Working with the Menstrual Cycle in Psychotherapy
Recorded Saturday 14 January 2022
With Dr Margaret Altemus, Letticia Banton, Danielle Redland and Jane Catherine Severn
CE Credits: 4 hours
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. 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.
READ MORE...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.
Continuing Professional Development (CE) credits for 4 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate.
Access to the Talks On Demand runs for 365 days from the date of purchase.
FULL PROGRAM
Letticia Banton
Contextual Lens
From wandering womb to raging hormones: the impact of history on why psychotherapy is so silent on the menstrual cycle
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.
Q&A
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.
Q&A
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.
Q&A
Panel Session with Q&A
Thinking about how to integrate the menstrual cycle in therapeutic practice
FEES (USD)
Includes: 1 year’s access, test and CE Certificate of Attendance, subtitles and transcript
INDIVIDUAL
$78 (or $39 Confer member)
GROUP RATE
$50pp in groups of over 10 (please apply to accounts@confer.uk.com)
CE
Continuing Education (CE) credits for 4 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate. You can submit this test up to a maximum of 5 times.
This Talk On Demand is accredited by:
- NBCC
- NYSED (Psychology)
This Talk On Demand is NOT accredited by the following organisations:
- ASWB
Please contact events@conferonline.org for any further questions.
Confer has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7136. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Confer is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Confer is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0169
SCHEDULE
00:5:55
Letticia Banton
00:24:33
Dr Margaret Altemus
01:17:15
Q&A
01:24:59
Danielle Redland
01:59:18
Q&A
02:12:07
Jane Catherine Severn
02:59:46
Q&A
03:13:55
Panel Session with Q&A
03:56:14
End
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Develop a multidisciplinary understanding of the place of the menstrual cycle in psychotherapy
- Integrate biopsychology, psychoanalytical and humanistic therapy perspectives
- Describe the hormonal changes of the normal menstrual cycle and how they relate to uterine tissue changes and ovulation.
- Describe the effects of typical menstrual cycle hormone changes on mood in healthy women and women with psychiatric disorders
- Identify common etiologies of disrupted menstrual cycle function including food restriction, excessive exercise, polycystic ovary syndrome, and hyperandrogenism.