What is Middle Years Monday?
Middle Years Monday is a nourishing place where you can unfurl, reflect, explore - or just breathe - away from your day-to-day life and the things it asks of you. Here you will be in the company of warm, generous, smart, funny, refreshing women who are in this same season of life and have no expectations of you.
It is somewhere to have the kind of juicy, deep conversations you might not get to have very often - with the sort of women you might not have enough of in your life. To find inspiration and kindness. To share your story, to hear the stories of others and, if you want it to be, it’s a place for re-examining and re-imagining different stories about who you are, where you belong, and what you want from your remaining years.
This is somewhere you can come to receive, to be heard, to find wise counsel. To laugh, cry, be yourself, find yourself, work out who you want to be.
It is place of kindness, honesty, comfort and warmth where we gather privately, away from the melee of life.
Put simply…
Middle Years Monday is a small and friendly subscription-based online Community Hub for women over 50*, led by me, Pip - that’s me on my local beach in the photo above and I’ll introduce myself to you properly below.
We connect, learn, inspire and support each other through a variety of weekly, fortnightly and monthly calls. And we provide a soft landing place to spend a while in the warmest of company.
* If you are younger than fifty but feel drawn to join us then you are very welcome!
What does Membership include?
WEEKLY WOMENS’ CIRCLE - known to us as a ‘Cuppa’
WEEKLY CO-WORKING SESSION
FORTNIGHTLY BOOK/PODCAST GROUP
MONTHLY WORKSHOP - led by Guest Experts
MONTHLY DEEP RELAXATION EVENT - led by Camille Elizabeth
MEMBERS’ LIBRARY - exclusive access to our incredible library of 100+ workshop replays
AD-HOC COMMUNITY PROJECTS - such as our own version of the 100-Day Project (as with all aspects of Membership, participation in this is entirely optional)
INTEGRATION - Every year we have periods during which there are no live events. Our breaks are usually spread throughout the year, with around a fortnight off every season. This is an opportunity to slow down if that’s what you need - or to dive deeper into any of the topics we’ve explored in previous months and which may have particularly captured your imagination.
We would love you to join our next intake of new Members
Take What You Need | Leave the Rest
There is no one ‘right’ way of being a Member. You might be someone who enjoys coming to lots of our live sessions, participating in the collective projects, the weekly virtual cuppas and so on.
Or, you may be an introvert or someone who is easily overwhelmed and prefers a much quieter, more low-key approach, watching the recordings of those live sessions that really jump out at you and coming along to just the occasional live event.
Our community is made up of a mix of women with different preferences and approaches, all are welcome and appreciated - and I have intentionally set the Membership fee at a level that aims to remove a big sense of pressure to make the most of it.
There is no such thing as falling behind.
this is about you picking and choosing what is helpful and nourishing for you - Everything we offer as part of your Membership is there for you to dip in and out of whenever and however you wish.
Who We Are
& What We Do
Hello, I’m so glad you are here!
At the time of writing this, somehow more than six years have passed since I first opened the doors to our Founding Members. Six meaningful, moving, life-affirming years of being amongst some of the most incredible women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It makes me feel a bit ick when people speak of having a superpower, but I do have a knack for attracting really beautiful women to sit around the fire with me - with us. Kind, smart, open, honest, warm, wise, generous women.
In 2019, when I first started dreaming up Middle Years Monday, the landscape was very different. It’s hard to believe now (this was before Davina McCall, Mariella Frostrup, Dr Louise Newson et al brought the topic of menopause right into the spotlight) but many of us had barely heard of the word ‘perimenopause’ let alone understood what it might entail. So when we entered its uncharted waters we were on our own, trying to work out why we felt so very different.
I’d had a wild ride in the previous few years. Following a series of personal losses and having properly burned out, I finally realised that trying to shoehorn myself into anything approaching an orthodox ‘career path’ wasn’t for me. I’d really tried - as well as some deeply fulfilling interludes such as returning to University to gain a postgraduate diploma in Counselling, and spending some incredibly special years working as a Funeral Celebrant - I spent more than a decade working in the corporate world, a good number of years in the third sector and finally hit a wall when (over)working for the University of London.
