I thought menopause was a physical thing — why see a therapist?

It's both. Hormonal changes affect mood, sleep, and the nervous system, and they often resurface older psychological material that had been managed away for years.

Will you give me HRT or medical advice?

No. I'm a clinical psychologist, not a doctor. Medical decisions about HRT or medication belong with your GP or gynaecologist. I work with the emotional, identity and meaning layers.

I'm in perimenopause — am I too early to come?

No, in fact perimenopause is often when the psychological work is most needed. Symptoms can be confusing and unpredictable, and the identity questions are often most alive in this transition rather than after it.

Will this just be talking about hot flushes?

No. Symptoms are part of the conversation if they matter to you, but the deeper work is usually about identity, role, relationships, and what this stage is asking you to look at more honestly.

Specialisation · Pillar

Midlife & menopause

A woman in midlife, fully herself — #012

Perimenopause and menopause are not only physical transitions — they are psychological ones, often surfacing questions of identity, meaning, and self that have been waiting underneath for years.

How it shows up

This is a stage many women move through feeling unexpectedly disoriented: more anxious, more tired, more disconnected, unsure who they are beyond their roles. Old emotional material can resurface, sleep can fragment, and a quiet sense of "is this all?" can become harder to put down. None of this is a failure — it is, often, the body and psyche asking to be met more honestly.

How I work with it

With specific training in this area (Menopause Coaching Certificate, Burrell Education), I offer a space to make sense of it — not as something to fix, but as a threshold worth understanding. We work with the felt experience as well as the meaning: what is shifting, what is asking to be heard, what no longer fits, and what might.

A note on the medical side

Medical decisions about HRT, supplements or medication belong with your doctor — and I will gently encourage you to use that resource fully. My work is psychological, and the two are most useful together.

Is this you?

If any of these resonate, this is the page you were meant to find.

I don't recognise the woman in the mirror — and I don't mean physically.
I'm more anxious, more tired, more raw than I used to be, and I keep apologising for it.
The roles that defined me are quietly shifting, and I don't yet know what's underneath.

Book a free first conversation

Common questions

I thought menopause was a physical thing — why see a therapist?: It's both. Hormonal changes affect mood, sleep, and the nervous system, and they often resurface older psychological material that had been managed away for years.
Will you give me HRT or medical advice?: No. I'm a clinical psychologist, not a doctor. Medical decisions about HRT or medication belong with your GP or gynaecologist. I work with the emotional, identity and meaning layers.
I'm in perimenopause — am I too early to come?: No, in fact perimenopause is often when the psychological work is most needed. Symptoms can be confusing and unpredictable, and the identity questions are often most alive in this transition rather than after it.
Will this just be talking about hot flushes?: No. Symptoms are part of the conversation if they matter to you, but the deeper work is usually about identity, role, relationships, and what this stage is asking you to look at more honestly.