Matrescence: The Hero's Journey of Remembering Who I was

Little did I know that I was about to embark on the most revealing journey of my life.

I had always heard that motherhood changes you, that becoming a mother would forever change your life. What I didn't know was that it would bring me closer to my essence. Little did I know that motherhood would send me on a long journey back home, to where it all began, back to my authenticity.

Motherhood faced me with the deepest fears I didn't even know existed within my psyche. It made visible the stories my body and mind had been carrying beneath my awareness, stories that had quietly shaped my reality for years. Stories I no longer wanted to hear, yet stories that were asking to be seen.

It made me see, understand, forgive, appreciate, thank, and ultimately let go of who I no longer needed to be. It invited me to grieve and welcome, simultaneously, old and new identities. It asked me to release the masks that no longer served me and let go of versions of myself that had once been necessary for survival but were no longer aligned with who I was becoming.

Somewhere along the way, it taught me to lose the fear of losing.

The transformation is still unfolding as I continue this path called life. Like the snake that sheds its skin, I continue shedding old layers of myself: old beliefs, old fears, old identities, and old stories. I continue shedding versions of who I had to become in order to survive, belong, be accepted, and protect my attachments to those around me.

With each layer I release, I move closer to who I truly am. Closer to my essence. Closer to my authenticity. Closer to peace.

The shedding is not always comfortable, but neither is remaining trapped inside a version of yourself you have already outgrown.

Looking back, I can clearly see how my wounds activated such a sacred path for me. A path that became visible when I thought I was losing myself. A path that had been waiting for me all along.

I remember sitting in my living room holding my son and being terrified by thoughts that made no sense to me. I had never experienced anxiety like this before. I questioned my mind. I questioned myself. I wondered if I would ever feel like me again.

At the time, all I could see was fear. I couldn't see the invitation hidden beneath it. I couldn't see that what felt like falling apart was actually the beginning of a journey back home.

What I couldn't see then was that I wasn't losing myself at all. I was being invited into the Hero's Journey.

Like the hummingbird, I was being asked to trust a path I could not yet see. To keep moving forward even when I didn't know where I was going, even in those moments when I could not recognize myself, when I did not know who I was becoming, or what I was supposed to do. I was being asked to trust that what was calling me was also waiting for me.

It was during that season that PSYCH-K® crossed my path.

Like the jaguar in shamanic tradition, a symbol of courage, strength, wisdom, and transformation, it appeared exactly when I needed it most. Not to rescue me, but to help me walk through the darkness, sit with the fears, face the stories, and transform what had been running unconsciously beneath the surface of my life.

PSYCH-K® gave me a key. A key to my subconscious mind. A key to the part of me that had been carrying old fears, painful stories, inherited beliefs, and emotional baggage for far too long.

It helped me release what was no longer mine to carry. It made the journey lighter, more peaceful, and more aligned. And it continues to do so every day.

PSYCH-K® continues to help me remember who I am, who I have always been beneath the defenses I built in order to survive, beneath the coping mechanisms, beneath the conditioning, beneath the fears, beneath the need for approval, and beneath the need to belong.

It helped me let go of who I had to become in order to fit in, be accepted, and protect my attachments to those around me. It continues to help me reconnect with who I was before the world told me who I needed to be, with my essence and my authenticity.

PSYCH-K® is not something I did. It is a sacred process that continues to accompany me as I evolve, remember, and become. It helps me return to myself again and again. It reminds me that the peace I seek is not outside of me. It has always been within me.

Today, when I look back at where my journey began through the eyes of the condor, I can see what I could not see before. I can see how every fear, every wound, every challenge, and every moment of uncertainty was part of something larger. I can see how what felt like falling apart was actually an invitation to come home. I can see how motherhood wasn't taking me away from myself. It was leading me back to myself.

Today, I have the tremendous honor of walking alongside other women on their own transformational journeys through matrescence. I help mothers release limiting beliefs, subconscious fears, and old stories that no longer serve them so they can embrace their authenticity, trust themselves more deeply, and enjoy their motherhood with greater peace and freedom.

Because matrescence is not simply the process of becoming a mother. It is also the process of remembering who you are.

Motherhood has been, and continues to be, the Hero's Journey for me. A journey of remembering, becoming, shedding, healing, and coming back home.

For that, I feel a profound sense of gratitude and reverence for this path called motherhood.

I thought motherhood was teaching me how to care for my child. What it was really teaching me was how to come home to myself.

Leticia Salazar

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

PSYCH-K® Facilitator