Ostara Occupational Therapy

Ostara Occupational Therapy Women's health occupational therapy services with a special focus on perinatal and maternal mental health.

05/03/2026

Something that deeply informs my work with mothers is matricentric feminism, a concept developed by Andrea O'Reilly within the field of Motherhood Studies.

At its core, matricentric feminism recognises that motherhood is a distinct social location. While mothers experience many of the same inequalities faced by women more broadly, they also encounter pressures that arise specifically from the expectations, labour and identities associated with mothering.

These can include the cultural idealisation of “good motherhood”, the normalisation of unpaid care work, career penalties linked to motherhood and the emotional and relational labour that often sits invisibly within family life.

Matricentric feminism does not position itself in opposition to broader feminist work. Rather, it expands the lens by asking that motherhood be more explicitly centred in conversations about gender, wellbeing, policy and social structures.

For those of us working alongside mothers, this perspective can be incredibly helpful. It allows us to look beyond individual mothers and consider the wider cultural and structural contexts shaping their experiences.

When we bring motherhood more clearly into view, we can begin to better understand what mothers are carrying and what support might truly look like.
If you are looking for a practitioner that centres you, the mother, then please reach out. I'd love to walk with you 🌿✨️

27/02/2026

We expect ourselves to go from meeting to mother. From snacks to spreadsheets. From dinner to devotion. Without a breath in between.

No wonder we feel frayed by 5pm.

Transitions are not indulgent. They’re protective. They are the small rituals that tell your nervous system....“we’re shifting now.”

Five minutes in the car.
Cold water on your wrists.
Voo breathing while the pasta boils.
A strong mint. A stretch. A page of messy thoughts.

It won’t always be possible. Some days or seasons are chaos. But where you can… mark the moment.
It’s not about being a calmer mum.
It’s about having enough capacity to co-regulate or self regulate, when it counts 🔥♥️✨️

Which transition is your hardest right now?

One of the hardest transitions into motherhood is not (only) the sleep disruption.It can also ve the loss of instant con...
25/02/2026

One of the hardest transitions into motherhood is not (only) the sleep disruption.

It can also ve the loss of instant confirmation.

In our careers, success is visible. Tangible. Measurable. We know where we stand.

In motherhood, we move into work that is relational, developmental and slow. The outcomes of what you are building may not be visible for years.

That absence of physical evidence can trick you into believing you are not doing enough. Not being enough.

Add to that the cultural messaging that a child’s behaviour is a direct report card on their mother and it’s no wonder so many women conclude they are failing.

I hope you all can hold, hear and notice this is a very nuanced post and topic.

But maybe instead of turning to self blame, maybe you’re just doing work that doesn’t fit into a spreadsheet.

If this resonates, this is the kind of work I explore inside my 1:1 sessions.
🌿✨️

Do you feel this tension between your “maiden” metrics and motherhood’s long game?

Let’s talk ⬇️⬇️

There are things I won’t do in this work.I won’t shrink women down to diagnoses. I won’t dismiss what you know in your o...
24/02/2026

There are things I won’t do in this work.

I won’t shrink women down to diagnoses. I won’t dismiss what you know in your own body. I won’t pretend burnout is a personal failure when the load is, largely, structural.

Women’s and maternal health is not a niche. It is central. Our identities shift. Our roles multiply. Our nervous systems are bombarded.

Occupational therapy has a role here. A strong one!
Function, capacity, identity, environment, meaning. The whole woman.

If you’re looking for support that sees all of you, 1:1 sessions are available.

Link in bio to book 🌿






motherhoodunfiltered
perinatalmentalhealth
australianmums
yarraValleywomen
holistichealth
patriarchalmotherhood
burntoutmums

“flow exists when rest does too”this is what i’m working with in 2026.2025 was big. beautiful. busy.and if i’m honest, i...
22/02/2026

“flow exists when rest does too”

this is what i’m working with in 2026.

2025 was big. beautiful. busy.
and if i’m honest, i got a bit too close to another B word for comfort.

i don’t want to operate from stress anymore. or from proving. or from just keeping up.

i want to build from creativity.

because when i’m creative, or at least aspiring to be, everything works better.
i can think more clearly.
i can access problem solving skills.
i create things that actually feel aligned instead of forced.
i enjoy my kids more.
i notice moments instead of just managing them.

but flow doesn’t happen when i’m wrung out. It doesn’t happen when i’m running on cortisol and coffee.
it needs rest.

REAL rest. not doom scrolling.
not collapsing on the couch half numb (although I have been there, can return there and know why mothers end up there too).

motherhood can be a time where we are called in to really examine what it means to rest.

to challenge the often conflated idea that rest = lazy.

because somewhere along the way we absorbed that being still is indulgent. that sitting down while there’s washing to fold is selfish.
that if we’re not producing, we’re slacking off.

rest is not laziness.
it’s regulation.
it’s capacity building.
it’s what allows us to access patience, clarity and creativity.

so i’m asking myself:

how do i let myself rest before i’m desperate for it?
how do i protect space during those times when everything feels urgent?
how do i choose flow over frenzy?

i’m practising. Im a work in progress.

Maybe it looks like less cramming. more space between clients.
walking without filling the silence (I love walking without any tech!).
creating without immediately thinking “how do i sell this?” or "does this look/feel any good?"

what about you?

what does rest look like in this season? and when do you feel most in flow?

tell me. i want the honest version.

⬇️🌿⬇️✨️⬇️✌️

I hold space for mothers navigating overwhelm, rage, grief, identity shifts, intrusive thoughts, matrescence.And sometim...
18/02/2026

I hold space for mothers navigating overwhelm, rage, grief, identity shifts, intrusive thoughts, matrescence.

