Professional Insights
October 2026
Menopause: When You Don't Quite Feel Like Yourself
October is World Menopause Month, a time to raise awareness of a life transition that can affect women in ways that aren't always visible.
When we talk about menopause, the focus is often on physical symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and disrupted sleep. But what can sometimes be overlooked is the emotional impact. For some women, it's the feeling that they're no longer quite themselves that can be most unsettling.
Perhaps you've always been someone who manages things well, juggling work, family and everyday life. But suddenly you're feeling more anxious, less confident, or overwhelmed by things that wouldn't previously have bothered you and it can be difficult to understand why.
Menopause rarely happens in isolation. For many women, it arrives alongside other life changes: pressures at work, children growing up, ageing parents or shifting relationships. There may also be questions about identity, getting older and what the next stage of life might look like. Yet so many women continue to push through, telling themselves they're just tired, stressed or should be coping better. I think this is where we can sometimes be particularly hard on ourselves.
As a counsellor, I'm interested not just in what's happening to someone, but in how they experience it and what it means to them. Menopause can bring up feelings that go beyond hormonal changes. There may be anxiety, sadness, frustration or a loss of confidence. For women who have spent years looking after everyone else, it can also be a time when familiar ways of coping no longer feel manageable.
Counselling offers a space to explore these feelings without judgement or the pressure to hold everything together. It can be an opportunity to reflect on your needs, relationships and sense of self. Of course, medical support can be important too, but I believe there's real value in recognising the emotional side of this transition.
I don't think menopause needs to be seen as either something entirely negative or an exciting new chapter. For many women, it's more complicated than that. There may be uncertainty alongside possibility, and difficult days mixed with more manageable ones.
Perhaps World Menopause Month is an opportunity to encourage more open conversations about what this stage of life really feels like. because sometimes what we need isn't advice on how to cope better, but simply the space to be heard and understood.
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September 2026
When Being the Strong One Becomes Exhausting
Some people become so used to being the person everyone relies on that they rarely stop to consider how they're actually feeling themselves. Perhaps you're the one who keeps things running at work, manages family responsibilities, supports friends through difficult times, or makes sure everyone else is okay. From the outside, you might appear confident, capable and in control. But underneath, you may be feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or quietly struggling and because you're so used to coping, asking for help can feel surprisingly difficult.
One of the things I've become increasingly aware of through my work as a counsellor, and my previous experience in demanding corporate environments, is how easily being capable can become an expectation. When you're someone who generally manages well, others may assume you always will. And over time, you may begin to expect the same of yourself. You might find it difficult to say no, feel guilty about putting your own needs first, or worry that admitting you're struggling somehow means you're failing. But constantly being the strong one can come at a cost, sometimes that shows up as anxiety, irritability or difficulty switching off and at other times, it's a growing sense of resentment, emotional exhaustion or feeling disconnected from yourself.
I think it's worth asking ourselves why we sometimes find it easier to offer kindness and understanding to others than to extend that same compassion to ourselves. For some people, being dependable has become an important part of their identity. Perhaps it's something they've always been praised for, or a role they've taken on within their family or relationships. The difficulty comes when we begin to believe that our own needs matter less than everyone else's.
Counselling can offer a space to explore these patterns, understand where they come from and begin to consider what might need to change. It's not necessarily about doing less or becoming a different person, sometimes it's simply about recognising that you don't have to manage everything on your own. Being strong doesn't mean never struggling and being capable doesn't mean you should have to cope with everything. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you can be someone others rely on while also needing care, understanding and support yourself.
June 2026
When Anxiety Becomes an Everyday Companion
Most people picture anxiety as something dramatic, a racing heart before an interview, sweaty palms before a big moment. But for many, anxiety isn't tied to big moments at all. It's a quiet hum running in the background of ordinary life: the school run, the grocery list, a meeting that hasn't even been scheduled yet.
This everyday anxiety can look like a tight chest for no clear reason, obsessing over a text message you sent, trouble relaxing on a day off, or a vague sense that something bad is about to happen. It's easy to explain away as "just being tired" but when it becomes the norm rather than the exception, it's worth paying attention to.
Why does it happen without a reason? Our nervous systems evolved to detect danger, but they don't distinguish well between a real threat and an unread email from your boss. Chronic stress, intolerance of uncertainty, past instability, and habitual worried thinking can all keep that alarm system switched on long after any real danger has passed.
Living this way has a cost including fatigue, tension, disrupted sleep, strained relationships, and a narrowed, threat-focused way of thinking. Many people even start to see it as a personality trait ("I'm just an anxious person") rather than a pattern that can shift.
