June 18, 2026
June Greetings,
The heat has arrived and so has our appetite for all things summertime. Cue watermelon recipes, gardening well into the evening on longer days, and trips to the beach. We hope you are staying cool as the first day of Summer approaches.
🏳️🌈It’s Pride month and we are so grateful for our LGBTQ+ therapists and allied clinicians, that bring attuned mental health and eating disorder support to our community. We believe that the world is more joyful and brighter with LGBTQ+ folks in it, and we are thankful to the folks who entrust us with their mental health support🏳️🌈
It’s hard to scroll social media, listen to a podcast, or stream your favorite show without coming across an advertisement for a product directed at people experiencing menopause transition. Ads for items like supplements, GLP-1s, protein packed snacks, weighted vests, cosmetic procedures, and facial serums send the message that we must improve our aging bodies and attempt to halt the aging process altogether.
It feels important to acknowledge the trifecta of wellness, fitness, and big pharma and their financial incentives to capitalize on natural bodily changes and age-related insecurities of the growing demographic of people experiencing menopause transition. Exploiting gaps in medicine, along with relaxed regulations around supplement creation, and influencer marketing create an effective recipe for these sectors of the market to create large amounts of money fairly quickly and easily. Around the world, over one billion women are either experiencing menopause or have already gone through it. By 2030, nearly 500 million women aged 45 to 55 will represent about 6 percent of the global population. While most of these women will reside in low- and middle-income countries, they will constitute a larger share of the population in higher-income nations. This demographic shift carries major social, economic, and healthcare consequences for women, their families, and their communities.
Menopause transition is a natural body change that all people with uterine and ovarian systems will experience at some point in their life. Our bodies are not a problem to be solved in the way “big menopause” would like you to believe. Menopause transition is nuanced, under-represented in research, and each person experiences it very differently. Alongside the exhaustive list of 50+ menopause impacts a person may experience during menopause transition, there are also external variables that affect a person’s menopause transition including:
- The sandwich generation: People in midlife now more than ever are sometimes raising children while simultaneously caring for their aging parents
- People in midlife experience shifts in careers, interest and motivation
- People often experience shifts in social relationships/community and begin to assess who and where they spend their time and energy with
- As people age they often become subject to negative stereotypes such as becoming less valuable or capable, both physically and socially
- Midlife is a time where people can experience co-occurring health concerns. People assigned female at birth (AFAB) are at higher risk for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease as they age.
It’s true that the impacts of menopause transition on the body, mind and spirit can prove challenging but I invite you to consider and explore the following reframes for menopause transition.
- Who do you consider an aging icon? Creating a list of aging icons can shift our perspective on what it means to “stay relevant” as we age. Think Jamie Lee Curtis, RuPaul, or maybe even your own grandparent or an older family friend. Making a list like this can help us to connect with someone in our life whose relationship to aging feels aligned with who they are and not what someone else has told them to be.
- Saying goodbye to PMS, PMDD, and PME (premenstrual exacerbation) and embracing the state of steady hormones post menopause. For some, the menstrual cycle and the time leading up to it comes with severe mood disruption and painful physical impacts.
- No more risk of unwanted pregnancy. For some, much freedom and liberation can be found in no longer needing to maintain vigilance mentally and physically around preventing unwanted pregnancy.
- Opportunity to re-engage and reimagine one’s identity Maybe your shifting body has changed your perspective on how you want to dress and show up in the world? Menopause transition is a great time to experiment and explore ways to express yourself and style in ways that feel most comfortable and authentic to you.
- Ditching the patriarchy. After menopause, bodies are no longer confined to serving patriarchal expectations around reproduction or traditional femininity. Freed from these constraints, we become a threat to oppressive systems and can embrace unapologetic, radical liberation.
- Menopause as gender affirmation For some trans folks experiencing a monthly period is the cause for distress and can lead to gender dysphoria. The cessation of monthly menses in menopause transition can contribute to gender affirmation and potential gender euphoria.
- Building connections with community Midlife serves as a great opportunity to reengage with one’s community and develop deeper connections. Activities like joining a book club, gardening group, or weekly hiking meet up are great ways to connect with one’s community. Volunteering for causes that are value driven and meaningful is another impactful way to engage with one’s community.
- Personal growth Due to the big shifts in one’s mind and body during menopause transition- it makes it a great time to work with a therapist and maybe even a dietitian if body image is feeling particularly tough. Midlife transitions bring up lots of existential questions and considerations of how one wants to spend their time and energy. Talking through this time with a mental health professional can be grounding and affirming.
- Discover new passions Midlife is a great time to explore new hobbies, reassess interests and passions. Maybe your children have left the home and some time has opened up for you to try a new activity like pickleball or painting. Maybe you’d like to change up a room in your home or finally take that big trip to another country that never seemed to fit in the busy family schedule.
