Jim Holloway’s article ‘Moving men at midlife’ (Therapy Today, May 2009) had a particular resonance for my colleague and I as we are in the process of setting up similar groups for women facing mid-life issues (also in Cambridgeshire). In the 1970s and 1980s there was an abundance of women’s groups around as the feminist movement grew. I belonged to a ‘consciousness-raising’ group for some years which provided a platform for us to discuss the changing role of women in society. 

There is a tendency to think that women are still well catered for in the provision of support groups. It is our belief that the reverse is true and that women facing menopause and beyond are finding themselves increasingly isolated, at the same time as being the first generation of women of their age with real and positive choices about how best to use the latter part of their lives.

With improved health and independence, women are now, for example, switching careers at 50 and are contemplating branching out in a wide variety of ways with their new-found freedom.

So why do the statistics tell us that middle-aged women are the highest group in the population on antidepressant medication? The answer partly lies in the absence of support in the community that our mothers’ generation benefited from. Also, women who juggle family and careers miss out on school gate gossip and reassurance. Far more women are now facing the future alone, following divorce or separation, yet have greater expectations and ambitions about what they want and need than the previous generation.

The aim of our groups is to make a talking therapy more widely available in the community. The groups offer women the chance to explore some of the key challenges that can emerge during this crucial transition. The world is our oyster and we believe that women need a forum in which to explore all the inherent challenges, difficulties and joys of middle age.

Ellie Thomas and Ros Neugebauer