So, in a bid for my sanity, I’d organised our move from the city to the coast. I grew up near the sea and felt like I could breathe again. And, as part of my efforts to bring myself fully back to life, I attended a ceramics course. Then followed an incredible and surreal period when I found myself amassing an Instagram following, with me and my pottery featuring in all sorts of magazines and having the fortunate experience of collections I released selling out within minutes!
One of the highlights of that time was a year-long collective fundraising project called Makers4Refugees which I organised. Together with a whole host of craftspeople of all types we raised a big chunk of money for the charity Choose Love (known at the time as Help Refugees).
Pottery is a fairly solitary activity, but I had started to get a sense of a community of women going through similar experiences as me being out there. This became more tangible when an Instagram post - in which I spoke of the invisibility on social media at the time of ordinary women my age - went viral.
When it came to navigating my way through all that this season of life was bringing, I realised that what I yearned for was more than incidental conversations. I WANTED TO INTENTIONALLY AND REGULARLY SIT HIP-TO-HIP WITH OTHER WOMEN WHO, LIKE ME, WERE SEEKING A GORGEOUS COMMUNITY TO DO THIS SEASON OF LIFE ALONGSIDE. AND SO MIDDLE YEARS MONDAY WAS BORN. AND SINCE THEN I HAVE HAD THE DEEP JOY OF CONNECTING WITH - AND FACILITATING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN - THE HUNDREDS OF WOMEN FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO HAVE SPENT TIME IN OUR COMMUNITY.
I know I am not alone when I say that this life stage has left me feeling so different on a molecular level - some days I experience this as empowering and liberating and on other days I am lost at sea. Journeying through it all alongside an incredible circle of women is more magical than I could ever have wished for. I am so thrilled at what this community brings us all.
For me, being the Founder and host of Middle Years Monday is the virtual equivalent of inviting you to my home to sit around my table with other women who understand and can help to illuminate and make sense of your current experience.
I facilitate most of our online gatherings and organise all of the behind the scenes work that keeps Middle Years Monday going. But I am absolutely not in the position of teacher or guru and the beauty of this space is that everyone in our group holds the space together. My most important role is to welcome you with open arms, to connect with and listen to you and - together with our regular and guest contributors and your fellow Members - to do what I can to bring nourishment your way whilst you are here. I’m a lucky woman.
I’ve enjoyed continuing to strengthen and develop some of the skills I was able to build during my 3-year training as a therapist and through my rich and varied working life that preceded and followed that - and I’ve benefitted from some excellent training in recent years from Sister Stories and Time to Think.
In 2023 I put any nerves aside, and honoured the many requests to organise an in-person Middle Years Monday gathering - hence our 2024 and 2025 creative retreats! They were an incredible experience for everyone involved (and once I have found another special venue for us now that ours has closed down, I am sure there will be more of these).
Nothing would make me happier than having the pleasure of welcoming you into our beautiful community and I hope that you might choose to join us as a Member soon.
With love,
Pip
Camille is a regular and beloved contributor to this community with her monthly 45-minute Deep Relaxation sessions, which are open to both Members and non-Members alike. And she has also held some longer Mindfulness events for our Members too.
I’m a huge fan of Camille and her approach. Buddhism is a big part of her life and she is someone who lives what she teaches - without being at all pious and joyless about it. You are as likely to share some belly laughter with her as you are to talk about how to welcome more calm into your life. It is clear from spending time in her company that her restful practices work, as being around her (and her beautifully regulated nervous system!) is a calming experience.
I have attended dozens of her online sessions and have had the huge joy of experiencing her magic in-person too at the Bedtime Nidra sessions she holds at our Retreats. Anyone who has experienced Camille’s presence whether virtual or in-person will know how nourishing it is.
Camille specialises in offering deep relaxation and rest based experiences. She sees relaxation as a delicious state of non-doing, where the body is mostly still, the nervous system is at rest, and the mind is quiet. She believes that this is the perfect antidote to a busy, anxious world, in which we are finding it increasingly difficult to slow down and be still.
The experiences Camille creates offer “a direct path into deep rest: the kind of rest that can finally break the cycle of stress and overwhelm we often find ourselves in: the kind of rest that is soothing, restorative and healing.”
Through Middle Years Monday membership you gain rare access to some really special experts who come and share their time and wisdom so generously with us through the workshops that they lead.