As with most life transitions, it’s important to surround ourselves with community and support that aligns with our integrity, values, and what really matters to us. It can be easy to get swept up in the tidal wave of negative rhetoric around body changes that we may experience in menopause transition. While gray hair is often associated with aging, I’ve always loved the look of my mom’s salt and pepper hair, and I’m thrilled for my hair color to be trending in that direction as well. With that in mind, I invite you to consider: What about yourself do you like/appreciate more as you’ve gotten older? This is a great question to pose to friends and family too at your next get together. We can hold two truths at once, that menopause transition comes with challenging impacts and that aging ALSO provides opportunities for reflection, joy, novelty, and continued curiosity.
Our Community Partners
Trans Pen Pals Program by Horizons Therapy for Liberation
Are you a trans person, 18+ who has thought to themself, “I wish I had someone to talk to whose been here before” or I really want to help others in my community who might be struggling in the same ways I once did?
If this is you, we want you to register for our upcoming “Trans Pen-Pals Program” that kicks off this month (June)
This group is for trans folks 18+ who:
- Have medically and/or socially transition and are living full-time as their affirmed gender identity.
OR
- Are new to embracing their identity and may not have fully socially and/or medically transitioned and are looking for support and wisdom from those who have already transitioned
The goal of this program is to connect folks with the needed support and/or impact on the community they are seeking, and to cultivate connections. Folks will connect in a “low demand” email messages format that aims to lessen pressure and anxiety.
The Horizons for Liberation team will do the “matching” and introduction portion, the rest is up to you- with no pressure!
Today, we recognize Juneteenth by reflecting on the complicated and painful history of enslaved black people’s freedom and liberation in the United States and celebrating our collective hope and efforts for continued liberation for our black community.
Over the past year, significant efforts have been made to erase DEI initiatives, and it feels especially important to continue reflecting on Juneteenth as a relevant part of our country’s history.
Today, we want to uplift the incredible contributions of the following black run and owned organizations and businesses:
BIPOC Eating Disorders Conference
Liberation Station Bookstore
Please consider listening to a podcast episode titled Juneteenth: Are We Really Free? Its a 40-minute listen and highlights a collection of black voices sharing what Juneteenth means to them and across their communities.
Listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juneteenth-are-we-really-free/id1641363630?i=1000577134429
At Take Root, our team continues to examine our privilege, educate ourselves to better understand the impact and legacy of slavery on our black community, and practice cultural humility, which we honor as a vital and ongoing process in the commitment to liberation and anti-oppression.
Upcoming Support Groups
Dates: Meeting monthly on: 7/16, 8/13, 9/17, and 10/15
Time: Mornings, 8:30 – 10:00 am
Location: Our lovely office, 102 New Edition Court, Cary, NC
Cost: FREE
Who: This group is for folks 18+
Some things to know…
- All sessions are free of charge, but please make sure to register so we know to expect you
- This is not a meal support group, but it is a space designed to include eating so please bring your breakfast or your morning snack (for you early risers) and plan to meet your needs during the discussion.
- All those engaged in eating disorder recovery are invited to this discussion whether new to the process or long recovered. Whether the ask to eat during the chat is easy peasy or very scary, you get to be a part of the discussion.
Dates: July 9th, 16th, 23rd, & 30th (4 weeks)
Time: Thursdays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: In-person at our lovely Take Root Office, 102 New Edition Court, Cary, NC 27511
Cost: FREE
Who: This group is for folks 18+
This free, 4-week in-person support group is designed for LGBTQ+ identifying individuals 18+ who are navigating recovery from eating disorders. Led by Jordan “JP” Poole—a queer-identifying therapist with extensive experience treating eating disorders — and social work intern Amy Richards, this group offers a safe, affirming space to share, connect, and heal.
Together, we’ll explore the unique challenges at the intersection of identity and recovery, process personal experiences, and build practical skills to support long-term well-being. Each week will provide opportunities for both open discussion and guided learning, grounded in compassion, community, and evidence-based approaches.
New Offering
Our somatic meal coaching services are designed to create attunement and collaboration between clients and their Take Root therapist in order to set grounded goals and truly support the achievement of goals through the use of supportive, somatically informed skills and tools to best support the body in ingesting and digesting.
These services are provided by licensed therapists, and we can file with in-network insurance plans (Aetna, BCBS, & Blue Home UNC Health Alliance)
Please contact us to get started: https://www.takerootcounselingandcoaching.com/contact/
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! We look forward to visiting your inbox again soon:) If the info in this email felt helpful, and you know someone who might also think so, please consider passing it along and sharing- we are so grateful for your support.
Kindly,
The Take Root Team
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