RESOURCES
PROVIDERS & EDUCATION
BOOKS
Hagitude by Sharon Blackie
The New Perimenopause by Mary Claire Haver, MD
The New Menopause by Mary Claire Haver, MD
The Menopause Brain by Dr. Lisa Mosconi
I have a passion for supporting women in midlife who may be also navigating the challenges of perimenopause and menopause. While sources vary, perimenopause can last from 2 years to over a decade, and menopause signifies the cessation of your period for 12 consecutive months. That is a long time to feel the emotional rollercoaster and physical symptoms connected to the slowing and eventual end of your ovaries former mission in life. Even in the post-menopausal period you can feel the emotional and physiological symptoms connected to decreasing estrogen and other hormones.
As a result, you may be seeking support for emotional well-being, physical symptoms, relationship changes, and life transitions. I provide a safe and supportive space to navigate your journey, while making room for your resilience, grief, anger and joy. Stress, anxiety, mood swings and burnout can also be common experiences. Considering this period as a time of transformation, albeit begrudgingly perhaps, discussing identity shifts, and reimagining the second half of life are some examples of work we may do together.
Women’s phases of life have long been tied to archetypes of Maiden, Mother and Crone. Our maidenhood climaxes with the start of menarche, motherhood peaks with the birth of a child or an important creative project and crone signifies life review and wisdom. Jane Hardwicke Collings introduced the possibility of a fourth archetype into the woman’s wheel of life. The Autumn Harvest Queen, or Enchantress. Perimenopause/Menopause is the rite of passsage that ends the season of the Mother and begins the season of Enchantress. The Enchantress symbolizes the value of self-care and the capacity to guide and support others. She personifies profound self-awareness, confidence, and independence, encouraging women to claim their inner power, honor their life journeys, and welcome the beauty and wisdom that aging brings. When we make space for this fourth achetype, we make space for the metamorphosis inherent to perimenopause and menopause. Instead of being immediately denoted as Crone, the Autumn Enchantress makes space to reimagine the second half of her life.