Keynotes | Conferences | Inservices
Workshops | Media
Every day, mothers walk into clinical settings without a word for what they are living through.
And the practitioners caring for them — skilled, dedicated, and deeply committed — are doing so without a shared framework for what they are witnessing.
The concept that closes this gap is called matrescence — the developmental transformation of becoming a mother.
And it has been almost entirely absent from practitioner training across every discipline for decades.
the result is a maternal health care system that tends to …
Pathologise what is developmental
Miss what is clinical, and
Leave mothers navigating one of the most significant transitions of their lives without language, without context, and without the informed care they deserve.
Matrescence is the next standard of maternal care.
Cayley Benjamin brings this conversation to healthcare and educational institutions, corporate organizations, conferences, clinical teams, and the media — translating the science and humanity of matrescence into a framework that practitioners can apply immediately, across every discipline.
Three signature talks.
One framework.
An new perspective on how you view maternal care
For Practitioners
Matrescence: A Missing Piece in Maternal Care
Every practitioner working in maternal health is already witnessing matrescence — the profound developmental transformation of becoming a mother. Most have never had a name for it, a framework for it, or training in how to respond to it. This talk changes that.
Drawing on the emerging science of matrescence and the clinical reality of what practitioners witness every day, Cayley introduces the matrescence framework in a way that is immediately accessible and immediately applicable — across every discipline in the room.
This is the foundational talk that gives clinical teams a shared language for the first time — and changes how they walk into every client encounter that follows.
KEYNOTE · INSERVICE · WORKSHOP | 45 MIN – HALF DAY
For Practitioners
The Case for Matrescence-Informed Practice: Closing the Gap
Maternal healthcare is a field defined by commitment and constrained by a gap — between the full developmental reality of what mothers experience and what practitioners are trained to understand.
This talk makes the systemic case for matrescence-informed practice: what it is, why it matters, what the evidence shows, and what changes when institutions and clinical teams adopt it as a standard of care.
Cayley draws on the science of matrescence, the research on pathologization and shame in maternal care, and the clinical and human cost of the current gap — building a compelling, evidence-grounded argument for why matrescence education belongs in every healthcare institution, training program, and multidisciplinary team working with mothers.
KEYNOTE · CONFERENCE PRESENTATION | 45 – 90 MIN
for mothers
Matrescence & the Identity Shift of Motherhood
Every mother eventually asks the same question: who am I now? Built around that question, this talk offers mothers a developmental framework for the identity shift they are living through — and language for the parts of it that no one told them about.
Matrescence names the transformation of becoming a mother across every domain of a person's life — physical, psychological, social, and beyond. This talk explores what it means to grieve a former self, to feel at home in neither the person you were nor the mother you are becoming, and to understand that the disorientation is not a sign of failure but a sign of a developmental passage in full motion.
Drawing on the emerging science of matrescence and the neuroscience of the maternal brain, it is an intimate and illuminating experience that gives mothers what most were never given before or during this transition: a name, a framework, and the profound relief of knowing they are not alone in it.
KEYNOTE · conference · WORKSHOP | 45 MIN – 90 mins
Available in five formats — in person and virtually.
keynote
Conference or institutional opening, closing, or plenary.
inservice/CPD
Tailored for clinical teams. Discipline-specific application included.
CONFERENCEs
Breakout or plenary. Adapted to conference theme and audience.
WORKSHOP
Half-day or full-day. Deep-dive with case application, reflection, and team discussion.
Media & Interviews
Print, broadcast, and podcast. Available for comment, interview, and expert perspective.
Trusted by these
organizations
Meet Cayley
Cayley Benjamin is the founder of The Matrescence Movement and one of Canada's leading voices on matrescence — the developmental transformation of becoming a mother.
With a background in Psychology and Sociology, 18 years of experience in leadership development and facilitation, a coaching certification through the Co-Active Leadership Institute, and a Motherhood Studies Practitioner certification through Dr. Sophie Brock, Cayley works with healthcare and educational institutions, clinical teams and mothers to bring matrescence-informed practice into maternal care.
She has been featured on Global News, the CBC, CTV News, the Toronto Star, BC Parent, Business in Vancouver and Canadian Affairs.
Cayley is based in Vancouver, BC and speaks in person and virtually. She is available for keynotes, conference presentations, clinical inservices, workshops, media appearances, and panel discussions.
