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My Story

When I became a mother, I had no idea what I was being invited into...
not just motherhood, but a deeper encounter with myself.

 

Not the polished version of me.
Not the “good girl.”
Not the wise one who tried to have all the answers.
Not the one who posed for Instagram.

 

But the me beneath all that performance:
the afraid me,
the controlling me,
the exhausted me,
and the deeply caring me who still wants to get this right.

 

I thought I’d be a “natural” mother,
and I still find myself humbly learning in each moment.
When my firstborn arrived, everything I thought I knew about myself

became alive in ways I hadn’t yet felt.
I didn’t trust myself.
I didn’t know how to meet his big feelings or his strong will.
And I definitely didn’t know how to meet mine.

So, like so many of us, I tried to learn my way into the mother I want to be.
I read books. I gathered frameworks and strategies.
I immersed in positive parenting, conscious parenting, nervous system science, emotional intelligence

I trained deeply, becoming a Master Certified Parent Coach - and that opened my eyes to patterns and possibilities I hadn’t seen before. 

All of it helps. But for a long time, I lived motherhood from my mind. With strategy. With tools. With scripts and structure.

 

And still I felt like I was performing something instead of living it.

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Motherhood continues to bring every generational pattern to the surface. From people-pleasing, to perfectionism, to self-abandonment, to quiet performing, and to the old story that love means control and rescue.

It has brought me to my knees again and again.


IBut in that mess and moments of overwhelm where I feel like I am failing - I slow down. 
I listen more closely. To my kids and also to me. 

I begin to feel the parts of me I spent a lifetime rejecting.
I turn toward presence instead of perfection, toward my body instead of only my thoughts, toward my own humanity.

 

I lean into what’s alive right now.

The work I learned through study and training begins to take root in my lived experience.

It stops being about being “right,” and starts being about being real.

 

This is where everything shifts.

There was a moment with my son Noah that opened my world.

We used to spiral and escalate in my fear and a grasping for power. I started to work with my fear. I began to hear the stories I was telling myself and I began to work with my nervous system in these tense moments. 

There was a pivotal moment where I finally interrupted the pattern. Instead of trying to control him, I met him. His nervous system, his fear, his humanity.

I softened my body. I breathed. I put my hand on my heart. I got down on his level eye to eye and I saw him in a new way. 

I told him: 


“All of you is welcome here.
You don’t have to scream to be heard.
I want to hear you.” 

He crumpled into tears.
Not because I told him to calm down or tried to make him act differently. 
But because, finally, he felt safe and heard and loved.

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That moment keeps teaching me.
Not because I found a “tip" or "script",
but because I continue to see the innocence in us all. 
In my kids, myself, my family, others around me, and the generational living inside us all. 

No one’s doing anything wrong.


We’re all just living stories we haven’t yet fully understood.

And that realization keeps inviting me deeper. Not into fixing or control or becoming perfect, but into seeing and presence and inviting my practice deeper.

Not to a place where struggle ends, but where clarity and compassion deepen.

My practice doesn’t live in a classroom or a book.
It lives in the living room floor, in the middle of meltdowns, in moments where I feel stretched, afraid, overwhelmed, human. 

In those moments, I choose to slow down, to look inward, and to stay with myself instead of abandoning myself.

 

From there, my safety expands inside discomfort.
Creativity awakens.
Intuition sharpens.
And my artistry as a mother continues to rise.

This is the practice I bring to other mothers now.

Not performance.
Not perfection.
But a way of being that lets you meet yourself, meet your child, and create a future rooted in presence, compassion, and truth. 

Here, we walk together in the journey.

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The Heart Behind My Work

Motherhood is the art of creating the future. 

Motherhood calls us into being designers of our inner world and our outer legacy.

Motherhood invites us into leadership, vision, relationship, and transformation. 

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Home Lives in Us

How we see, feel, and meet ourselves shapes our parenting.
Every trigger is a mirror. Every reaction is an invitation inward before outward.
The world we build with our children begins inside of us — with the stories we live in, the compassion we hold, and the courage to look honestly at ourselves.

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The Mother as Leader of the Heart

The power of the mother is not in control or perfection.
It lives in embodied presence, grounded intuition, and fierce compassion.
This is leadership that protects without overpowering, guides without dominating, and creates safety through truth rather than fear.
When a mother leads from her body and her knowing, she transforms her lineage.

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Creativity is Leadership

We lead not by enforcing outcomes, but by imagining what’s possible and shaping the conditions where those possibilities can grow.
Motherhood is the quiet, courageous art of shaping the future one small moment at a time.

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To Feel is to Discover Wisdom

We grow by feeling, rather than suppressing, fixing, or bypassing.
And it takes time, patience, and compassion to learn how. Our feelings become teachers, revealing what is ready to be seen, healed, or held. When we allow ourselves to feel fully, we give our children an embodied reference for emotional maturity, resilience, and compassion.

How I Walk with You

Where truth and compassion meet
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You are your own expert.

Your intuition is wise. My role is to help you come home to yourself.

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All of you is welcome here.

Nothing in you is too much, “bad,” or unwelcome.

We will practice meeting reality, not perfection.

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We grow in compassion.

We humans don't grow well in shame or pressure. We grow most naturally in compassion and love.
I will stand with you while you meet what blocks you from loving yourself.

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We honor your lineage.

Your patterns are not personal failures.
They are inherited stories that can be rewritten with compassion.

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We move at the pace of your nervous system.

Not fast. Not forced. Not pressured.
Real change happens when your body feels safe enough to let go.

Where My Writing Lives

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The place where I share stories, reflections, and the truth of my motherhood practice.
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Marissa Goldenstein
The Motherhood Practice™

Love from the future. Rooted in practice.

Hello@marissagoldenstein.com
© 2025 Marissa Goldenstein. All rights reserved.

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