Clinical Psychology and Therapy Services ~ Herefordshire

Category: Menstrual Cycle Awareness

Information about the menstrual cycle and mental health

What Menstrual Cycle Awareness (MCA) offers your IFS practice

So you and/or the people you work with already have an Internal Family Systems informed (IFS) practice, and you have become blissfully aware that you are made up of not one, but many “parts”, all of whom ultimately have your needs in mind.

One of the greatest blessings of your IFS practice includes acceptance that you have wide ranging and sometimes conflicting beliefs, thoughts and feelings. You have come to understand that many of your parts, even the ones who can cause you distress (like the parts who drive unhealthy behaviors, anxiety, anger or depression) are in fact acting in defense of pain and intensity, which at one time was intolerable.

Even though you are learning to “un blend” from your parts, and seek more support from that growing well of “Self-energy” within you, you still HURT sometimes, and feel stuck in patterns that don’t serve you.

You want to deepen your practice further and involve the whole-body mind system in your healing.

Menstrual Cycle Awareness (MCA) is the practice of understanding and connecting with the different phases of the menstrual cycle, and be empowered to live in harmony with your cyclical nature. It involves paying attention to physical, emotional, and mental changes throughout each phase and with this knowledge, to make informed decisions about daily activities, self-care, and overall well-being.

As a woman with many years of practice tracking my own cycle, and a Clinical Psychologist and IFS therapist with a special interest in the role of the body in therapy, I have come to learn how beautifully these two healing modalities complement each other.

Just as you might already track your parts, notice when you are blended versus in a state of Self-energy, witness your parts’ fears, and identify areas for healing by attending to your internal family, MCA supports you to notice which parts are more likely to be activated, and how much access you have to Self-energy in response, according to the phases of your cyclical body.

Cycle tracking provides a guide for following and understanding the two key energy shifts that many people experience throughout the menstrual month; while your IFS practice makes sense of why you are more likely to blend with protector parts, versus younger, and more vulnerable exile energies, in the respective cycle phases.

Adding MCA into your IFS practice will give you a theoretical framework for:

  • Why angry protectors and exile energies are more active pre-menstrually
  • Supporting the un-blending process by meeting your body needs for rest and reflection
  • How cyclical distress could actually be your body giving you trailheads to your exiled parts
  • Why & how you “cope better” at other points in the cycle
  • What embodied healing is and feels like
  • The optimal time and way to witness and heal burdened parts
  • A natural, intuitive, non-judgemental framework for attuning to the body’s rhythms and communications
  • A guide to begin to explore the different states of Self energy, and how your cyclical body might gift you access to new levels of spiritual connection and guidance

If working in this way appeals to you, then you can request a free consultation to consider what it might be like to work 1:1, guiding your therapy from a genuine place of mind-body integration.

I have developed this framework in partnership with Dr Lara Owen, who is recognised internationally for her pioneering and continuing work on menstruation. Together later this year we are offering a 4-day training retreat, where we will present these ideas and concepts publicly for the first time, to a small group, in a beautiful unspoiled countryside retreat. The workshop sessions will be supported by a range of optional activities including swimming in the pool and lake, walks in the surrounding woodland, and restorative yoga, insuring that learning and self-discovery can occur in an optimal rested state. You can read more and book your space here: https://laraowen.com/trauma-and-the-menstrual-cycle/

What IFS offers your Menstrual Cycle Awareness Practice

So you and/or the people you work with already have an established cycle tracking practice, and you have become blissfully aware that you have different needs and gifts at different phases of your cycle.

One of the greatest blessings of a cycle awareness includes acceptance and validation that we are not supposed to be the same all the time, and that its natural and actually helpful to experience these changing states throughout the menstrual month.

The healing potential in your menstrual cycle

Having maintained a practice of tracking my own menstrual cycle for many years, and learning to pay closer attention to the cyclical experiences of the women and people in my therapy room, it became apparent that the issues that bring people to therapy are often more extreme and distressing in the luteal phase, between ovulation and the bleed. This observation is supported by research which shows that women in the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle experience stronger emotional memories than women in other phases.

Natural Cycles can support us to heal trauma

What is Trauma?

Through my many years of study and practice across a broad spectrum of emotional distress and mental “disorder” in NHS and private settings, I have come to hold a very broad concept of “trauma”. You can read more about my position, and the associated complexities here: https://thebodyinmind.co.uk/2023/01/26/can-i-call-it-trauma/ but to summarise, it is my belief that in fact, we all hold the imprint of traumatic and adverse events occurring perhaps years or moments prior to, during and/or post our births into this world. These events shape us into complex and interesting individuals. Navigating adversity is part of the human experience, and whilst often difficult and sometimes devastating, traumatic experience also offers up rich opportunity for growth, resilience and hope.

Mental Health and the Menstrual Cycle

A core message I wish to share via my work as a body focussed psychologist is that there are many ways in which we can benefit our wellbeing and accelerate healing via connecting and listening to the innate wisdom of our bodies.

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