Jennifer Alt, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Seattle, Washington
VerifiedTelehealth Available
My Approach to Therapy
I have a passion for supporting women in midlife who may be also navigating the challenges of perimenopause and menopause. While sources vary, perimenopause can last from 2 years to over a decade, and menopause signifies the cessation of your period for 12 consecutive months. That is a long time to feel the emotional rollercoaster and physical symptoms connected to the slowing and eventual end of your ovaries former mission in life. Even in the post-menopausal period you can feel the emotional and physiological symptoms connected to decreasing estrogen and other hormones.
As a result, you may be seeking support for emotional well-being, physical symptoms, relationship changes, and life transitions. I provide a safe and supportive space to navigate your journey, while making room for your resilience, grief, anger and joy. Stress, anxiety, mood swings and burnout can also be common experiences. Considering this period as a time of transformation, albeit begrudgingly perhaps, discussing identity shifts, and reimagining the second half of life are some examples of work we may do together.
Women’s phases of life have long been tied to archetypes of Maiden, Mother and Crone. Our maidenhood climaxes with the start of menarche, motherhood peaks with the birth of a child or an important creative project and crone signifies life review and wisdom. Jane Hardwicke Collings introduced the possibility of a fourth archetype into the woman’s wheel of life. The Autumn Harvest Queen, or Enchantress. PerimenopauseMenopause is the rite of passsage that ends the season of the Mother and begins the season of Enchantress. The Enchantress symbolizes the value of self-care and the capacity to guide and support others. She personifies profound self-awareness, confidence, and independence, encouraging women to claim their inner power, honor their life journeys, and welcome the beauty and wisdom that aging brings. When we make space for this fourth achetype, we make space for the metamorphosis inherent to perimenopause and menopause. Instead of being immediately denoted as Crone, the Autumn Enchantress makes space to reimagine the second half of her life.
Together, we work to better understand the emotional journey the significant life changes experienced in midlife create. My approach is collaborative and focused in a relational style. We make space for the impacts of this transitional life stage, while attending to your body and mind.
Asking for help is a vulnerable first step that shows great strength. You do not have to navigate the challenges you face in life alone; you deserve support. I offer a free 20 minute phone consultation if you have any questions and look forward to hearing from you.
My Practice & Services
I see clients via Telehealth.
Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With
Midlife, PerimenopauseMenopause
Midlife is a time of transition ripe with emotion. New life challenges may be coming to the forefront such as physical changes, primary relationship changes, caring for aging parents all while reckoning with entering into a new stage of life. Together, we will work to navigate this transition, as well as identify supports that may be helpful along the way.
Life Transitions
Life transitions are tricky. They test our ability to dwell in the unknown. The unknown is scary. These major transitions can be wanted or unwanted, and therefore accompanied by mixed emotions of joy, excitement, anxiety and grief. Together we will work through the concurrent feelings to identify your resiliency and strengths to help you on your journey through your current period of uncertainty to uncover the life you want.
Self-Love
Learning how to love ourselves can be a difficult task, even in an era that popularizes the concepts of self-care and self-love. Self-love is more than a bath bomb and a good tub soak, though that's not a bad place to start. Often self-esteem issues root back to a defensive coping mechanism adopted early in life for protection, but ultimately harms us and keep us from living a full life. We will work together to build your confidence and make it safe to be vulnerable and love yourself.
How Psychotherapy Can Help
The pace and style of our work is tailored to you uniquely, and I consider you to be the expert on yourself. Psychotherapy helps you tap into your resiliency and self-knowledge by offering a relationship built on trust, empathy and safety. This safety makes it possible for you to experience vulnerability and a wide range of emotions from joy to pain. By processing your emotions you are able to identify your needs and together we work to determine how to best meet them. Sledging through the muck isn't always easy, and sometimes you feel worse before you get better. However, once you get to the other side you can take pride in your resiliency, and with greater self-understanding look upon yourself with compassion and love.
Why Going to Therapy Does Not Mean You are Weak or Flawed
Therapy can be hard. It is difficult to work through the hard feelings and the aspects of yourself that you would prefer to keep hidden. It is difficult to put your trust in a stranger and make yourself vulnerable. Therapy is not for the meek or the weak. Asking for help is a sign of strength, as is vulnerability. It is also the first step on your journey to claiming what you want for yourself.
Expertise & Specialties
Age Groups I Work With
Adults
Groups I Work With
I have a special interest in working with women in midlife, who may be also going through perimenopause or menopause.
Therapy Services & Specialties
Concerns & Challenges Addressed
Adjusting to Change / Life TransitionsAnxietyAutism SpectrumCaregiver Issues / StressEmotional OverwhelmParentingSelf-LoveWomen's Issues
Therapeutic Approaches & Evidence-Based Methods
Depth TherapyExpressive Arts TherapyMindfulness-Based InterventionsPsychodynamicRelational Psychotherapy
Industries & Communities
LGBTQ+