KATE KRIPKE, LCSW
Speaker · Author · Thought Leader
Motherhood Requires a Different Kind of Intelligence
Exploring what motherhood teaches us about connection, leadership, and being human in an uncertain world.
Kate Kripke, LCSW
For more than 20 years, Kate Kripke has worked with women at the intersection of motherhood, mental health, ambition, identity, and connection. Her work explores a question that sits underneath so many of the conversations women are having right now: What happens when the very skills that helped women succeed stop working quite so well when they become mothers?
Kate brings together decades of clinical experience in maternal and child mental health with a larger conversation about the kinds of intelligence human beings need to stay connected, make good decisions, and navigate uncertainty.
Conversations Worth Having
Why motherhood can feel so hard for highly capable women
The skills that make women successful—planning, anticipating, solving, controlling variables—can become far less reliable in the uncertainty of motherhood.
Can women stay ambitious and deeply connected to their children?
Moving beyond the cultural either/or that asks women to choose between meaningful work and secure, connected relationships with their kids.
The intelligence we haven’t been taught to value
Strategic intelligence helps us analyze, plan, predict, and execute. Relational intelligence helps us notice, attune, tolerate uncertainty, stay present, and connect. Human beings need access to both.
What mothers teach us about being human in an uncertain world
Motherhood is one of the most intense laboratories for learning how to remain connected when we cannot control what happens next—and those lessons reach far beyond parenting.
Questions Kate Loves Exploring
Why do so many accomplished women feel strangely incompetent after becoming mothers?
Can a woman pursue a meaningful, ambitious life and still build the secure relationship she deeply wants with her child?
What happens when we mistake discomfort and uncertainty for danger?
Why doesn’t knowing what to do always help us do it in the moments that matter?
What is relational intelligence, and why might we need more of it right now?
What can motherhood teach us about leadership, relationships, and navigating an increasingly uncertain world?
Hear Kate in Conversation
The JOY CEO with Lori Pine
Ambition, Anxiety, and Motherhood: Strengthening Relational Intelligence with Kate Kripke
Electric Ideas with Whitney Baker
What Gets in the Way of Feeling Present, Patient and Connected in Motherhood
Motherhood Uncut
Kate’s own podcast exploring the complicated, often unspoken realities of motherhood.
Why Kate
20+ years working in maternal and child mental health
6,000+ women and families supported
Published Author of Reinventing Supermom
Host of Motherhood Uncut
Kate’s work and perspective have been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, CNN Health, and HuffPost.
Meet Kate
Kate Kripke, LCSW, is a speaker, author, podcast host, and longtime leader in maternal mental health. For more than two decades, her work with women as they become mothers has given her a front-row seat to what happens when highly capable women enter a life stage that cannot be mastered through planning, achievement, and control alone.
Today, Kate’s work explores the intersection of motherhood, ambition, connection, and human development. She introduces women and organizations to the distinction between strategic and relational intelligence—and what becomes possible when we become fluent in both.
She is the author of Reinventing Supermom and host of the Motherhood Uncut podcast.
Let’s Have a Conversation
Looking for a thoughtful, candid conversation about motherhood, ambition, mental health, connection, or what women need to thrive at home and at work? Kate would love to hear from you.