Health Practitioners

Online

Susie Garden

Clinical Nutritionist and Naturopath

I know what it’s like to hit your 40s (and now 50s!) and start to see changes in your skin, your body and your hormones. It felt relentless at times.

I was inspired to help women to look and feel their best in perimenopause after experiencing my own symptoms of peri and realising the women I was seeing in my clinic were putting up with fatigue, brain fog, hot flushes and weight gain and had no idea that these can be addressed with personalised nutrition and lifestyle strategies.

Here’s how it started…

Some years ago, I had a busy practice full of women over 40yo wanting help losing weight, managing stress and increasing energy.

After my degree I had invested in some additional training in a European nutrition program and added in mindset skills, stress management, movement and gut health support and was seeing my clients achieve incredible weight loss results.

BUT they were also raving about –

  • How well they were sleeping

  • How their skin was glowing

  • How their thoughts were clearer and they were making better decisions at work

  • How their body pain had disappeared How their energy was going through the roof!

I looked into this some more and realised that these women were receiving these added benefits because of the combination effect of my total program AND that there was plenty of science to explain this.

So I shifted my focus and I now almost exclusively work with women in perimenopause and menopause to improve their symptoms and lose unwanted weight and I love it!

I use a combination of personalised nutrition (using blood testing) plus coaching to develop a protocol that is unique to each client.

I’m a degree qualified Clinical Nutritionist, Naturopath and Yoga & Meditation Teacher with over 30 years experience in healthcare, previously as a Registered Nurse and also in the pharmaceutical industry. I host The Ageless and Awesome Podcast and am based in Burleigh Heads. I work with women all around the world via TeleHealth (video link).

Susie sees clients online via Telehealth.

Alison Dougall

Clinical and Counselling Psychologist

Hello! I'm Alison.

I'm also a perimenopause-r…plus, a Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, Mindfulness Teacher, Coach, and I was a Registered Nurse in what feels like a former life (with a long-held interest and qualifications in sexual and reproductive health).

As a Psychologist, I’ve worked largely in private practice for the last 20 years. I work collaboratively with clients, using science-based therapies to help them better understand themselves, develop new perspectives, learn new skills and strategies, and respond in new ways to life’s challenges. Ultimately, clients navigate immediate challenges while also building longer-term resilience.

Like a lot of women, I tried for some time to avoid the whole topic of Menopause and related issues. But my own peri-menopause had different ideas for me, and eventually I needed to sit up and pay attention …

This is a challenging time of life for many of us. And there's nothing I love more in my professional life, than working with women who are experiencing ..... To be honest, they can feel degrees of desperation when they first come to see me. They are often NOT feeling like themselves at all. And of course, it's not just the joys of perimenopause that they're dealing with. Life isn't that simple. Nope, as midlife women, it's more than likely they have other stuff going on. All up, it can just feel like too much. But offering the time and space to make sense of it all, reconsider how they want to show up in the world, how much and what kind of caring they want to continue to provide others, and becoming clear on what's most important for them ... well, these conversations are pretty impactful. In fact, they seem like the “essence” to helping my clients move from feeling overwhelmed and often desperate, to excited, clear, courageous and 'ready'. THIS. This is the work that I love. It's such a privilege.

Alison sees clients online via Telehealth. Clients will be eligible for Medicare rebates if they have a valid Referral and Mental Health Care Plan from their GP or Psychiatrist.

Join Kirstin’s Waitlist

Kirstin Bouse

Clinical and Forensic Psychologist

Kirstin’s books are closed until February 2025. If you wish, you can complete the form ‘Join Kirstin’s Waitlist’ to be added to her waitlist for psychological therapy / treatment.

If you are not experiencing mental health issues, you may wish to consider Kirstin’s 12-Week Coaching Program ‘Embracing the Madness and Magic of Perimenopause’ which begins in February 2025.

So you’ve landed here, looking for some support.

