Menopause & Old Trauma

For the woman who expected menopause to change her body, and wasn't prepared for how far it might reach.

An eight-week course with Lisa Lacy

Most of us were given some version of the menopause talk. Expect hot flashes. Your sleep might change. Your weight may shift. Brain fog happens.

What nobody prepares you for is that you might start feeling different inside your own life. Your patience disappears. Anxiety that used to be manageable gets louder. Things you tolerated for years become impossible to ignore. A memory you haven't touched in decades walks back into the room.

Sometimes the frightening part isn't the physical change at all. It's looking at yourself and thinking:

What is happening to me?

November 2first cohort
20women
4live sessions
Lisa, on what this course is · 4 min · open in a new tab

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Menopause doesn't arrive in a life that just started yesterday

By the time most women reach menopause, they have history.

You have loved people. Lost people. Worked. Raised families or decided not to. Stayed in things too long. Left things you thought would last forever. Built careers. Cared for parents. Made mistakes. Survived things nobody else completely understands.

You have also developed ways of functioning. Maybe you became extremely competent. Maybe you learned to keep the peace. Maybe you got very good at taking care of everybody else before anybody had to ask.

Then the physiology changes. Sleep may become unreliable. Your stress threshold can feel different. The strategies that once helped you push through may stop working the same way.

It does not mean every problem in your life is caused by trauma. It does not mean everything can be blamed on hormones either. Often, what is happening is more complicated than either explanation by itself.

Maybe something here sounds familiar

You have started asking yourself why you are so angry.

You are less willing to tolerate behaviour that used to roll off your back.

A family dynamic you accepted for years suddenly looks completely different.

You are tired of being the person everyone depends on.

You say no and then spend the next several hours wondering whether you were too harsh.

You have been thinking about something from your past and cannot figure out why it feels important again now.

Or maybe you cannot put your finger on anything specific. You just know that you feel different.

I spent too many years making pain look polite.

This isn't another course about hot flashes

There are plenty of good resources that explain the physical side of menopause. We need those.

This course is interested in what happens when the changes reach into the rest of your life.

What happens when your usual coping mechanisms no longer work as well? When your tolerance for certain relationships disappears? When anger starts telling you something you have been avoiding? When the identity you built around being capable, needed or endlessly accommodating stops fitting?

Those are menopause conversations too. They just don't get discussed nearly enough.

You may not need to get back to your old self

So much of the menopause conversation is about getting back. Back to your old weight. Back to your old energy. Back to feeling like yourself.

I understand why women want that. But I also think we should be allowed to ask whether everything about the old version of ourselves needs to be restored.

Maybe she was exhausted. Maybe she tolerated too much. Maybe she was incredibly good at appearing fine.

She deserves respect for getting you this far. She does not have to dictate the rest of your life.

Perhaps the question now is not how do I become her again? Perhaps it is: who am I from here?

What if menopause didn’t create the chaos, but exposed the survival?

The 8 weeks

1
What Is Happening To Me?
Menopause as a whole-life transition rather than a list of symptoms. You don't need to fix yourself in week 1. You need a map.
2
When the Nervous System Takes Over
Fight, flight and freeze in plain language. The goal isn't to become perfectly calm - it's to notice sooner, so you have more choice in what happens next.
3
The Identity Collapse of Midlife
How much of who you are came from choice, and how much came from adaptation. Sorting through that honestly.
4
Trauma, Hormones & Emotional Memory
Why something you haven't thought about in years can suddenly feel close again - without turning every difficult moment into a diagnosis.
5
Relationships Under Pressure
What happens when you stop carrying things that were never entirely yours. Not every difficult relationship should end - but can you stay yourself inside it?
6
Boundaries Without Guilt
Not the concept - the part afterward. The explaining, the second-guessing, the resentment that shows up where a limit should have been.
7
Self-Advocacy & Being Believed
Tracking changes, preparing for appointments, asking better questions. Showing up as a participant in your own care.
8
Repair
Not healing. Not closure. Not becoming your old self again. Repair doesn't require a perfect ending - it requires a more intentional next chapter.

