I'm Kirstin Bouse, and for a good chunk of my career I've watched women get pathologised for something that is actually developmental. Midlife isn't a breakdown. It's a reckoning. The events I host exist to say that out loud, properly, with the psychology behind it.
I'm a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist based in Perth, founder of All About Her, The Centre for Menopause, and creator of The Midlife Psychologist. Nearly 30 years in, the past 15 spent immersed in women's transitions, I built the Menopausal Transition Matrix and the IMPRINT framework because the standard mental health model couldn't hold what I was seeing in the room, or living myself.
What's on offer here splits a few ways.
Professional training for psychologists and practitioners who want a genuine developmental framework for midlife and menopausal clients, not just symptom management.
Community education for women who want the psychological truth of what's happening to them without the wellness gloss.
And then there are the fun ones. The events where the only agenda is to try something and see if it still lights you up, because half the women in the room haven't been asked what brings them joy in years, and the honest answer is often "I don't know anymore." Nobody's watching. Everyone's equally rusty at this. That's the whole point.
I've contributed to the Australian Senate Inquiry into Menopause, been the Psychology Expert for Channel 9 Perth, been an expert panellist on Em Rusciano's Rage Against the Vagine and Mamamia's Very Peri and countless other podcasts. I'm also the creator and host of the Midlife Bites podcast.
None of that is the point. The point is the work holds, and some of it is meant to be fun.