Meet Sally Dawson
Motherhood coach. Mama Rising facilitator. Someone who has been where you are.
I support mothers who are burnt out, overwhelmed, and exhausted — women who are doing everything for everyone else and quietly disappearing in the process.
I know this experience intimately. Not because I studied it — because I lived it.
You Might Be in the Right Place If
✔ You're exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix
✔ You love your children deeply but feel touched out, depleted, and irritable
✔ Mum rage is showing up regularly — and the guilt afterwards is crushing
✔ You feel like you've lost yourself somewhere in motherhood
✔ You're functioning on the outside but close to breaking point on the inside
✔ The mental load of your entire family lives in your head and never switches off
✔ You've tried to push through, fix it yourself, or just be more grateful — and it's not working
✔ You want support that is warm, real, grounded, and completely free of judgement
You don't need to be at rock bottom to reach out. You just need to feel like something needs to change.
“I don't believe mothers are broken. I believe they are carrying too much, for too long, without enough support. My job is to help you put some of it down — and to help you figure out who you are when you're not holding everything together.”
~ Sally Dawson
What I Bring to This Work
Formal Training and Accreditation
My work is grounded in over 15 years of experience supporting women through significant life transitions, combined with specialist training in the unique psychological landscape of motherhood.
Accredited Mama Rising Facilitator and Motherhood Coach
A framework specifically designed to support the psychological, emotional, and identity experience of motherhood and matrescence — the transformation of becoming a mother that almost nobody talks about.
Counselling Training
Providing a strong foundation in emotional support, reflective listening, and therapeutic frameworks that inform everything I do in sessions.
Doula Training
Grounding my understanding in the physical, emotional, and relational transition into and through early motherhood.
Diploma in Early Years
Deepening my understanding of child development and the mother-child relationship — the context in which so much of maternal burnout unfolds.
Areas of Deep Personal Study
Alongside formal training, I have spent years in deep personal study of the frameworks that I believe most powerfully support mothers:
🌿 Matrescence — the profound identity transformation of becoming a mother, and why understanding it changes everything
🌿 Nervous system regulation and Polyvagal Theory — understanding how chronic stress and depletion show up in the body, and how to build real, lasting regulation
🌿 Attachment theory — including the work of Dr Gabor Maté on trauma, the body, and how our earliest experiences shape our patterns as mothers
🌿 Parts work and Internal Family Systems (IFS) — understanding the inner parts of ourselves that drive our behaviour, particularly the protective patterns that lead to burnout
🌿 Mind-body connection — how unprocessed emotional experience shows up as physical symptoms, and why healing has to work at both levels
My Approach in Every Session
Every mother I work with receives support that is:
✔ Trauma-aware and nervous system informed — we work with your body, not just your mind
✔ Grounded in matrescence theory — because understanding what's actually happening to you changes everything
✔ Compassionate, non-judgmental, and completely honest — there is no performing here, for either of us
✔ Practical — every session gives you something real to take into your actual life
✔ Empowering — my goal is never to create dependency, but to help you trust yourself again
The Truth About Why I Do This Work
This Is Not Work I Chose From a Distance…
In 2023, I burnt out completely.
Not metaphorically. My body literally stopped functioning.
I wasn't neglecting my children. I wasn't working. I was doing the opposite — I was a full-time, hyper-involved supermum to my two girls, completely enmeshed in their lives, carrying everything, asking for nothing, and slowly disappearing under the weight of it all.
There was no village. We'd come through the pandemic. And I had spent years running on patterns that were never going to sustain me — perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-sacrifice, self-silencing. Always putting everyone else first. Always holding it together. Always being the good girl.
Until my body said no.
Multiple physical systems stopped working. I couldn't function. I couldn't look after my girls. Everything I had pushed through for so long had finally caught up with me in the most undeniable, physical way possible.
Recovery wasn't quick and it wasn't simple. It took natural healthcare, medication, psychological support, and — most significantly — a complete rewiring of the behavioural patterns I had carried my whole life. It meant learning, for the first time, how to put myself in the equation. How to stop performing and start actually living. How to become someone my nervous system could rest inside.
I've also navigated my own trauma and PTSD — which deepened my understanding of how the body holds what the mind tries to ignore, and why real recovery has to work at both levels.
I'm on the other side now. My girls are nine and nearly fourteen. I've rebuilt who I am. I've let go of the perfectionism and the patterns that nearly broke me. I know who I am beyond the role of mother.
And I know how to help other women find that too.
This work chose me. From the inside.
Qualifications and Training
✔ Accredited Mama Rising Facilitator and Motherhood Coach
✔ Counselling training
✔ Doula training
✔ Diploma in Early Years (Child Development)
✔ 15+ years supporting women through significant life transitions
✔ Deep study: Polyvagal Theory, Attachment Theory, IFS Parts Work, Matrescence, Mind-Body Connection
✔ Lived experience of motherhood burnout and full recovery
✔ Online coaching — available to mothers across Australia and worldwide
What Motherhood Coaching Is — and What It Isn't
I want to be clear about this, because transparency matters to me.
Motherhood coaching is not therapy and I am not a therapist.
If you are experiencing clinical depression, active trauma responses, or a mental health crisis, I would always encourage you to work with a qualified mental health professional first. I am happy to work alongside that support — many mothers work with both a therapist and a coach simultaneously, and find that the two complement each other powerfully.
What coaching offers is something different:
A forward-focused, empowering, deeply personal space to understand what's happening, build practical tools, regulate your nervous system, and create real change in how you feel and function day to day.
For many mothers, this is exactly what has been missing.
What Mums Say About Working With Sally
"You are literally the BESTEST motherhood coach — one voice message completely changed my outlook on the challenges we are facing." — Anna, Australia
"Thank you SO much for your wise, grounded and beautiful space holding. I feel SO much more relaxed and open. I have so much more clarity. It really was a transformative session and I'm so grateful." — Penny, Australia
"You helped guide me to a shift mentally that I will take into my daily practice. You are truly someone to be reckoned with. I am so grateful to have you in my corner." — Candice, Australia
Common Questions About Working With Sally
What is a motherhood coach? A motherhood coach is a trained specialist who supports mothers through the psychological, emotional, and identity challenges of motherhood — including burnout, mum rage, matrescence, the mental load, and the loss of identity that so many mothers experience. Unlike a therapist, a motherhood coach works in a forward-focused, practical, empowering way to help mothers create real change in how they feel and function.
What is matrescence? Matrescence is the profound psychological, neurological, hormonal, and identity transformation that happens when a woman becomes a mother. It is as significant as adolescence — and almost nobody talks about it. Understanding matrescence is at the heart of everything Sally does at Mama Knows, because when mothers understand what is actually happening to them, the self-blame dissolves and real healing can begin.
What is motherhood burnout? Motherhood burnout is a state of chronic physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that develops when the demands of caring for others consistently exceed the support available — over a sustained period of time. It is not weakness or failure. It is a predictable physiological and psychological response to an unsustainable situation. Common signs include exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, mum rage, emotional numbness, loss of identity, and the feeling of functioning on the outside while falling apart on the inside.
Is Sally based in Australia? Sally is based in Australia and works with mothers online via Zoom — across Australia and worldwide. Sessions are held entirely online, so you can access support from anywhere.
How do I know if coaching is right for me? The best way to find out is a free 20-minute connection call — a relaxed, no-pressure conversation where you can share what's going on and Sally can share how she works. There is no obligation to book anything. If it feels right for both of you, you'll explore next steps together.
Ready to Stop Surviving and Start Feeling Like Yourself Again?
The first step is free and takes 20 minutes.
