Helping Women Achieve Psychological and Emotional Health

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In today’s fast-paced world, women are faced with a growing list of challenges. Whether juggling professional aspirations, family and child-care schedules, finances, elder-care, or educational advancement, women are far busier and experience more stress compared to men (womenshealth.gov). Yes, a woman’s brain is designed and better equipped to multitask, but trying to shoulder the lion’s share of lifestyle, family and professional responsibilities, along with societal pressures to overcome generational stereotypes and out-perform male counterparts, whilst wearing a glowing smile, is unsustainable and unrealistic.

 

It will come then as no surprise that, according to the World Health Organization, women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience a mental health-related issue during their lifetime. And between the ages of 35 to 49, women appear to be particularly susceptible to experiencing emotional distress. It seems the combined pressures of childcare responsibilities, elderly parents, lifestyle and workplace demands, along with the hormonal shifts that occur with fertility issues, PDD, and menopause, create the perfect storm for anxiety and depression to emerge.  

 

Aside from biology, gender norms and social conditioning are additional contributors to women’s stress. From a very young age, girls are taught not to react to adversity in the same way as boys, particularly when it comes to expressing frustration and anger. For example, female leaders whose styles are direct and use strong language are labeled as “aggressive” and "bossy" whereas males who exhibit similar leadership styles are viewed as “strong” and “transactional”. The psychological consequence for women, having learned to quell such emotions, equates to silenced voices and dampened feelings. Anger turned inward becomes depression. Alexander Pope said it best, "to be angry is to revenge the faults of others upon ourselves."

 

As daily life becomes more demanding it’s easy to feel overwhelmed from the stress that comes with time pressures and unmet obligations. Women especially, spend far more time focused on meeting the needs of others rather than making time to nurture and care for themselves. Developing a trusted relationship with a therapist or coach is a sure-win return on the practice of good self-care. Helping women to overcome and flourish, despite the unique issues we face, is at the heart of my therapeutic work and it’s an honor to support my clients along their journey toward healing and growth.