“Therapeutic Interventions That Combine CBT, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing®, And IFS Can Promote Neural Integration And Reduce Distress By Re-Establishing Coherence Between Brain And Body. When Indicated, Collaboration With Integrative Or Functional Medicine Providers Can Support Hormonal Regulation Through Nutrition, Movement, Adaptogens, Or Bioidentical Therapy.”

What Brings Women To Therapy In Midlife

Many women in New York City seek therapy in midlife not because of a single crisis, but because something no longer feels internally aligned. Life may look successful and well-constructed from the outside, yet internally, there is a growing sense of disconnection or unease.

Clients often describe feeling emotionally flat, more easily overstimulated, or uncharacteristically anxious. Relationships that once felt steady can begin to feel strained, distant, or subtly unsatisfying. The confidence and self-trust that carried them through earlier decades may soften, replaced by self-doubt, questioning, or a quiet loss of direction and meaning.

For some women, long-suppressed grief, anger, or unmet needs begin to surface unexpectedly. For others, earlier trauma or relational wounds re-emerge as hormonal and neurological shifts lower the body’s tolerance for stress and emotional load. Even women who are highly capable, accomplished, and outwardly composed often speak—sometimes for the first time—about feeling lonely, unseen, or disconnected from their own vitality and sense of self.

These are not uncommon experiences. They are themes I hear again and again in my New York City private psychotherapy practice for mid-life women.

Therapy during this phase is not about “fixing” what is broken. It is about recalibration—helping you reconnect with your inner authority, emotional clarity, and embodied sense of aliveness as you move into the next chapter of your life.

I just finished reading “Women Have Been Mislead About Menopause” in the New York Times. As a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City, this is one of the best articles that I have read about menopause in a very long time. Because as a psychotherapist, I see women who are menopausal, or soon to be, suffering from impactful mental health symptoms related to these hormonal changes. Of course women have other life events that may coexist with any hormonal changes, and that’s why it’s important to let a professional help you sort things out, and this can inform your counseling and wellness plan. Because, when your hormones are all over the place, unbalanced or deficient, it also makes it harder to cope with the usual demands of life. I have had my own personal experience with hormonal changes and failing ovaries, and my own ongoing journey has opened my eyes and informed my psychotherapy practice.

Did I learn about mental health and hormones in graduate school? Absolutely not. And this means that patients seeking counseling help are likely not receiving education and comprehensive care from their psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who should be knowledgable about the impact of hormonal changes and mental health.

According to the article, about 85 percent of women experience menopausal symptoms. Rebecca Thurston, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh who studies menopause, believes that, in general, “menopausal women have been underserved — an oversight that she considers one of the great blind spots of medicine. It suggests that we have a high cultural tolerance for women’s suffering,” Thurston says. “It’s not regarded as important. Women’s symptoms are often minimized or dismissed; they are told it’s “just a natural part of aging” and they will have to learn to “deal with it.”