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Navigating perimenopause group program

A practical CBT group for sleep, hot flush distress, mood changes, and emotional regulation

Are you feeling unlike yourself lately?

Perhaps your sleep is disrupted, your patience is thinner, your stress tolerance feels lower, and things that once felt manageable now feel much harder. You may be dealing with hot flushes, night sweats, poor sleep, irritability, anxiety, brain fog, or a sense that your usual coping capacity has changed.

Navigating perimenopause is a structured, psychologist-led group designed to help women better understand what is happening during the menopause transition and learn practical CBT-based tools to reduce symptom-related distress, improve sleep, support emotional regulation, and restore coping capacity. The manual describes the programme in these terms and emphasises that it is calm, grounded, trauma-informed, and focused on skills rather than symptom comparison.

The program

Week 1: Feeling safe and making sense of perimenopause | 90mins

We begin by creating a supportive, respectful space where you can feel comfortable sharing and learning. This session helps you understand what’s happening during perimenopause — emotionally, physically, and mentally — so your experiences feel less confusing or isolating. You’ll also start thinking about what matters most to you and what you’d like to get out of the program.

Week 2: Sleep and calming your system | 90mins

This week focuses on improving sleep and settling a busy or restless mind. You’ll learn why sleep can become disrupted during this stage of life, and why “trying harder” to sleep often makes things worse. We’ll explore simple, realistic ways to wind down at night, manage racing thoughts, and create a plan for handling things like night sweats without completely losing sleep.

Week 3: Managing hot flushes and night sweats | 90mins

We’ll look at how hot flushes and night sweats affect not just your body, but also your thoughts and reactions. You’ll learn ways to reduce how distressing or disruptive these experiences feel, and build practical strategies to cope during both the day and night. The aim is to feel more prepared and less overwhelmed when symptoms show up.

Week 4: Mood, anxiety and finding your balance again | 90mins

This session explores the emotional side of perimenopause, including mood changes, anxiety, and feeling unlike yourself. You’ll learn to spot unhelpful thinking patterns and gently shift them, while also building small, manageable activities that boost your mood and energy. We’ll also look at ways to create everyday support so things feel less overwhelming.

Week 5: Identity, boundaries and protecting your energy | 90mins

Perimenopause often comes with shifts in roles, identity, and what you can realistically give to others. This week helps you reflect on those changes and set boundaries that protect your time and energy. You’ll practise kinder self-talk and make one small, values-based change that supports your wellbeing without disconnecting from others.

Week 6: Bringing it all together and moving forward | 90mins

In our final session, we’ll pull together everything you’ve learned and create a plan that works for your real life. You’ll be supported to think about what helps you stay on track, how to handle setbacks, and what ongoing support might look like. We’ll finish in a way that feels grounded, practical, and focused on your strengths.

By the end of this program, you will be better able to feel more like yourself again, with a clearer understanding of what is happening in your body and mind during perimenopause. You will have practical tools to improve your sleep, reduce the impact of hot flushes and night sweats, manage mood changes and anxiety more effectively, and feel more steady, capable, and in control day-to-day.