Navigating Perimenopause & Menopause Mood Swings: Therapy Tips from a Therapist Experiencing It Too!
- Laura Malandrino
- Jun 3
- 5 min read
As a woman who has personally navigated the ups and downs of perimenopause, I understand how challenging this phase can be. Mood changes, irritability, and feelings of overwhelm are common, and they often catch us off guard. Through my own experience and my work as a therapist supporting women’s health, I’ve seen how mindfulness practices combined with targeted therapy can offer real relief.
Understanding Perimenopause Symptoms: Support for Women Navigating Perimenopause and Menopause in Hermosa Beach
Menopause is a significant life transition that brings both physical and emotional challenges — but it doesn’t begin overnight. For many women, symptoms start during perimenopause, the gradual phase leading up to menopause when hormone levels begin to fluctuate. This period can last several years and often brings a rise in symptoms such as mood swings, anxiety, fatigue, and irregular cycles. As women move from perimenopause into menopause — marked by 12 consecutive months without a period — these symptoms may intensify before eventually stabilizing.
Understanding where you are in this transition is key to managing what you're experiencing. If you're feeling overwhelmed, confused, or emotionally drained, you're not alone — and you don’t have to navigate this alone.
Checking for Symptoms:
Hot flashes are sudden waves of warmth that often disrupt your day and sleep, causing discomfort and frustration.
Mood swings can leave you feeling emotionally unbalanced, with rapid shifts that affect your relationships and daily life.
Sleep disturbances, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, contribute to exhaustion and stress during this vulnerable time.
Many women also experience what feels like déjà vu sadness—waves of anxiety, feelings of loss, or low mood that can feel heavy and persistent.
The Emotional Landscape of Menopause: Understanding Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Challenges
Menopause doesn’t just affect your body—it can deeply impact your mental health and emotional well-being. Many women notice significant changes during this transition that go beyond physical symptoms, and understanding these feelings is key to finding support and healing.
Increased anxiety is common, with feelings of fear and worry intensifying, sometimes without a clear reason.
Depression can arise as hormonal shifts create mood imbalances, leading to persistent sadness or low energy.
Irritability and a shorter temper often result from fluctuating hormones, making it harder to manage stress and relationships.
A profound sense of isolation affects many women, who feel misunderstood or unsupported by friends, family, or even themselves.
These mental health shifts aren’t a sign of weakness; they’re a natural part of what your body and mind are processing. Therapy can offer a safe, compassionate space to explore these emotions, build resilience, and reconnect with your sense of self. In the next section, we'll look at therapeutic approaches that can help you navigate this stage with more ease, clarity, and confidence. Menopause Support in Hermosa Beach.
Mindfulness Tools for Navigating Menopause and Emotional Shifts
As a therapist who understands the emotional toll of perimenopause and menopause, I work with women who are navigating symptoms like anxiety, low self-worth, mood swings, and overwhelming life transitions. Mindfulness is one of the most supportive and empowering tools I offer in therapy for anxiety, emotional regulation, and reconnection with the self.
Whether you’re feeling disconnected, irritable, or simply overwhelmed, these mindfulness-based techniques can help ground your nervous system and bring a sense of calm amidst hormonal and emotional fluctuations:
Meditation: Even a few minutes a day can support emotional clarity and reduce anxious thought spirals.
Deep Breathing: Learning to engage the breath can bring immediate relief to racing thoughts or physical tension.
Body Scan Practices: This guided technique helps you reconnect with your body and better understand how and where you hold stress.
Journaling: Writing can be a powerful way to process emotions, increase self-awareness, and soften inner criticism — especially during times of transition.
If you’re a high-functioning woman navigating anxiety, emotional stress, or menopause-related changes, mindfulness techniques, when integrated with therapy, can help you feel more grounded, resilient, and in control of your inner experience.
Therapy Approaches for Navigating Menopause and Emotional Wellbeing
Menopause can bring not only physical discomfort but emotional challenges — anxiety, low self-worth, mood shifts, and a sense of isolation. As a therapist who supports high-functioning women navigating life transitions, I offer integrative therapy approaches tailored to this season of change.
Here are a few evidence-based modalities that can support your mental health and sense of self during perimenopause and menopause:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Helps challenge and reshape negative thought patterns that fuel anxiety, irritability, or feelings of failure. CBT is especially effective for overthinkers and those struggling with perfectionism or self-doubt.
EMDR Therapy for Menopause-Related Anxiety and Trauma: Many women carry unresolved emotional experiences that can surface more intensely during hormonal shifts. EMDR therapy helps process and release those emotional blocks — especially helpful if you feel stuck in old patterns or triggered by past pain.
Relational and Depth-Oriented Psychotherapy: We explore your life narrative, relationships, and early experiences to better understand how they shape your present. This work is especially supportive for those navigating menopause and reflecting on their identity, purpose, or role in the world.
Group Support & Mindfulness Integration: While I currently offer individual therapy, I often recommend connecting with menopause support groups or using mindfulness-based practices between sessions to manage stress and foster community.
Therapy can be a powerful space to rediscover yourself, feel seen, and develop meaningful tools to navigate menopause — not just survive it, but grow through it.
My Experience Navigating Menopause
As a therapist and woman moving through the transitions of perimenopause and menopause myself, I know this isn’t just a physical shift — it’s an emotional one, too. The mood swings, anxiety, disrupted sleep, and waves of irritability aren’t just symptoms — they can shake your confidence and sense of stability.
Living and working in Hermosa Beach, I’ve found that creating supportive routines and surrounding myself with grounding community connections has been key. Whether it’s mindful walks by the ocean, journaling through my internal changes, or simply naming what’s happening — I’ve come to see this time not as a breakdown, but as a turning point.
The insights I’ve gained both personally and professionally have shaped the way I support clients: not just with tools like mindfulness, CBT, or EMDR therapy, but with genuine compassion for what this phase can bring up emotionally.
If you’re in the middle of this shift — feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or just not quite like yourself — know that you’re not alone. There is support, and it’s okay to ask for it.
You can Book a 15 min FREE consult to explore therapy options, and find the support that’s right for you.
f you’re noticing changes like irregular periods, mood swings, or hot flashes, taking a perimenopause symptoms quiz can help you understand what you’re experiencing. This simple self-check QUIZ can give you clearer insight into where you might be in the menopause transition and what symptoms to expect.
Take the quiz 👉 here to better understand your perimenopause symptoms and what to expect next.
Laura Malandrino, APCC. Therapy for Anxiety. Overthinkers. High Functioning Individuals. Hermosa Beach. Telehealth California.