A NEW MEMBER ONCE TOLD ME THAT SHE HAD GAINED MORE FROM WATCHING JUST THE FIRST HOUR OF ONE OF THE WORKSHOP REPLAYS YOU WILL FIND in our Members’ Library, THAN SHE HAD FROM MANY, MANY, MANY HOURS OF PERSONAL THERAPY. SO, I APPRECIATE THAT THIS IS A BOLD CLAIM, BUT TRULY, THe TREASURE CHEST OF RESOURCES there, together with whichever future live events you choose to come to, HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
You will learn about a breadth and depth of topics, from an incredible variety of Guest Experts from around the world, some of whom you would not ordinarily have the opportunity of learning from. Amongst them are authors, artists, professors, psychologists, coaches, psychotherapists, nutritionists, movement and wellness practitioners - and much more.
Alongside opportunities for stretchy self-reflection and exploration are lighter, creative, more playful workshops. And you’ll also find opportunities for moving and being in your body, plus practical sessions that focus on things like how to organise your clutter and your to-do list to bring more ease.
Pictured above from left to right starting from the top row are some of the women who have spent time with us in the past: Tamu Thomas; Sara Duigou; Katie Treggiden; Professor Sonja Lyubomirsk, PhD; Nahid de Belgeonne, Dr Grace Alexander; Hannah Bullivant; Professor Phillips Diedrichs, PhD; Donna Lancaster; Dimple Mukherjee; Suzy Darke, PhD; Pen McKinley-Rodgers; Karen Newby; Atifa Balding; Nicola Duffell; and Mara Glatzel. And there are dozens more brilliant teachers who we have spent time learning from on topics as wide-ranging as:
Loneliness
Decluttering
Therapeutic writing
The Science of Happiness
Making Brave Changes
Body Image
Grief
Embodied Self-worth & Boundaries
Practical Mindfulness
The To-Do List Makeover
Self-Trust
Conflict
Healthy Relationships
Finding Your Word of the Year
Cultivating Hope in the Face of the Climate Crisis
The Power of Pleasure
Friendship
Wild Writing
Collaging
About our Members
At the time of writing these are some of the women who are Members of the Middle Years Monday community. Between them they are mothers and they are childfree; they are self-employed; on sabbatical; and focused on caring for their family members and themselves; they are extroverts, introverts and everything in between; they are neurotypical and neurodiverse; amongst them are coaches of all types, a gardener, a jewellery maker, and an entrepreneur transitioning into a potter; they live in the UK, Europe, the US and Australia; they are no strangers to joy and loss, to wellness and illness; they are thoughtful, kind, generous-spirited and open. And truly - along with their eclectic fellow Members - they make up the most special circle of women you could ever wish to do a bit of Life alongside.
What our Members say
“I am so grateful for the connections I have made with the women I have met here. This magical little space has attracted a special sort of woman. I look forward to the opportunity to continue practising vulnerability, courage, connection, introspection and some honest belly laughing together. Thank you!”
“I have now been a member of your gorgeous, life affirming group for a little while… I think you do an amazing job with holding and coordinating so many different people, activities, dreams, visions and ideas. Your energy is lovely… and I just wanted to let you know that I am really enjoying being a part of this rich community.”
“Thank you for all the things you do, Pip. I know that it’s a lot of hard work but it’s quite incredible. I’m thinking about this year drawing to a close and about all the amazing women that I’ve met because of joining Middle Years Monday. It’s been everything that I thought it would be.”
“It has been a year and a half of learning, affirming, sharing and witnessing in an equitable community of women willing to speak honestly about the tumultuous journey of life. It has been a blessing.”
“Pip, I know I’ve said it before but you have created something truly special in this group. I love knowing it is there for me. It has been such a soul soothing place to be this year. I’ve questioned a LOT about myself as I’ve entered my middle years and the support, education, love and knowledge that this group gives me is amazing. It’s really helping me feel comfortable and confident in the woman I’m becoming, and I have learnt so much.”
“I’m so glad I joined MYM, I’m really loving it. You’ve created something juicy and gorgeous.”
“I’m so grateful to you. You’ve not only built something so powerful, but you’ve made a very real difference in my life, allowing me to see myself in new ways, to have hope for things I thought were lost forever.”
