Why Menopause-Informed Psychological Care Needs a Working Definition

Over the last year, I've noticed something in conversations with colleagues, supervisors, and other clinicians working in this space. The phrase "menopause-informed" is everywhere now: in clinic descriptions, training materials, service specifications, and professional conversations. It's really heartening to see this as it signals that the psychological dimensions of perimenopause and menopause are at last being taken seriously, and that women in midlife should expect more from psychological services than approaches designed for entirely different populations.

But here's what I've also noticed: the term means almost nothing concrete. Two services can both describe themselves as menopause-informed and be doing entirely different things. A clinic that mentions menopause in its brochure can use the same language as one that has fundamentally restructured its assessment, formulation, and practice around menopausal presentations. A training programme that teaches menopause physiology can describe itself the same way as one that has integrated menopause into every domain of its curriculum. There's no way for women, commissioners, or professionals to tell the difference.

This gap has been sitting with me for a long time. I kept thinking: if the term is going to mean something, if it's going to protect what it's supposed to protect, it needs to be defined. Not imposed as a standard, but proposed as a working definition that the field can test, refine, and eventually agree on. The kind of definition that lets a woman ask "what do you mean by menopause-informed?" and get a real answer.

To bridge this gap I've put together a working definition. Seven defining criteria that, taken together, distinguish Menopause-Informed Psychological Care from psychological work that is simply menopause-aware or happens to involve menopausal clients. The criteria cover screening, formulation, psychoeducation, protocol adaptation, lifestyle integration, collaborative care, and clinician competence. They're operational, meaning a service can be measured against them, and either meets the threshold or doesn't. Moreover, they're open to refinement as the field evolves and develops them.

Some of you will ask: what about EMBERS®? If I've already developed EMBERS®, why now introduce a separate working definition? The answer is straightforward. EMBERS® is the framework I've developed and the one I teach. But Menopause-Informed Psychological Care is bigger than EMBERS®. It's the concept that the field should gradually move toward. EMBERS® is one route to delivering it, but one route among possible others. Other clinicians, training providers, and researchers might develop different routes to the same defining criteria, and they should be encouraged to do so. The standard belongs to the field, not to any single framework or provider.

I'm posting this as a starting point, not an endpoint. I expect it to be tested against clinical experience, refined through dialogue, challenged where it misses the mark and developed into something the field agrees to and owns. The document includes space for colleagues to engage, for professional bodies to consider whether and how it might inform their standards, for academic partners to collaborate on evaluation and development.

If you're working in this space, whether you're a clinician, a trainer, a commissioner, or a researcher, I'd be grateful for your engagement with the document. Read it,  consider what you'd add, remove, or change and respond. The conversation I'm inviting is the whole point.

The full working definition is available here, with the seven criteria, the relationship to EMBERS®, and an invitation to field development. You can read it on the page or download it to share, cite, or print.

Looking forward to hearing what you think.

Embracing Change! Transforming with Kindness!  

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