Now in its third year, The Intersection of Trauma and Menopause Conference brings together clinicians, researchers, educators, and lived-experience advocates to explore one of the most complex and under-recognised areas of psychological and therapeutic practice.

For many individuals, perimenopause and menopause represent far more than a biological transition. This life stage can act as a profound psychological, relational, and existential threshold. Alongside hormonal and bodily change, earlier experiences of trauma may resurface, intensify, or take on new meaning. Attachment patterns may shift, grief and loss may re-emerge, nervous system regulation can become more fragile, and questions of identity, safety, embodiment, and future direction often come to the foreground.

Despite this, menopause remains under-theorised and under-addressed within trauma-informed practice. Clinicians frequently report feeling unsure how to distinguish between trauma responses, menopausal change, and the complex interaction between the two. This conference responds directly to that gap.

The 2026 programme focuses on how different therapeutic modalities can engage thoughtfully and effectively with the intersection of trauma and menopause. Across a series of extended, interactive workshops, participants will explore a wide range of perspectives including attachment-informed practice, Transactional Analysis, existential psychotherapy, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, compassion focused and cognitive behavioural approaches, person-centred and pluralistic frameworks, creative arts therapies, coaching, and ecopsychology.

Together, these workshops explore menopause as an embodied transition that can reawaken earlier wounds, activate survival strategies, and challenge previously stable internal working models. They also attend to menopause as a potential site of meaning-making, vitality, creativity, and re-orientation, when supported with sensitivity, skill, and compassion.

Throughout the conference, attention is given to themes such as grief and loss, shame and self-criticism, sexuality and intimacy, minority stress, neurodivergence, identity renegotiation, relational dynamics, and the ethical position of the therapist. The programme emphasises practical, experiential, and reflective learning, offering approaches that participants can integrate into clinical practice while also inviting personal reflection on this significant life transition.

This conference is designed for therapists, counsellors, psychologists, supervisors, coaches, educators, and informed community members who wish to deepen their understanding of menopause-informed trauma care. Whether you are seeking to expand your therapeutic toolkit, strengthen your conceptual confidence, or engage more fully with the lived realities of those navigating trauma during menopause, this conference offers a thoughtful, grounded, and humane space to do so.

Together, we aim to foster nuanced dialogue, embodied learning, and compassionate practice, supporting more responsive and ethically attuned work with individuals encountering trauma in the context of the menopausal transition.

Description supplied by the event organiser.