“My time in this community has taught me I’m not alone, I’m not weird, I’m not too much or any of the other narrative tapes that circulated in my head for years. I’ve heard my own thoughts and fears and hopes be shared by women from around the world. They have taught me how to be vulnerable, how to hold space, and how to listen without problem solving. I’m learning how to be a friend to others and to myself.””
We would love you to join our next intake of new Members
Answers to some Questions you might have
-
Our Members are women, and are generally over the age of 50. If you are younger than this but feel drawn to this community you are still welcome!
We are straight, gay and bi; white, brown and black; we are mothers, childfree and childless; we are neurotypical and neurodiverse; we are introverts and extroverts; healthy and living with health conditions and sickness; single, in new-ish and longterm relationships, and married; we are freelance, employed, on sabbatical, retired and unwaged; we are homeowners and renters; we are financially comfortable, wealthy, hard-up and everything in between
In other words, we are a wonderfully eclectic group, brought together by this season of life.
Our Members relish deep and honest sharing and listening. They are curious; have open minds; seek both stretch and ease; are interested in personal development, caring for themselves, the planet and each other. They are open-hearted and inclusive to both those who they feel easy simpatico with and those who have characteristics, histories and stories different to their own - no matter ethnicity, creed, domestic set-up, economic situation, relationship status, family set-up, size, sexual orientation, disability, communication style, neurodiversity, health or gender assigned at birth
-
In full transparency, as Middle Years Monday is women-centred many of our discussions inevitably focus on the hormonal experience of womanhood and/or the experience of being socialised and raised as a cis girl and woman. However, non-binary folk and trans women are welcome to gather with us around our virtual fire.
-
These are one of my very favourite things about Middle Years Monday.
The number of women present changes every week and can be anything from three or four to a dozen or more of us. Sometimes the format changes a little but we usually start off with a sharing round when everyone has the chance to respond to a gentle prompt offered by me and then we spend the second part of the Cuppa enjoying freeform conversation - during which we may pick up on some of the threads from the sharing round, or we may venture into entirely unrelated topics.
Every Cuppa is different in tone, intensity, mood, pace - driven by whoever is there that week and how they are doing. We talk about anything and everything and the conversations are “juicy” (to quote a Member) real, meaningful and sometimes very funny. They are serious; silly; happy; and sad. Sometimes the energy is high and sometimes tiredness is more present. Grumpiness, joy, gentleness, tears, guffawing with laughter - it's all allowed! Come as you are and enjoy being wrapped in a warm embrace.
Everyone who comes to these gatherings has their camera on, but there's no pressure to talk if you're in the mood just to be quietly in company.
It feels through these get-togethers that we are plugging into something ancient, elemental, primordial. A group of women gathering around the fire to sit hip-to-hip with each other and share tears, laughter and stories of their life. A chance to be seen and heard. It's hard to put into words what makes these get-togethers so special. It's something about having a space to show up exactly as we are that day and to be seen and heard by a community of warm, interested, generous and insightful women.
There's no obligation to come every week - just join us whenever the mood takes you. And although I encourage you to be there from the start if you possibly can, you certainly don't have to stay until the end.
-
Please convert the UK timings below into your own timezone.
Weekly ‘Cuppas’ ie. our womens’ circles: We alternate between Mondays and Tuesdays and meet at 8pm BST/GMT
Weekly Co-working mornings: We meet on Mondays from 8am - 12pm BST/GMT
Fortnightly Book Group: We meet on alternate Tuesdays at 7pm BST/GMT
Monthly Live Workshops: Start times are 5pm, 7pm or 8pm BST/GMT
There is no such thing as falling behind and there’s no obligation to watch or participate in anything that doesn’t interest you or you don’t have time for. My invitation is that you pick and choose what is helpful and nourishing for you and leave the rest. Everything offered as part of your Membership is there for you to dip in and out of whenever and however you wish. And Membership is priced at the level it is with the intention of removing pressure from you to make it count’
-
Yes! We have such a broad range of Guest Experts leading workshops for us. And when you become a Member you get access to our rich library of over 100 recordings of previous workshops.
