Midwifing women through modern-day rites of passage and radical life transformations.

If you’re going through the kind of life change that changes everything,

you’re in the right place.

A radical life transformation or a rite of passage is a shift that might be external or internal (and it’s often both), chosen-by-you or chosen-for-you.

It’s the end of a career path. The beginning of motherhood. The end of a relationship. The beginning of menopause. It’s a life-changing diagnosis, a spiritual quest, a devastating loss, an encounter with burnout, or a healing journey – just to name a few.

These transformative experiences are called radical because the word radical means root

and every rite of passage asks you to remember your roots; to reconnect with who you are and what matters most to you.

Though times of change are filled with this potential, they can also turn your world upside down.

But you don’t have to do this alone.
In fact, you were never meant to.

If you lived in another time or place, you would have been supported by an entire village – and by midwives and elders and healers – who knew, in their bones, how to guide you through transformation.

I can help. I am here to walk alongside you, holding space at the threshold of your becoming.

I offer individual coaching and mentorship as well as ritual + ceremony design services. I also facilitate group programs, circles, workshops and retreats for women and mothers.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LIFE TRANSITION SUPPORT

HI! I'M

Jessie

I’m a coach, doula and author.

When I began attending births nearly twenty years ago, I found myself becoming increasingly fascinated by matrescence, or the transition to motherhood, as a rite of passage. I witnessed women for whom motherhood catalyzed an accompanying landslide of other changes to their lives, and started to get curious about how all women navigate the process of becoming.

Since then, I have supported thousands of women through radical life transitions in a way that helps them feel more like themselves: authentic, liberated, and in touch with their own wisdom and power.

After all this time, here’s what I know to be true: when people are deeply witnessed and held through times of transformation, they grow the kind of capacities and wisdom that our wider world desperately needs right now. They become powerful advocates for healing, liberation and transformation in their families, communities and in the world. And so it is that this work is really my prayer for and blessing upon the future, that we may become the kind of people who can meet the collective rite of passage we’re in squarely, with creative minds, wise hearts and resilient bodies.

MORE ABOUT ME

What phase of life transition are you in?

When you complete this quiz, you’ll receive a beautiful custom e-book and a 5-day mini-course based on your results.

TAKE THE QUIZ

What phase of life transition are you in?

When you complete this quiz, you’ll receive a beautiful custom e-book and a 5-day mini-course based on your results.

TAKE THE QUIZ

THE WORK THAT I DO IS ROOTED IN THREE CORE PRINCIPLES:

Reconnect

When you’re going through the kinds of life changes that change everything, it can feel as though you’ve lost yourself. And, in many ways, you have: you are being asked to grow and evolve, and there is no going back to the way things were. But times of radical transformation also offer you the potential to become more of who you really are. In all the work I do, I create opportunities for women to reconnect with themselves and what matters most to them.

Rewild

Across time and culture, we have always turned to the earth to support us through rites of passage and other times of deep change. From wilderness quests and seasonal rituals to clarifying walks in the woods, the living world is an ally and midwife in our process of becoming. But also, these transformative times in our lives hold the potential to awaken the wild within us – a deeply authentic, untamed self that emerges from underneath all our conditioning. I support women to rewild through earth connection experiences, seasonal rituals and by teaching cyclical living and other wildhearted ways.

Reclaim

The word reclaim comes from the old French reclamer – to call back – and the Latin reclamare – to cry out against. In the work I do, I support women to call back the ways of knowing, skills and competencies that have always supported us through transformative times, but that have been devalued or forgotten by the overculture. I also deeply believe that the personal is political, and that radical transformation can be radicalizing – compelling us to cry out against the often-dehumanizing conditions of our modern world. I believe transformation and liberation go hand and in hand, and the work I do is oriented toward both personal and collective liberation and healing.

start here

Writing

Explore articles about life transition and rites of passage, matrescence and motherhood, ritual, cyclical living and earth connection, embodiment, creativity, community-building, self-care and more.

The Becoming Podcast

Listen to the Becoming Podcast, where we talk about modern-day rites of passage, radical transformation, and other times of becoming in our lives – and how these times can be a catalyst to become more of who you are.

TUNE IN

Imaginalia

Sign up for Imaginalia, my monthly newsletter, to receive reflections, resources, practices and inspiration to support you during times of transformation in your life.

Mothershift: Reclaiming Motherhood as a Rite of Passage

a map for matrescence – and a way back home to yourself

What if we reclaimed motherhood as a radical transformation to a person's whole life – as the rite of passage that it truly is?

And what if we decided that losing yourself in motherhood is not the problem but the point?

What if we saw motherhood as an opportunity for a mother to access a deeper sense of her own power and authenticity?

Mothershift is a supportive guide for the transition into motherhood, known as matrescence, which takes 2-3 years to traverse, not 6 weeks or 3 months like we've been led to believe.

Heralded as "as essential read for all new mothers," winner of the 2025 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Medal and shortlisted for the 2026 Nova Scotia Book Awards, Mothershift offers mothers a map to help them navigate matrescence as well as resources to support them to thrive during this transformative time.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MOTHERSHIFT

Jessie Harrold - Coach, Doula and Author. Matrescence Expert.

“I had a very potent series of sessions with Jessie at a time where I felt almost like a character in a fairy tale who had accidentally fallen asleep in the wrong life. My waking up from that felt like life force coming back online – like my fire rekindling.”
–Annie Bray, Somatics Educator + Bodyworker

“Jessie is the perfect mix of evidence-based, funny, well-articulated, and filled with down-to-earth ritual wisdom. Every single session had me pivoting my life in a more wholesome and sustainable way. My career, my family life and my experience of motherhood has been forever changed.”
–Kelsi Ludvigsen, Postpartum Educator and Founder of After Birth School

“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the space you held for me this year as I walked through some of the final fires of this long initiation into motherhood. When I reached out to you I didn’t know how on earth I could ever find peace with this journey. My motherhood journey is far from over, but I can say now that my feet are firmly planted in this new world I have found myself in. I now feel a grounding in myself that I had been longing to experience.”
–Hannah Milkins

“I discovered Jessie's work when I had been struggling for a while with a huge transition in my life, as my daughter went to college and I decided to end my marriage, leave my career, sell my house, and travel for a year. I'm not sure I could have made it through this tumultuous year without Jessie. I'm not just drifting along anymore. Jessie helped me find my compass, and I'm forever grateful for that!”
–Anne Boyd-Rioux, Author

I tend to, live and work on Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, also known as Nova Scotia, Canada. The work I do and the person I am becoming would not be possible if it were not for this land, which I am ever-endeavouring to be in right relationship with.