TE ARA MĀMĀ
Matrescence Practitioner Certification
Te Ara Māmā
Matrescence Practitioner Certification
Early bird is open now
Pay your deposit $320 NZD today and remaining monthly payments begin January 2027
He taonga tuku iho — treasures and knowledge handed down through generations
The only matrescence practitioner training in the world grounded in a dual-lens methodology — mātauranga Māori as the organising framework, with Western science arriving as corroborating evidence. Neither lens is subordinate. Both are necessary. This is what has been missing.
You don't need to be Māori to carry this knowledge with integrity — you need to be willing to learn it properly.
First Cohort Begins 2027 — Registrations are now open
What is Te Ara Māmā?
Te Ara Māmā is a Matrescence Practitioner Certification rooted in mātauranga Māori and ancestral wisdom. It is indigenous-led, wairua-centred, and unapologetically grounded in te ao Māori.
This programme is open to practitioners of all backgrounds who are willing to learn, unlearn, and be changed by what they encounter here. This is not indigenous knowledge made accessible — it is indigenous knowledge, offered with integrity, to those who are genuinely ready to receive it.
Every topic in this programme is held through two lenses simultaneously. The Indigenous concept opens the teaching — naming what Māori and ancestral knowledge have always understood. Western science then arrives to corroborate what was already known. This is the dual-lens methodology. It belongs to this programme. You will not find it anywhere else.
Who this is for
This programme serves two entry points equally — and holds both with the same depth and rigour.
If you are already working in a profession — as a midwife, social worker, counsellor, psychologist, Plunket nurse, kaimahi hauora, doula, or wellbeing practitioner — this certification adds the matrescence lens, the Indigenous framework, and the coaching and mentoring skills to deepen everything you already do.
If you are new to this field — called to support wāhine and māmā but not yet credentialled in a traditional profession then this programme gives you the coaching frameworks, the evidence base, the practice skills, and the inner work foundation to practise with integrity from the beginning.
Midwives and LMCs
Māori and Pasifika health practitioners and kaimahi hauora
Social workers and whānau ora navigators
Counsellors and psychologists
Birth and postpartum doulas
Coaches, educators, and wellbeing practitioners
Anyone called to this work who is willing to do it with integrity, Mana and understanding where they stand in this space
A Pou is a post, a carved pillar that holds a structure upright. In traditional Māori architecture, Pou are not decorative. They are load-bearing. Remove one and the structure cannot stand.Te Ara Māmā is built on five Pou. These are not modules, topics, or themes. They are the foundational pillars that hold the entire programme,and every piece of learning, practice, and transformation inside it and in place. Together they form a methodology that exists nowhere else in Matrescence education.
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A Pou is a post, a carved pillar that holds a structure upright. In traditional Māori architecture, Pou are not decorative. They are load-bearing. Remove one and the structure cannot stand.Te Ara Māmā is built on five Pou. These are not modules, topics, or themes. They are the foundational pillars that hold the entire programme,and every piece of learning, practice, and transformation inside it and in place. Together they form a methodology that exists nowhere else in Matrescence education. *
Pou One — Taonga Tuku Iho
Ancestral knowledge leads
Taonga tuku iho means treasures handed down through generations — the accumulated knowledge, wisdom, and ways of understanding that our tupuna carried and passed forward. In this programme, mātauranga Māori is not a module or a cultural add-on. It is the organising framework everything else is built on. We begin with what Indigenous knowledge has always held about the transformation of becoming a māmā. Western science arrives afterwards — not to validate what was always true, but to corroborate it. The knowledge was never missing. The pou of taonga tuku iho holds that truth at the centre of everything.
Pou Two — Pūtaiao
Evidence-based and scientifically rigorous
Pūtaiao is the te reo Māori word for science — the study of the natural world. This pou holds the full weight of Western research: the neuroscience of brain remodelling through matrescence, the psychology of identity transformation, perinatal mental health evidence, epigenetics, trauma science, and clinical frameworks. This programme is rigorous. It is referenced. It is credible in a hospital corridor, a GP's office, an iwi health boardroom. Practitioners who complete Te Ara Māmā can hold a clinical conversation with a specialist and a cultural conversation with a kaumātua — and know they are speaking about the same truth from different angles.
Pou Three — Ako
Coaching, mentoring, and the skill of being with
Ako in te ao Māori holds both teaching and learning simultaneously — the understanding that in genuine exchange, both parties are changed. This pou holds the coaching and mentoring methodology woven through every module. Not just knowledge about matrescence — but the relational skill of sitting with a wāhine in her full experience without flinching, fixing, or rushing her. How to ask the questions that open things. How to hold space that actually holds. These are learnable skills and this programme teaches them explicitly — so whether you are an experienced practitioner adding this lens or someone coming to this work for the first time, you leave knowing how to be with a māmā, not just knowing about her experience.
Pou Four — Mahi Ā-Roto
Deep inner work
Mahi ā-roto means inner work — the work that happens inside, beneath the surface, in the places that don't show. This pou holds the truth that you cannot support a wāhine through a threshold you haven't been willing to meet in yourself. Before you take this work to your clients, you will encounter it in your own body, your own whakapapa, your own story. Your own birth story. Your own maternal lineage. Your own relationship to becoming and belonging. This is not therapy — but it is transformative. The practitioner's inner work is not a side element of this programme. It is the curriculum running underneath all of it.
