Therapy for Perimenopause and Menopause

 
 

If you are in the potent psychological and physiological state of change that comes with perimenopause and menopause you are likely navigating emotional upheavals, tensions in your relationships, and surprise at how your body is changing.

Often when we are disoriented by perimenopause and menopause we say things like, “I just don’t feel like myself” because the familiar ways we have identified with ourselves are being seriously challenged and we do not know what will take their place. This can feel overwhelming and possibly traumatic because the “me” we have identified with is fundamentally evolving.

“This sort of experience defies all our notions about gradually growing older without a hitch, just doing what we do better and better, giving and taking as we please while becoming wise and beneficent. Instead, it seems that in order to know and exercise real wisdom in forthcoming stages, we must first be taken to some outer reach, some distant shore very far from our perceived identity. This is a journey of the soul, a struggle to keep body and spirit together.” - Davis and Leonard

Often with the shifts that come with perimenopause and menopause we can stay in a state of overwhelm, fear, reactivity, defensiveness, and denial. Many of us harshly judge ourselves and the overwhelm we feel.

You may be experiencing:

  • Your inner world being rearranged, possibly intensely and potently re-organized

  • Anger towards loved ones such as your partner and children

  • Frustrations with dynamics at work and with colleagues

  • Unhappiness with where you are in your career

  • Tiredness with giving so much of your energy to others

  • Fear due to your physicality changing, and feeling less than because of this

  • Exhaustion due to lack of sleep that makes it hard to get through the day

  • An emotional rollercoaster ride that creates more tension in your relationships

  • Burdensome physical symptoms that diminish your energy and sense of pleasure and joy

There is another story about menopause that therapy can help you discover. It is a story whose narrative focuses on meeting the intensity of the moment with curiosity, tenderness, vulnerability, spaciousness, compassion, and wisdom that enables you to hold the complexity of who you are with love and care as a way to embody your evolving life purpose.

This way of coming into relationship with all the changes you are going through will help you to be less reactive, less critical, and more compassionate and discerning while you live into the next era of your dynamic life.

“Menopause is a profound initiation into your authority, purpose and leadership skill. Menopause mobilizes the singular genius of you to bring a positive influence to the planet, unleashing your personal agency and potency.” - Pope and Wurlitzer

I help perimenopausal and menopausal clients explore in therapy:

  • Your relationship to rage/anger/heat; your relationship to sex and sensuality; arising grief; and increased self-empowerment and self-compassion.

  • Ways to listen into and care for the psycho-spiritual changes that come with perimenopause and menopause so that you can prune what is not serving you and be discerning about what to grow.

  • Your relationship to change: What were experiences of change that felt overwhelming/not in your control, and how did you react? What were positive experiences of change, and what resources did you bring to those experiences?

  • Old psychological wounding that might be getting stirred due to feeling vulnerable with the emotional and physical changes you are experiencing.

  • Ways to shift out of negative thoughts loops about yourself and live into caring for yourself with more compassion, curiosity, joy, pleasure, and self-awareness.

  • Simple contemplative practices to nourish and care for your inner world as you navigate the changes in your menstruality.

  • Breathwork practices to balance your nervous system.

  • Practices to increase self-awareness to reduce mood swings and emotional reactivity.      

If you are interested in learning more about my approach to working with the psychological changes that come with perimenopause and menopause, I can be reached at 415-721-3355 or by email. To learn more about my approach to psychotherapy, you can also read the articles on my psychotherapy blog.

I offer day-long retreats for those in perimenopause and menopause. If you are interested to learn when the next one is happening sign up for the waitlist.