Working with the Menstrual Cycle in Psychotherapy
NOW CLOSED
Saturday 14 January 2023
A Live Webinar with Dr Margaret Altemus, Letticia Banton, Danielle Redland and Jane Catherine Severn
CPD Credits: 4.5 hours
- Includes a subtitled recording of the event and a transcript, with access for a year (14 days post the event)
- Bookings close at 9:00am GMT Wednesday 11 January
The menstrual cycle is an integral part of many women’s daily lived experience for around three decades of their life. Each month female hormonal fluctuations result in a range of physiological, physical, and psychological changes that can impact a woman’s identity in a profound way, at bio-psycho-social and spiritual levels of experience.
READ MORE...Yet in 2022, many people don’t openly discuss the menstrual cycle in western mainstream culture, and it carries a lingering shadow of shame.
The menstrual cycle has been overlooked and this is most evident in psychotherapeutic theory, research, and training. However, with the rise of the ‘period power’ movement, a new feminist discourse around menstruation is opening outside the therapy room. As psychotherapists, how can we more openly, sensitively, and insightfully dialogue about it inside the therapy room with our clients?
In this conference, we will take a multidisciplinary view to better understand the place of the menstrual cycle in women’s lives. We will hear from a range of speakers from across the globe offering biopsychology, psychoanalytical and humanistic therapy perspectives. While the content will primarily be about women’s experience, we recognise not all women have periods and not all people who have periods identify as women. We intend this to be an inclusive event that recognises subjectivity. We welcome women, men, and gender non-conforming therapists to join us to learn more about how the menstrual cycle may impact clients of all genders in a variety of ways.
We will close with a panel discussion taking a pragmatic lens, to ensure you leave with some ideas of how you can incorporate working with the menstrual cycle in your therapeutic practice.
FULL PROGRAMME
14.00 GMT
Introductions
14.05
Letticia Banton
Contextual Lens
From wandering womb to raging hormones: the impact of history on why psychotherapy is so silent on the menstrual cycle
14:20
Dr Margaret Altemus
Menstrual Cycle Hormones and Mental Health
The menstrual cycle enables ovulation and conception through a sequence of hormonal changes. The hormonal fluxes across the menstrual cycle are associated with physical and psychological symptoms in most women which are mild and do not impair functioning. However, some women experience disabling symptoms, with approximately 5% meeting diagnostic criteria for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. For women with psychiatric disorders, symptoms are often exacerbated premenstrually. The menstrual cycle can be disrupted by food restriction, excessive exercise, and hormonal disorders including polycystic ovary syndrome and hyperandrogenism. The effect of mood disorders and stress on the menstrual cycle is less robust. Several treatment strategies have been identified for premenstrual psychological symptoms. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying premenstrual symptoms are unclear and more research is needed to develop more targeted treatments.
15:10
Q&A
15.25
Break
15.45
Danielle Redland
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Menstruation and Secondary Amenorrhea
Whatever a patient’s sex or gender, recollections and experiences of menstruation and secondary amenorrhea in a therapy can inform us of how they view themselves and the world around them. Stories of menarche often infer sadistic tendencies from the mother and seek room for expression. Narratives of irregular or absent periods can signify a lived or inherited abuse, trauma, or neglect. Menstruation is a key feature of identity, expressing a continuation and solidarity, sometimes rejected by the individual, as seen in anorexia. We should be curious about a patient’s periodicity and when appropriate enquire of it in the first consultation just as we would any other reality.
16:15
Q&A
16.30
Break
16.45
Jane Catherine Severn
Femenome: A cycle-logical approach to therapy with women
Inside every woman who comes to us, something essential, eloquent and profound is asking to be heard – something to which we psychotherapists have traditionally paid little attention. At best our unawareness limits the help we can offer. At worst it may mean we are unwittingly working against our clients’ innate growth catalysts. This presentation offers a radical re-cognition of the female psyche-logical design – a comprehensive model and freshly minted lexicon of the menstrual cycle within the overall psychospiritual Self-developmental sequence of menarche, menstrual cycle years, menopause and mature life – as a compellingly relevant diagnostic and remedial tool for therapy with women.
17.30
Q&A
17.45
Panel Session with Q&A
Thinking about how to integrate the menstrual cycle in therapeutic practice
18:30
End