SZN. 3 Ep. 14/ Hormones: The Real Drama Queen!

Jan 5

Myriam Sanchez is a licensed clinical professional counselor and the owner of Your Family Wellness Village PLLC – a mental health private practice focusing on perinatal, couples, and families. Her small but mighty private practice group includes 3 employees and services over 60 clients a week through in-person and telehealth services. Other specialties include, faith-based therapy, OCD, grief, and trauma. In 2023, Myriam opened up Cohera LLC – a health and wellness community and coworking space for mental health, healthcare, and wellness providers. The Cohera community now comprises of over a doze independent businesses servicing the DuPage county through mental health, pre and post-natal doula, massage, and acupuncture services, as well as hosting several healthcare and wellness events each month.

Myriam obtained her Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Adler University in 2012. Prior to launching her mental health practice, Myriam worked for 7 years in several settings. During those years, she was a clinical therapist and supervisor at a private practice, provided Maternal Mental Health consultations for patients in the Mother-Baby unit and for outpatient providers at Edward hospital, and led pregnancy and postpartum support groups. Myriam also previously worked in a therapeutic day school and in the PHP/IOP programs at Linden Oaks Outpatient. Her favorite populations to work with include expectant and new parents adjusting to parenthood, perinatal anxiety, depression and OCD, couples seeking help for intimacy and communication issues, as well as new parents needing support and guidance in their parenting skills.

When Myriam is not working on developing her businesses, she spends time running after her 9- and 7-year-old, perusing recipe books to meal-prep whenever she can, tries yoga or barre classes every now and then, and attempts to keep up with home chores. It is not easy navigating these ever-changing roles as working moms, but Myriam believes that by connecting to our supportive village around us, we can do it! Because, it truly does take a village!

For more information on Myriam’s business ventures, visit www.yourfamilywellnessvillage.com and www.wearecohera.com.

**There has been an edit regarding the Hormones and Mental Health CE training we will be offering that I referred to on the show. The link to register is: https://heritageprofessional.thinkific.com/bundles/hormones-in-the-lifespan-bundle

Hormones: The Real Drama Queen!

by: Myriam Sanchez, LCPC

How many of us women have been called a drama queen before? Too emotional? Sensitive? Been accused of PMSing all the time? All too often, these labels abound, and we are often led to believe that being a woman, acting like a woman, having emotions of a woman is a bad thing. We hear messages like, “It interferes with leadership, it causes too many ups and downs, lacks stability and logic.” I hear countless women in my office who end up blaming themselves for not being a good enough mom, not being able to keep emotions at bay, acting hot one minute and then cold the next, and not being assertive or leader enough.

Well guess what!? Time to stop blaming ourselves! Hormones may be part of the very real reason behind your moodiness, the ups and downs, the mid-life crisis, the “not-good-enough” story that you tell yourself.

I am not a Dr, nor will I pretend to be. If you want to know more about the intricacies of how each hormone affects mood and behavior, come hear from our expert Amanda Hahn APRN, Perinatal Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner on February 28, 2024 (more information below). But I can tell you this: Hormones absolutely do have a say in how you feel, how you act, and what you think of yourself.

One example: As women approach menopause, the hormone of nurturing and caretaking, estrogen, starts dropping. This reduces women’s interest in caretaking. That’s when we see a lot of renewed interest and motivation towards personal goals, taking that school training they’ve wanted to forever, and maybe being less interested in watching grandkids all day.

Another example: During pregnancy, the placenta takes over the creation of many hormones necessary to maintain a healthy baby, and also for mom’s health. Upon birth, when the placenta is out of the body, this abruptly cuts off the supply of steady hormones that mom had been getting throughout her pregnancy. This results in a drop in hormone levels comparable to post-menopause. And this takes place all of a sudden, over minutes! This explains why women are in a very vulnerable mood right after birth.

We as women need to educate ourselves on our hormones in order to gain compassion on what’s really going on inside of us. We are not responsible for this hormonal fluctuation. Our body is doing its thing! And we are at its mercy. We also need to educate our male peers, our children, our loved ones about this, so that they can face the facts and stop making it feel like it’s our fault. It’s time to embrace our womanhood, accept our body, our hormones, our mood for what it is, and also do better at dealing with that. It starts with education and awareness. Once we are aware that we are PMSing and know that it will affect our mood and energy, let’s prepare ourselves, delegate a bit more, ask others to take it easy on us. Also, let’s track our cycle alongside our mood. Much empowerment comes from knowing where you are at and what’s going on in your body.

Acceptance and empowerment are the keys to enjoying a rich meaningful life living WITH our hormones, not against.

Hormones and Mental Health Through the Lifespan, a 2-part training (3 CEs available for mental health providers in IL) 2/28/25, 12pm

https://heritageprofessional.thinkific.com/bundles/hormones-in-the-lifespan-bundle

For more questions, contact Myriam at myriam@yourfamilywellnessvillage.com.