Perimenopause and menopause
Perimenopause and menopause support in Arkansas.
Support for the emotional side of this season, from mood swings to 3 a.m. anxiety. By secure video with Kristen I. Speer, LPC.
or call 479.777.2776
- Telehealth across Arkansas
- Adults 18 and over
- Free 15-minute video consultation
The emotional side
Perimenopause isn't only physical.
Most of the talk is about hot flashes and hormones. What sends people to a therapist is usually something else.
Perimenopause is the stretch before menopause, and it can last for years. Menopause itself is a single point: twelve months after your last period. Most of what people live through happens in perimenopause, and it has no clear start date.
Sleep stops working the way it did. Moods swing further and faster than they used to. Anxiety shows up with no reason attached. Words go missing mid-sentence. Some people feel a flatness that looks a lot like depression, and it gets waved off as a phase, by other people and often by themselves.
Being told it's normal isn't the same as being told what to do about it.
And it often arrives in the same decade as everything else. Parents who need care. Kids leaving home. A marriage that has to be renegotiated, not repeated. A career that looks nothing like the plan. Any one of those is enough. All at once, in a body you're still getting used to, it's a lot to hold.
Kristen is a licensed professional counselor, not a physician. Hormones, symptoms and treatment belong with your doctor. Therapy is for what happens to your mood, your sleep, your relationships and your sense of yourself while all of that goes on.
What it looks like
What brings people to therapy in perimenopause.
Few people come in saying "menopause." They come in with one of these, and the season is underneath it.
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A mood that doesn't fit the moment
A shorter fuse than the situation deserves. Tears over nothing, and none over the things that matter. Anger that surprises you, then a second round of feeling awful for having it.
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Anxiety, especially at 3 a.m.
You wake in the small hours with your heart pounding and no thought attached yet. Then one shows up. By day you're tired in a way sleep doesn't fix, running on less than the life you built needs.
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Not feeling like yourself
Confidence that used to be automatic now takes effort. You feel invisible in rooms you used to run. And a quiet question keeps coming back: is this who I am now?
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Everyone else needs you too
A partner who hasn't noticed, or noticed and said the wrong thing. Teenagers. Parents. Work. Grief that belongs to this decade.
Is it this season, depression, or both? A website can't tell you. That takes a conversation, and the free 15-minute consultation is a good place to start.
The work
What therapy for this usually looks like.
This is a general outline, not a schedule. Every person needs something different, and You can ask Kristen how she works in your consultation.
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Saying it out loud
A lot of this gets carried alone, because it's awkward to bring up and easy to shrug off. Early sessions are usually about describing all of it to someone who won't laugh it off.
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Sorting out what's what
Some of it is the season. Some is a marriage, a job, a loss, or something much older that this season has stirred up. They tangle together, and pulling them apart changes what there is to do about each one.
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Building tools you can use
Practical work on the parts you can change: how you sleep, what you do in the moment before you say the thing, how you handle a day that started badly at 4 a.m.
In her words: "You will leave therapy with a toolbox of coping skills."
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Deciding what changes
Many people have been carrying things because carrying them was easier than the conversation. What stays, what goes and what gets renegotiated is yours to decide.
How long this takes is different for everyone, and no one can tell you in advance.
Relationships
Menopause changes your relationships too.
The people closest to you are living through this season with you.
Your patience runs out sooner. Your energy has gone somewhere else. Closeness that used to happen on its own now has to be planned, and what you want from it may not be what you wanted before.
What you needed ten years ago isn't what you need now. That's not a flaw in the relationship. It's what happens to two people over time, and it's a common reason people come to therapy in this season. The hard part is usually saying it. Naming a new need to someone who's used to the older version of you takes work.
You can work on this alone or together. Some people come on their own, to get clear on what they want before they say it to anyone. Some come as a couple, because the same conversation keeps ending the same way and it's hard to see why from inside it. Either is a good place to start. Wanting things to work differently isn't the same as wanting out.
By video
Why therapy by video fits this season.
Driving across town on four hours of sleep to talk about this in a waiting room full of strangers is enough to put anyone off. Plenty of people who mean to get support never get past that part.
By video, you're at home, behind your own door, dressed however you like, with the thermostat where you want it. There's no drive either way, and the hour fits inside a workday instead of eating an afternoon.
Kristen holds every session by secure video, anywhere in Arkansas. For a lot of people, that's not a compromise. It's the reason therapy happens at all.
Questions
Questions about menopause.
Am I too young for this to be perimenopause?
It can start earlier than people expect, and plenty spend a year or two being told they're imagining it. Whether it's perimenopause is a medical question for your doctor. You don't need that answer to get support for how you're doing now.
Is this medical care?
No. Kristen is a Licensed Professional Counselor, not a physician. She doesn't diagnose menopause, prescribe anything or advise on hormone therapy, and nothing on this page is medical advice. That belongs with your doctor. Therapy sits alongside it, for your mood, sleep, relationships and sense of self. Many people do both.
Is it depression, or is it menopause?
Often it isn't one or the other. That's a good reason to talk it through with someone instead of deciding alone at midnight. Depression is one of Kristen's three main focus areas, so either way it's work she does.
How do I know if Kristen is a good fit?
Ask her. The consultation is free and takes 15 minutes. You can request a time in Kristen's portal or call 479.777.2776. If you want to know about cost first, see insurance and rates.
Free consultation
Talk with Kristen about this season.
Your first step is a free 15-minute consultation by video, or by phone if you would rather. It's a conversation, not a commitment.
or call 479.777.2776
Pick a day and time from Kristen's calendar. The form runs on SimplePractice, the secure system she uses for sessions. She confirms every request.