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There is a certain sacredness to how we feel about the mother archetype. We have distinct ideas about who she is, and what we need from her.
Our own experience with how we were mothered has a huge part to play in how we relate to the mother archetype. We all have an idea of what we need and didn’t get from our own mothers. People aren’t perfect, and neither are our mothers. Many did the best the could with the resources they had. So, regardless of who your mom is or was as a person, re mothering is not about identifying and trying to fix the wounds from your relationship with your mother.
Re-mothering is like the psychological concept of reparenting, only working with the mother side of the parental duality. The concept of reparenting is to examine the feelings you have about your childhood and identifying what you needed but didn’t get.
Reparenting is a form of psychotherapy in which the therapist actively assumes the role of a new or surrogate parental figure for the client, in order to treat psychological disturbances caused by defective, even abusive, parenting.
We can also work to re-parent ourselves by identifying our needs and then looking to ourself to fulfill them. For example, I identified a need to be emotionally and psychologically supported around school, learning and my abilities. For whatever reasons, my mother wasn’t able to give me the kind of support I needed for achievement in school. I had to learn to nurture my own need for support.
There are three steps for re-parenting yourself:
- Identifying the wound. so in my case, feelings of abandonment and neglect for the support I needed to achieve.
- Naming the need.
- Providing it for yourself.
Good questions to ask yourself around re-parenting:
Is this healthy & nurturing for me?
How would parent a child around this issue?
Does this support healing?
Learn more about how you can work with the mother archetype to facilitate creative healing by watching my video. Enjoy!