The good news: it can shift. Naming the anxiety without judgment, grounding in the body, gently questioning worried thoughts, reducing avoidance and looking after sleep and stimulant intake all help. For anxiety that's become a daily companion, working with a counsellor can help identify the specific patterns feeding it and build tools suited to how your mind and body respond to stress.
You don't need a crisis to justify seeking support — feeling anxious more days than not is reason enough.
May 2026
Grief Isn’t Only About Death
When people think about grief, they often think about bereavement. But grief can emerge through many different kinds of loss, not only the death of someone we love.
We can grieve the end of a relationship, a version of ourselves, a future we imagined, or a life that did not unfold in the way we hoped. Sometimes grief appears after a major change: becoming a parent, leaving a career, moving away, or recognising that something important is no longer possible.
Because these losses are less visible, people often minimise them. They tell themselves that nothing “serious enough” has happened to justify how they feel. And yet grief does not depend on whether a loss is publicly recognised. It emerges wherever there has been attachment, hope, meaning, or love.
Often, non-death grief goes unnoticed because it hides beneath other experiences. It can look like anxiety, numbness, irritability, or a constant sense of emotional exhaustion. Many people cope by staying busy, focusing on others, or pushing difficult feelings aside. Sometimes these strategies helped us survive at one point in our lives. But grief that has no space to be acknowledged rarely disappears completely.
In therapy, people sometimes discover they are grieving not only what happened, but what never happened: the care they did not receive, the safety they were missing, or the version of themselves they feel they could have been under different circumstances.
Naming grief can feel uncomfortable, but it can also bring relief. There is something powerful about recognising that what we are carrying is not weakness or failure, but loss.
Grief is not only about death. It is part of being human, of becoming attached, of loving, hoping, and changing throughout our lives.
April 2026
Menopause Action Plans:
What They May Mean for You at Work
You may have seen increasing conversation about Menopause Action Plans in the workplace and wondered what this actually means for you.
Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, UK employers are being encouraged to introduce formal Menopause Action Plans alongside gender pay gap reporting. From April 2026, larger organisations will be expected to publish these plans voluntarily, with a move towards them becoming mandatory from 2027.
While this sits at a policy level, it may begin to shape your day-to-day experience at work.
From an employee perspective, these changes are intended to create clearer and more consistent support around menopause in the workplace.
You may notice things such as:
Managers becoming more informed and confident in conversations about menopause
Clearer workplace policies or guidance being introduced
Greater access to flexible working or reasonable adjustments
Improved awareness of occupational health or wellbeing support
A gradual shift towards more open and respectful conversations
The aim is to move away from inconsistent or “case-by-case” responses, towards more reliable and visible support.
In my work as a counsellor, I often hear how menopause can affect not just physical wellbeing, but also confidence, concentration, and emotional resilience at work.
Symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, sleep disruption or brain fog can feel harder to manage when there is uncertainty about whether it is safe or appropriate to talk about them in the workplace.
Where there is understanding and support, people often feel more able to stay connected to their work without feeling they have to struggle alone.
March 2026
How Therapy Can Help with Work Stress 2026 Mental Health UK - Burnout Report
The latest Mental Health UK Burnout Report paints a familiar but concerning picture. Burnout is no longer an exception in UK workplaces, it is becoming part of the everyday backdrop of working life.
The report shows that around nine in ten adults experienced high or extreme stress in the past year, with a significant proportion taking time off work due to stress-related mental health difficulties. Younger workers, particularly those aged 18–24, are disproportionately affected, with many reporting time off linked to stress and burnout.
What stands out is not only the level of pressure, but how widespread it has become.
Whilst it is now acknowledge the importance of mental health, the report suggests a persistent gap between awareness and meaningful support. Many employees describe environments where stress is recognised in principle, but not always responded to in practice.
In this space, people often adapt by pushing through, minimising their experience, or continuing until the pressure becomes harder to manage. From a therapeutic perspective, this is often where burnout develops, not suddenly, but gradually, through sustained disconnection from personal limits and boundries.
The report also highlights key drivers that are structural rather than personal: high workload, long hours, and job insecurity remain central contributors to workplace stress.
This matters, because it challenges the idea that burnout is simply about individual resilience. Instead, it reflects the environments people are working within and the expectations placed on them.
Burnout is rarely just about workload. It is often shaped by blurred boundaries, work–life balance, family pressures, and the weight of internal and external expectations. Over time, these pressures can build quietly, alongside what is not said or acknowledged, until they begin to feel difficult to manage.
From my perspective, talking therapy offers a space to slow things down and make sense of what has been building. It can help people look more clearly at what is contributing to their stress and how they have been managing it over time. This process can support clearer thinking, better self-understanding, and practical shifts in how they relate to pressure and demand.