In preparation for World Menopause Awareness Month next month our North Somerset Wellbeing Service is once again running its popular Power to the Pause: demystifying the muddle of the menopause course
This course was developed to support women who were struggling with the impact of the menopause upon their mental health and to help them understand this significant life event.
Amber, who attended the last course said:
I wouldn’t have been able to get the help I needed from the doctor, or understood what I was going through, had it not been for the course. I felt lost not understanding what was happening to me and I didn’t feel I could talk to anyone, which made my mental health worse. I learnt a lot from the course and benefitted from talking to people going through the same thing.
I highly recommend this course!
Amber
Talking about her experiences Heidi explained that she’d had hormone related issues since she was a teen, but that peri-menopause came earlier than she’d expected. “I didn’t know why I felt so awful, and it had a huge knock on effect, increasing my self-doubt and sense of isolation. The message women get is to ‘just get on with it,’ but I knew that wasn’t going to work for me. It felt so hard to know where to turn for help.”
Heidi was already attending sessions run by the service and was relieved when the menopause course was offered. “I learnt more about what I was going through, gained a better understanding of my options, was able to access nuanced conversations and feel part of a community, where I was accepted.”
The course also gave Heidi the courage and confidence to talk to others, work though her complex feelings, and take some decisions to move forward. She explained that the group took away the fear factor of what she was going through, as it ‘normalised’ it. “The course has supported my wellbeing enormously in addition to the other wellbeing groups I attend.”
The course covers the following areas:
- Physical effects
- Psychological effects
- Treatment Options
- Talking about menopause
- Relationships
You can pre-book your place on the course here. You can find out more about the North Somerset Wellbeing Service here