This archive has the potential to change your life. A new Member expressed this perfectly when she told me that she’d gained more from watching just one replay in our library than she had from many, many, many hours of personal therapy. And as well as plenty of deep and meaningful workshops, we also have lighter, more playful and creative sessions too.
Here’s a small selection of the workshop recordings that await you, included here to give you a sense of the breadth and depth of our workshops:
Choosing Choices - If your life was a job would you apply? with Dr Grace Alexander | Clinical Psychologist
Body Image: in conversation with Professor Philippa Diedrichs | Body Image Expert
Therapeutic Writing on Joy: with Ruth Coates | Psychotherapist + Writing Guide
How to create your own Found Poetry card deck: with Conny Weyrich | arts based + trauma-informed Coach
The To-Do List Makeover: with Mara Glatzel | Author, Teacher + Podcast Host
Co-dependency: in conversation with Beatriz Victoria Albina | Nurse Practitioner, Author + Somatic Master Coach
Making Brave Changes: with Suzy Darke | ICF certified + trauma-informed Coach
Decluttering - the Why, When & How: with Hannah Bullivant | Interior Designer, Stylist, Decluttering Expert
A World Beyond Blame: with Julia Colwell PhD | Psychologist
’Eight Wishes’ Book Art - an experiential workshop: with Rachel Hazell | Book Artist, Teacher + Author
Thinking for Ourselves: with Sophie Stephenson | Coach, Facilitator, Teacher + Consultant
Healthy Relationships - a series of 3 in-depth workshops: with Donna Lancaster | Author, Trainer & Life Transitions Coach
-
You SO don’t have to be a literary person to take part in and enjoy our book group.
Our lovely book/podcast group brings some of the most warm, tender, thought-provoking and soulful conversations I have the honour of being a part of. It is truly special to have the opportunity of connecting with each other through these rich and deep conversations about our lives and perspectives that these book discussions organically prompt.
At the time of writing this, we are about to spend a bit of time ringing the changes by discussing podcasts rather than books. But generally we read non-fiction or poetry written by women and non-binary folk and we take things slowly and manageably, generally discussing just one new chapter or poem each time we meet.
Some of the books we have read and discussed are Women Who Run with the Wolves, Atlas of the Heart, If Women Rose Rooted, The Body Is Not An Apology, Platonic, Rage Becomes Her, Braiding Sweetgrass, Rest Is Resistance, What It Takes to Heal, The Serviceberry, You’d Better Be Lightning and Six Conversations We’re Scared to Have.
My previous experience of book groups is limited so I don't have much to compare ours book group. But the feedback I receive from Members is that it's the best they've ever been to!
One of the things that makes it special is the way we take it at such a wonderfully slow pace. This means that reading the book never feels pressured or stressful, we have the chance to enjoy a deep dive into our experience of each chapter or poem (and for the next little while, podcast episode) - and this relaxed exploration brings with it a really lovely opportunity to get to know and trust each other.
This is not a 'literary' book group - and by that I mean that we spend very little time analysing the writing style of the author. Our discussions revolve instead around what each chapter or poem (or podcast episode) illuminates for each of us; about ourselves and our lives.
We are usually a small group of around 6 (or sometimes less), and these sessions usually last for around 90 minutes.
Whenever you become a MYM Member you will be very welcome to join this group, regardless of how far through a book we may be at that time - and I look forward to welcoming you into this lovely experience.
-
First of all, I SO understand where you are coming from and have often felt the same.
There are a few thoughts I want to share with you about this community, what it offers and the ways we each may sometimes find ourselves standing in the way of magic.
Some of us have a push-pull relationship when it comes to human connection. Human beings are social animals so no matter how introverted we may be, being part of a community is something we naturally desire. But we may have all sorts of stories about ourselves in terms of our inadequacies and shortcomings when it comes to this.
It may simply be that we are someone who needs to take their time standing at the edges of the figurative room before stepping into the centre, and that is perfectly OK. You are so welcome here whether you are someone who gets stuck right in at the beginning or prefers to soak up the goodness quietly.
But sometimes there can be trickier reasons that hold us back from connecting.
Perhaps we feel that we have a tendency to take up too much space and cannot be trusted to hand the metaphorical 'talking piece' on to someone else. So we stay away for fear of embarrassing ourselves or being thought of as too loud or pushy.
