Therapy for women in midlife
A safe space to help process the challenges that may come with midlife and to explore and connect with your values as you move forward with a life that works for you NOW
You may be here because, since moving into your mid-40s, 50s or beyond, you have experienced the following:
feeling like you don’t know who you are anymore
feeling lost, bored, stuck, invisible, overlooked, unappreciated, deeply burned out
tired of just pushing through, feeling exhausted, resentful, and the pushing through never stops
due to physical, hormonal and life changes, feeling tired mentally and physically, moody and anxious, negative about yourself, your appearance, your health, lacking confidence
feeling disconnected from yourself, spirituality, sense of purpose and meaning
Since reaching midlife you may have tried a lot of ways to feel better…
–Maybe you have been feeling like something has to change and maybe even had some ideas about what you might want to do, only to push the ideas out of your head for later, but later never comes, or telling yourself you don’t know where to start, you could never do something like that, feeling afraid you will fail, humiliate, yourself, fall on your face, or telling yourself you’re too old or it’s too late
–Maybe you have been asking yourself if this is all there is, having a desire to build something, do something meaningful but not even sure what that is
-You may have tried doing all the “right” things to fix the problem and feel better, for example, self-care, daily gratitude, meditation, self-help reading and podcasts, exercise, telling yourself to just get over it, and so on, but still find yourself feeling dissatisfied and discouraged, not sure why you can’t get past this and then feeling even worse about yourself
–You may have been feeling disconnected from yourself, maybe even feeling like you don't know who you are anymore after years of focusing on taking care of others, doing all the things you felt like you were supposed to do, maybe putting your needs aside
If you are experiencing any of the above and it has left you feeling unlike yourself, discouraged, like there is nothing to look forward to, uninspired, and worried it's too late to make a change, please know that you are not alone. These are common struggles for women in midlife due to physical, hormonal, developmental and other factors and it is not too late to make a change.
How therapy can help
We can work together to help you reimagine and reconnect with who you are and what works for you now in this phase of your life, not based on who or how others said you needed to be but by identifying your deeply held values about who and what is important, how you want to spend your time, and who and how you want to be in these important areas.
I can work with you to create a safe, validating space to explore and gain a deeper understanding of some of those factors that might be contributing to the pain that you've been experiencing, working through what might be keeping you stuck so that you can move forward in a way that taps into your wisdom and experience.
Through deep values exploration, we can learn what might give you a sense of purpose and meaning here, now, in the present; finding ways to reconnect with yourself, your passions and what's meaningful for you; creating space to process grief from losses, both past and present; and balancing all of this with identifying skills and practices that will help you to commit and move forward in life with a renewed sense of direction and purpose.
My related experience:
As a woman who has experienced and been navigating some of the havoc that midlife can wreak for awhile now, I understand many of these struggles at a personal level and it has been a learning process finding ways to move through them, balancing acceptance and change.
As a therapist, I have had the privilege of working with many women as they have moved through midlife struggles and I have learned the importance of creating a safe space where each individual’s unique experience can be explored, even as they encounter common struggles.
While I have been trained in and often use many of the therapy approaches listed below to work with women navigating midlife challenges, we can work together to find the best path forward based on what you want your life to look like and what is important to you, integrating any therapy approaches that might be helpful.
Therapy approaches that we can integrate if it is helpful:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Emotion Efficacy Therapy (EET)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)