Counselling for the menopause; don’t suffer in silence

We should not feel like ‘failures’ because we don’t sail through the menopause by drinking green tea and doing seven hot yoga classes a week (hot yoga - are you kidding me?!). We shouldn’t feel silenced because we aren’t on board with viewing the menopause as this wonderful transition in our lives. It is estimated that 75% of us will suffer physical symptoms, such as hot flushes and night sweats; and if this isn’t bad enough, there is a huge percentage of people who are additionally tormented by mental ill-health that is a direct result of the menopause, and which is often overlooked in the counselling room due to lack of awareness on the subject.

Alongside offering counselling to individuals presenting with a wide range of issues, I have a specialist interest in working to support those of you who find yourselves struggling with the often overwhelming emotional effects of the menopause.

Perhaps you are :

Tired (ALL THE TIME!)?

Perhaps from interrupted sleep, restlessness, night sweats and when you finally fall asleep at 4am you are rudely interrupted by your 6am alarm and are expected to get up and go to work as normal, feeling the pressure of performing as you always have even though you’re utterly exhausted, and you don’t even feel like the person that you used to be.

Anxious?

Maybe you wake up in the morning and you’re already feeling anxious about what lies in store for you today; even though you may have never felt like this before in your life. Perhaps your commute to work is filled with worry about the day ahead and you find yourself worrying about how the day has gone on your way home, maybe wondering if you’ve performed the way you should have, why you lost your train of thought in that meeting, or wondering if your colleagues are about to ‘find you out’ (ah - our old friend imposter syndrome rearing its ugly head).

having FEELINGs of not being good enough?

Are you battling with feelings of not being good enough, whether that be as a mother, as a partner, as a daughter, as a friend, as a colleague, or even as a person? Are you wondering what your role even is at this point in your life, and maybe you are experiencing feelings of regret about things that have happened in the past?

feeling like you’ve lost your identity?

You just don’t feel like ‘you’ any more and you can’t put your finger on the reason why. You might feel lost, like a shadow of the person you were, and with this comes even more anxiety, maybe even depression, stress and certainly exhaustion.

If you find yourself relating to the above, maybe it’s time to consider how counselling could help?

Menopause still holds a stigma in our society and people often find it a taboo subject to talk about, whether that be in our relationships with our partners, in our workplace or even with our friends. We all remember being embarrassed in high school on the day when the boys were sent out, leaving the girls to learn about the dreaded periods. But when do we get our menopause chat? I worked out pretty quickly that we don’t get one!

I believe that this important life transition deserves respect and understanding and I believe that counselling can help you unravel and start to understand the way you are feeling, with this awareness hopefully leading you to finding more helpful ways to manage your way through this incredible life transition.

Ongoing research

My current planned research is around exploring how compassion-focused interventions can support people struggling with the emotional symptoms of menopause.

Later this year, I hope to run a therapy group and will be searching for people who would like to get involved. Watch this space for more information.