My postmenopause research

I’m Stella Duffy (she/her) and I’ve been postmenopausal since a medical menopause from chemotherapy in my mid-thirties. Having been longer in my postmenopausal body than many of my peers, I became interested in how this is for other people, how it is for them to be being postmenopausal.

We live a good quarter to a third of our lives in postmenopause and yet very little menopause research looks at what happens next, what is it to have this next stage our of our lives, lived from this phase of our bodies, in this culture and society.

I have a doctoral training in Existential Psychotherapy, run a private psychotherapy practice, and as I prepare to submit my thesis, I am beginning to develop possibilities around workshops and thinking that centres postmenopause – how we might live this stage of our lives, how we might grow towards this time, what it might give us, and what choices we have in this important phase of life, the vital third act.

I am increasingly sure that the many and different voices of those of us in the last third of our lives need to be heard more often and more loudly.

I am also a novelist, I worked in theatre for a very long time, and I co-founded Fun Palaces, co-creating with communities across the UK. A great deal of my work has been in equalities and diversity and I bring an inclusive approach to my research work. As a qualified yoga teacher, I am enormously interested in embodied approaches and therapeutic bodywork.

Qualifications and Memberships

  • PGDip Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling, the New School of Counselling and Psychotherapy/Middlesex University.
  • Foundation Certificate in Existential Psychotherapy, the New School of Counselling and Psychotherapy/Middlesex University.
  • Certificate Intro to Person Centred Counselling, City Lit.
  • I am a Registered Member of BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and, while I complete my doctorate, a trainee member of UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy), UPCS (the Universities Psychotherapy and Counselling Association), and the Society for Existential Analysis.
  • I work in accordance with UKCP policies and Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.