And sometimes, in the same 24 hours, I am the mother pulling my toddler out of a public toilet bowl 🫠

Both are true.

Professional knowledge does not cancel out real life.

Knowledge does not override nervous systems.

Insight does not eliminate the sheer sensory chaos of motherhood.

What it does give me is language.
Framework.
Capacity to pause.
A way back to myself.

I don’t work with mothers from a pedestal. I sit beside you ✨️🌿

In the push and pull.
In the “I know better and I’m still losing it.”
In the love and the fatigue and the "what the hell is this season"?.

If you’re craving support that honours both the science and the lived experience, I have 1:1 sessions available.

We move gently.
We make sense of what’s happening.
We build capacity without shaming the part of you that’s tired.

You don’t have to white knuckle it.

Link in bio to book.

The irony isn’t lost on me.This message is being delivered on the very thing that fuels the pace I’m talking about.The p...
09/02/2026

The irony isn’t lost on me.
This message is being delivered on the very thing that fuels the pace I’m talking about.

The phone.
The scroll.
The constant pull to consume, react, move on.

Modern motherhood doesn’t just happen in our homes. It’s shaped by systems that reward speed, productivity and distraction. And mothers are expected to keep up.

Slowing down isn’t soft.
It’s a refusal.

A refusal to let urgency run your nervous system. A refusal to rush through an identity shift that deserves space and meaning.

Exploring Matrescence and the Alchemt of Change, is an intentional pause. Two hours to step out of the noise and come home to yourself.

Yarra Valley Women's Health ~ Healesville.
Feb 21 | 1–3pm
$60

Come sit. Come breathe. Connect.
✨️✨️✨️✨️
Link in bio.

08/02/2026

We’ve been taught that good motherhood looks like self-sacrifice.
That exhaustion is par for the course. That doing more, giving more, disappearing more somehow makes us worthy.

And so many of us are burning out, behind closed doors, trying to live up to a version of motherhood that was never designed to sustain us. But make profit from us.

This isn’t about loving our children less.

It’s about unveiling from and then questioning the conditioning that tells mothers our needs come last.

It’s about naming the very real changes that happen as we move through matrescence. And making sense of who we are becoming now.

If you’re feeling tired, angry, lost, or like you don’t quite recognise yourself anymore, you’re not alone. And you're not defective either. You’re changing.

I’m holding a motherhood workshop where we sit in community, unpack the messaging we’ve inherited, name the shifts in identity and begin reclaiming a motherhood that actually works for US.

✨ Exploring Matrescence & the Alchemy of Change
🗓 Feb 21
📍 Yarra Valley Women’s Health
⏰ 1pm – 3pm
💛 Investment ~ $60

This space is yours. To nurture. To nourish. To slow down, be honest, and come home to yourself 🌿✨️

Link to book in bio.

When mothers burn out, we’re conditioned to look inward.To manage better. To optimise.To be more organised.To try harder...
06/02/2026

When mothers burn out, we’re conditioned to look inward.
To manage better. To optimise.
To be more organised.
To try harder.

But there’s a bigger picture here.

Patriarchal motherhood is a system that relies on mothers’ unpaid labour to keep families, workplaces and economies functioning. It normalises self-sacrifice and reframes exhaustion as a personal shortcoming rather than a structural issue.

This isn’t about blaming men.
It’s about naming power, labour and systems that benefit when mothers give endlessly.

And if anger comes up when you read this, that matters.

Anger isn’t something to suppress or “work on”. It can be information. A signal that something isn’t sitting right. When we listen to it, rather than turning it inward, it can become a pathway to agency, clarity and action ~ setting boundaries, asking for support, sharing the load, or simply naming what’s not okay. When we talk about liberated motherhood, this is what it can look like. Small actions that create cracks...that push back...that make ripples.

Burnout isn’t a personal failure.
It’s a very human response to an unreasonable setup.
Save this if it put words to something you’ve been stuck on.

Share it with a mother who needs to hear this.

Or tell me ~ what does this stir in you?

When mothers burn out, we’re conditioned to look inward.To manage better.To be more organised.To optimise.To TRY harder....
06/02/2026

When mothers burn out, we’re conditioned to look inward.
To manage better.
To be more organised.
To optimise.
To TRY harder.

But there’s a bigger picture here.

Patriarchal motherhood is a system that relies on mothers’ unpaid labour to keep families, workplaces and economies functioning. It normalises self-sacrifice (hey there superwoman) and reframes exhaustion as a personal shortcoming rather than a structural issue.

This isn’t about blaming men.
It’s about naming power, labour and systems that benefit when mothers give endlessly.

And if anger comes up when you read this, that matters!

Anger isn’t something to suppress or “work on”. It can be information. A signal that something isn’t sitting right. When we listen to it, rather than turning it inward, it can become a pathway to agency, clarity and action ~ setting boundaries, asking for support, sharing the load, or simply naming what’s not okay. This is what we mean when we talk about a liberated motherhood. The small actions that create cracks....that push back.

Burnout isn’t a personal failure.
It’s a very human response to an unreasonable setup.
Save this if it put words to something you’ve been stuck on.

Share it with a mother who might need to hear this.

Or tell me ~ what does this stir in you?

Address

Melbourne, VIC
3136

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 3pm
Wednesday 9am - 3pm
Thursday 9am - 3:30pm

Website

https://www.instagram.com/_ostara_ot/, https://www.halaxy.com/book/widget/appointment/tess

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