Menopause and perimenopause are natural stages of life, but that doesn’t mean they always feel easy. Alongside physical symptoms, many women experience anxiety, low mood, low self-esteem, brain fog, irritability or a sense that they no longer feel like themselves.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy understands these changes in a different way. Most women arrive at menopause with parts that have been working hard for decades: the capable part, the people-pleasing part, the strong part that holds everything together and the part that keeps everyone else happy and pushes through no matter what. These parts have often shaped a woman’s identity for much of her adult life.

During menopause, these parts may find it harder to keep going in the same way. Brain fog can challenge the part that prides itself on being organised and capable. Emotional changes can overwhelm the part that has always stayed calm, while exhaustion can make it difficult for the part that believes it must keep everyone else afloat.

What can feel like a loss of control is often your system signalling that old ways of coping are no longer working. The parts that have carried so much for so long may finally be asking for attention, support and change.