what you feel: “tired,” “lonely,” “grateful,” “overwhelmed.” Naming builds awareness and compassion.

Nourish: Place a hand where you feel tenderness. Take one slow breath into that space. You don’t have to fix anything, you only need to listen.

Small acts of embodied mindfulness help mothers restore self-connection, improve emotional regulation, and awaken trust in their body’s innate wisdom.

5. Our Philosophy: Integrating Body, Mind, Spirit, and Earth

At the Center for Embodiment Medicine, we support mothers and caregivers through every stage, from pregnancy and postpartum to the long arc of rediscovering wholeness.

Our therapeutic approach integrates body, mind, spirit, and earth, drawing from evidence-based and holistic modalities:

• Somatic and trauma-informed therapy that honors what the body carries

• Humanistic and existential psychology to explore meaning and identity

• Ecotherapy and nature-based healing that reconnects body and earth

• Mindfulness and spiritual practice as paths toward presence and peace

• Accessible care, including acceptance of Medi-Cal / Partnership HealthPlan

  
  

We believe that postpartum healing and maternal mental health thrive when women are supported to listen to their bodies and the living world around them, remembering that healing is both personal and collective, rooted in belonging.

Learn more about our Maternal Mental Health Services and discover how embodied therapy can help you find yourself again within motherhood.

Schedule your first session with a trauma-informed therapist at The Center for Embodiment Medicine today. We offer both in-person and telehealth appointments. 

San Rafael Office: Serving Marin County and surrounding areas 7

Santa Cruz Office: Serving Santa Cruz County and the Central Coast

Call us today or visit www.centerforembodimentmedicine.com to book your session.