What's included

Six short video lessons each week, so you can move through them without setting aside hours at a time. A new workbook every week, which is yours alone and never handed in. Four live sessions with Lisa across the eight weeks, where you can take part or simply listen. And consideration for the separate eight-week individual program, which is not guaranteed with enrolment.

What people say

Lisa helped me understand that some of the things I had been judging myself for were actually patterns I had learned to survive. I stopped asking, ‘What is wrong with me?’ and started asking much better questions about what I needed.

“Rachel”, name changed for privacy

I had spent years being the person who could handle everything. Working with Lisa gave me language for what was happening underneath that competence, and practical ways to start setting boundaries without feeling like I was abandoning everyone.

“Amanda”, name changed for privacy

She doesn’t speak at you from a textbook. She combines education with lived experience in a way that makes difficult subjects understandable, human and immediately useful. I walked away trusting my own experience more than I had in years.

“Jennifer”, name changed for privacy

Who's teaching it

Lisa Lacy
I spent nearly three decades in healthcare leadership and education before moving into work centred on trauma, identity and recovery, and I host Notes From the Edge.

This is personal for me. I'm navigating menopause without hormone therapy, because a congenital blood disease makes that unavailable to me. I know what it is to have your body change the rules while everyone still expects you to function as though nothing has.
Her book is out in January 2027.

Questions

What do I receive each week?
Six video lessons every week, plus a new workbook created specifically for that week's material. The lessons are intentionally divided into shorter videos so you can move through them without having to carve out hours at a time.
Is this a self-paced course?
The recorded material gives you flexibility to work through each week on your own schedule, but this is more than a library of prerecorded videos. The course unfolds over eight weeks and includes four live virtual cohort experiences with Lisa.
Do I have to share my personal history with the group?
No. You decide what you want to share, if anything. Your workbook is yours, and you are never required to discuss your past or personal circumstances during a live session. There is plenty to learn simply by listening.
Do I need to have a trauma diagnosis?
No. You do not need a trauma diagnosis, a mental-health diagnosis or even to describe yourself as someone who has experienced trauma.
What if I don't know whether what I'm experiencing is menopause, trauma, stress or something else?
Then you are in very good company. One of the reasons this course exists is because life rarely gives us one clean explanation. The course is not designed to diagnose the cause - it is designed to give you more context, better questions and a clearer way of looking at what you are experiencing.
Is this therapy?
No. This is an educational course, not psychotherapy, counselling or mental-health treatment. We will talk about subjects that often appear in therapy, but the course does not diagnose or treat mental-health conditions.
Will you tell me whether I should use hormone therapy or medication?
No. Those decisions belong between you and the qualified professionals who know your medical history. The self-advocacy portion is about helping you notice patterns and ask better questions so you can participate more effectively in those conversations.
What if something in the course brings up difficult emotions?
You are allowed to stop. You can pause a video, leave a workbook question unanswered and return when you are ready. There is no prize for forcing yourself through material simply because it is there.
Are the workbooks private?
Yes. What you write in it belongs to you. You are never expected to turn in your workbook or share what you have written.
What if I can't attend one of the live sessions?
Because of the personal nature of the cohort conversations, live sessions are not recorded. We will provide a summary or supporting material when appropriate, so missing one session does not mean losing the course itself.
What is the individual eight-week program with Lisa?
Participants may have the opportunity to be selected for a separate eight-week individual program. It is its own experience, not a few minutes of one-on-one work during a cohort call. Selection is separate from enrolment and is not guaranteed.
What exactly is included with enrolment?
Eight weeks of course material, six video lessons each week, one new workbook every week, four live virtual cohort experiences with Lisa, and the opportunity to be considered for the separate individual program.
Terms & refunds — including the 14-day refund window and how to move to a later group.

Menopause & Old Trauma is an educational program. It is not psychotherapy, medical care, diagnosis, treatment or individualised medical advice. Questions about your own physical or mental health should be discussed with an appropriately licensed healthcare professional.