Maybe we have a narrative about not belonging and this leads to some self-fulfilling behaviour (such as keeping our distance, not responding to gestures of warmth, being highly attuned to the things that separate us from our fellow human beings rather than recognising that which we have in common) which results in us becoming an 'outsider' and gives us the proof we're looking for that we don't fit in anywhere.
Perhaps we fall short when we compare ourselves to others, telling ourselves that we are boring, unintelligent, inarticulate by comparison. So we stay quietly on the sidelines for fear of being found out or judged. Or maybe we even have a tendency to experience feelings of superiority, leading us to diminish in our minds the benefits of gathering with others.
We may be scared of rejection and so rather than share something of ourselves for fear that we will be ignored or disliked, we keep ourselves safe by being an observer rather than a participant.
Or perhaps we know that our reserves are currently low and so we hold back from connecting because we are scared that if we start then we will be expected to be consistent and to keep showing up - and we know that we can't do that and so we tell ourselves that it's best to stay away rather than risk letting people down.
I speak of these possibilities because they are all behaviours that at one time or another have been mine (and sometimes still are). So there is no judgement here.
What I do want to lovingly invite you to consider though is the possibility that this community of women could perhaps be a place to try out something different. To tentatively trust that you are more than good enough and that your company will be welcomed whenever you feel like joining us, just the way you are, with all of your perfectly imperfect humanity - this is my warm invitation to you.
Nothing would make me happier than this community playing a part in helping you to re-write some of the unkind and redundant narratives about yourself you may have inherited or created.
Middle Years Monday is not intended to be an ever-growing vast space. My personal preference is definitely for a smaller circle of women which feels familiar and intimate - and so this is what we are and will always be. At the moment we are less than 50 women - and should our numbers reach 75 women then I will close our doors to new Members.
The approximate number of women who come along to each of our live events varies from four to a dozen or so.
-
The minimum Membership commitment is 6 months, after which your Membership can be cancelled at any time.
Experience has taught me that giving yourself time to settle in to this new experience reaps rewards for new Members. This commitment also means that the experience of being a part of the community is calm and settled for existing Members too, without too much flux.
Middle Years Monday is just me (Pip) and the overheads are fairly substantial (paying our monthly Guest Experts, MailChimp, Squarespace, Memberspace, Canva, Zoom, Vimeo, SoundCloud etc all adds up). This 6-month minimum commitment provides Middle Years Monday with a degree of financial sustainability and predictability, which enables me to confidently book brilliant guest speakers (safe in the knowledge that I will be able to pay them!).
I am certain that Middle Years Membership offers excellent value for money. Despite lots of encouragement over the years to push the fees up significantly higher it is important to me that this community is as financially accessible as I can make it.
To enable you to pay an amount that best fits with your financial situation, there are two tiers of Membership fees for you to select from.
I trust you to accurately self-assess your financial need and I don’t ask you to jump through any hoops to access the concessionary rate. I am equally grateful for all Members, regardless of what they pay.
My Requests:
So that I can meet my financial needs and together we can help Middle Years Monday to be economically sustainable, thank you for only using the discounted rate if you truly need it - rather than because of a preference for paying a lower cost, getting a bargain, or because of fear about the possibility of future scarcity. If your financial situation does change in the future you will always be absolutely welcome to move down or up the fee scale immediately, without any notice.
STANDARD RATE MONTHLY FEE
£35 per month + £30 one-off joining fee
STANDARD RATE ANNUAL FEE
£350 + £30 one-off joining fee
My way of thanking you for paying for a year of Membership upfront is to offer you 12 months of Membership for the price of 10
CONCESSIONARY RATE MONTHLY FEE
£15 per month + £10 one-off joining fee
This rate is for those facing financial hardship, and if this is still not affordable to you then please get in touch so that we can make sure money isn’t a barrier.
A note about Joining Fees:
I’m passionate about helping new MYM Members feel welcome and as part of this I invite you to have a 1:1 welcome call with me. The joining fee is a contribution towards the costs of this and the various admin that goes into setting you up as a new Member. It is a lifetime joining fee - in other words no matter how many times you leave and rejoin MYM you will not have to pay this fee again.
[Thank you to Bear Herbert for their pricing guidance and wisdom - some of the above wording is theirs.]