You may be in midlife and buckling under the many demands placed upon you; financial and career pressure, caring responsibilities etc… If so, I bet you fantasise about being left alone, in your own home, to muddle about and do whatever YOU feel like doing in that moment. Or maybe your thing is to run away and having your own Eat, Pray, Love experience. It just gets all a bit too much, doesn’t it.

Then again, maybe it’s not so much the demands of midlife but the ‘normal’ (but often painful) life events. You know … the one’s that hurt your heart a little or a lot (even if for some, you are looking forward to them?) Like supporting kids through casual jobs, driving lessons, ATAR, leaving school, working, uni, leaving home etc…and then ageing parents or parents who pass away. I’m sure there’s more but geez, any of those are enough.

Perhaps you’re peri or post-menopausal (or wondering if you’ve even begun down this road) and in a haze of brain fog, memory challenges, joint pain, hot flushes, irritability (perhaps even meno-rage), teariness, overwhelm and confusion. If so, you’re probably wondering where that capable and resilient woman has gone. You know … the ‘YOU’ before all this stuff cropped up.

And/or maybe you’re wondering if you’re an ADHDer. You can’t concentrate / focus, you can’t remember things, you can’t organise, plan or implement. Perhaps these things haven’t ever been your strong suit and as such, they’ve always taken a fair bit of effort. But hey, you’ve had strategies and systems to stay on top of things (mostly) even if you felt constantly overwhelmed, exhausted and chaotic on the inside. And so you wonder. Is it burnout? Is it perimenopause? Is it ADHD? Not knowing, is beginning to bug you more and more.

Well, I’ve supported many women with all of these things going on. Like LOTS of women. To be honest, I’ve learned the most useful stuff from them. But in case this matters to you, I will let you know this …

I’ve done a lot of learning in these areas; independent of one another as well as the intersection of two or all three. And that’s on top of my nearly 30 years working with women with trauma, relationship issues and separation/divorce, sexual difficulties, perinatal adjustment and parenting.

And in case you’re wondering why I’m so interested in this ‘area’ … well my 40’s have been filled with a few highs and lows. Perhaps the greatest ‘surprise’ was my own experience of perimenopause. Add to that a formal diagnosis of burnout AND a late diagnosis of ADHD and yep, it’s been a bit of a ride AND a steep learning curve. Funnily enough it’s the gift of hyperfocus that comes with being an ADHDer that’s driven me to deep dive and learn all about these experiences. Because I can’t help if all I’m drawing from is my own life experience. But it does mean I understand how discombobulating these experiences are. (In fact, I’ve never used the word discombobulating so much until this stage of life!) 

I want you to know that I truly believe midlife women are amazing. Seriously. You may not feel it right now. But you are and I would love to help you her.

So if I sound like the psych you’d like to work with, reach out. You can make a booking below.

Kirstin sees clients in-person and via Telehealth. And if you have a mental health care plan OR the private health fund cover for clinical psychology, then you will likely be eligible for a rebate.

Ruth Cross

Psychotherapist & Counsellor

The menopausal transition is a pivotal stage of life that can affect all areas of a woman’s life and relationships. While we are slowly beginning to see the development of menopause awareness among broader society, the historical weight of stigma makes it hard for women to talk about what they are going through, and to suffer their experience of menopause alone and in silence.

Navigating my own midlife prompted a career change from documentary filmmaking to psychotherapy and counselling. Experiencing the menopausal transition and its particular challenges while undertaking my training as a therapist led me to focus my clinical practice on helping women navigate their emotional, psychological and spiritual states of being that arise during the physiological changes of menopause.

Every woman’s experience of menopause is as individual as she is. My therapeutic approach is person-centred, meaning I am led by your needs and lived experience. My background, supported by a lifelong personal yoga practice combined with my humanistic lens, brings a deep and holistic understanding of the midlife transition from perimenopause to menopause and beyond. I can work with you to identify how your role and relationships within family and society may be changing, and to explore and make meaning of your experiences.

Underpinning my commitment to supporting women in midlife transition is my vision for a whole-of-society response and support system of awareness and understanding to enable women to journey safely into their “Second Spring”.

Ruth sees clients via Telehealth.

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