Pou Five — Whakamahi
Applied practice from the first module
Whakamahi means to put into practice — to use, to apply, to activate knowledge through doing. This pou holds the commitment that learning in this programme is never theoretical for long. Every module includes a client-facing resource you can use immediately. The programme includes working with real clients, with case study submissions, with reflective practice that bridges what you are learning and what you are doing. Guest facilitators — knowledge holders, healers, and practitioners from across Aotearoa — bring their specific expertise directly into the container. You do not graduate having consumed content. You graduate having practised.
These five pou do not stand alone — they hold each other. The ancestral knowledge needs the science to speak across contexts. The science needs the ancestral framework to be complete. Both need the relational skill to be useful. The relational skill needs the inner work to have integrity. And the inner work needs practice to become real. This is why no other matrescence programme offers what this one does.
What you will learn the 7-module arc
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What you will learn the 7-module arc *
Seven months. Seven modules. Each one held through both lenses — mātauranga Māori opening the teaching, Western science corroborating it. Each module includes self-paced video content with Maddie presenting, a PDF workbook, a client-facing resource you can use immediately, an embodiment practice, and a monthly live call.
Guest facilitators — knowledge holders, healers, and practitioners from across Aotearoa — are woven through the programme, bringing specific depth that belongs to its rightful holders.
00
Orientation — Entering with intention
Welcome to this wāhi
What this work asks of you and what it will give back. Opening karakia. The kaupapa of this container. Your grounding practice — used at the start of every module. The practitioner as kaitiaki.
01
Hapūtanga — the complete arc of becoming
What is matrescence — and what Māori always knew
Māori have always held the full truth of what happens to a wāhine when she becomes a māmā. Hapūtanga is that framework. The neuroscience of brain remodelling, neuroplasticity, and identity transformation. Whakapapa, epigenetics, and the ancestral patterns carried into the threshold of motherhood.
02
Hinengaro — mind and heart as one, inseparable
The emotional landscape
The full emotional range of matrescence — grief, rage, ambivalence, joy — as normal and evidenced. Hinengaro as the integrated framework for understanding feeling. The clinical distinction between matrescence distress and perinatal mental illness. Screening tools. When to hold and when to refer.
03
Whakapapa — identity as lineage extended, not self lost
Identity — who she is becoming
She is not losing herself. She is extending her lineage. Whakapapa as the identity framework that reframes the Western "death of self" narrative. Liminal space, disenfranchised grief, and the arc of integration. Your own birth story and maternal lineage as part of this module's inner work.
04
Mauri — life force to be protected and restored
The body — tinana and the full arc of recovery
Mauri and the protection of life force in the postpartum period. Rongoa, tikanga, and traditional healing as a complete recovery system. The full physical arc of postpartum recovery — what the 6-week check misses. Birth as a threshold event. Trauma-informed care across all practitioner roles.
05
Whānaungatanga — the relational web that holds her
Relationships and whānau
A māmā was never meant to do this alone. Whānaungatanga and the natural structure of collective care. The role of tupuna and hapū. What matrescence does to intimate relationships. The invisible load. How to support a wāhine within her full relational context without overstepping scope.
06
Manaakitanga — upholding the mana of another unconditionally
Holding space — the practitioner's ethic
Manaakitanga is not a technique. It is a way of being. The neuroscience of co-regulation. Trauma-informed conversation. Cultural safety with Māori and Pasifika wāhine as a relational practice, not a checklist. Scope of care across all professional roles. The practitioner's own nervous system as a tool.
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Toiora — the fullness of flourishing
Integration — the practitioner you are becoming
Toiora as the goal — holistic flourishing, not symptom reduction or return to baseline. Who you are becoming through this work. Your credential, your practice, your next steps. The pathway forward for those called to go deeper into Te Ara Māmā advanced immersion.
Programme details
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Programme details *
7-month online container — open to practitioners across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally
Orientation module before the programme begins — minimum 4 weeks self-paced completion
Monthly live calls alternating between daytime and evening sessions — recorded for those who can't attend live
Self-paced video modules with Maddie presenting — slide deck format with face-to-camera overlay
PDF workbook for every module — reflections, exercises, key concepts, and client-facing resources
Guest facilitators — knowledge holders, healers, and practitioners brought in across the programme
Integration assignments between modules — reflective, practice-based, and experiential
Case study submissions demonstrating real-world application
Optional end-of-cohort in-person wānanga in Aotearoa
Certificate of completion upon meeting all programme requirements
CPD hours applicable across health, social services, and wellbeing sectors — accreditation pathway in progress
This programme is designed for integration, not consumption. You cannot rush a rite of passage — and you cannot rush learning how to hold one.
Register your expressionof interest
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Register your expressionof interest *
Investment
Early bird pricing is available to those who register an expression of interest before enrolments open late 2026
Early Bird
$3,200 NZD
or 12 monthly payments of $320
Available to EOI registrants only. This pricing Closes end of October 2026
Standard
$3,800 NZD
or 12 monthly payments of $380
This will be the pricing from November 2026
Payment plans available — 10 monthly payments, completed before the programme ends
CPD hours recognised across nursing, midwifery, social work, and allied health
IICT accreditation in progress for the 2027 cohort
The first cohort begins 2027. Numbers are deliberately small — this is a close, supported container, not a mass enrolment. Registering your interest costs nothing and secures your place in the queue for when enrolments open late 2026.
When you register you will receive:
Early bird pricing access — $600 NZD saving on the standard fee
Programme information and module details as they are released
Invitation to a free information webinar before enrolments open
First access when the cohort opens
Your information will never be shared. You can unsubscribe at any time.
“Our Tūpuna, Ancestors knew. The research is now catching up. This programme holds both.”