The transition through to Menopause is complex and multi-faceted. It is a death and rebirth, a shift in identity in all the different aspects of ourselves. There is a lot of stigma around sexuality and ageing, so for many women there is great fear that their sexuality will disappear. In this episode, Dr Laura Monk and I talk about the pathway that Menopause provides to discover your authentic sexuality.

Laura is both a Psychotherapist and Sex, Love and Relationship coach who loves to work with women through midlife and menopause. Laura shares with us her own sexual awakening post menopause and we talk about the possibilities for growth and development in terms of a woman’s sexuality that Menopause can present.

In this episode you will learn:

How our desires can become very different from what they have been previously,
How the enormity of the menopause transition can be challenging for women in their partnerships and bring us a question of whether we bring our partner with us or not,
The many pressures that women face throughout life that prevent them from being who they really are and menopause present an opportunity to be our true selves,
Our sexuality which is such a core part of our humanity is rarely addressed in most mainstream therapeutic contexts,
Your sexuality is not about your estrogen levels and the medical model assumes it is just that alone,
Connecting to your sexual energy which is your life force energy is connecting to your energy body; that this is what makes you magnetic and attractive not all the external dressings we learn to apply.

You can find Laura on instagram at @drlauramonk and on her website www.drlauramonk.com.

Today I talk to my friend and colleague Kendra Cover who is a women’s intimacy coach. Kendra and I were wondering out loud recently recently about this and wondering What does a woman with a capital W look like, what is it that stops us stepping into womanhood and what does it look like to others. How would we know, what does it feel like inside of us?

In this podcast we explore:

The rites of passage that women go through how poorly supported they are,
How women feel their value comes from the roles that they take up in their lives. That we are conditioned to be a good daughter, good friend, good mother, good wife; all the time giving so much of ourselves away to others. That within these roles there comes so much discomfort that we feel that is surprising to us;
How few archetypal roles are available to women in terms of how they show up and this narrowing down of how we ‘are’ diminishes so much of who we are,
How learning to hold all of our emotions and listening to the signals they provide is both a source of great power and pleasure to us,
There is so little encouragement culturally in our society to encourage and honour people really to get to know themselves on a very deep level,
The lack of ritual and honour that exists within our society to support women through the rites of passage we go through,
When you connect with your sexual energy which is your life force energy you can never turn it off and it is such an incredible source of vitality to us in life.

You can find Kendra on her website www.kendracover.com on instagram @kendracover and her Facebook group is called Into the wild of womanhood.

Ep 20 Menopause as a pathway to our authentic sexuality with Dr Laura Monk

Ep 16 When do I become a Woman with a capital W with Kendra Cover