Police bring in hypnotist to help officers going through the menopause

IT’S often the last resort for insomniacs or smokers. But hypnotherapy has now been deployed in a rather novel way – to help WPCs cope with the menopause.

West Midlands Police brought in expert Steve Woods to work with staff going through the change.

The force already has a regular support group for those experiencing related health problems at work.

Mr Woods – who runs a hypnotherapy company from Cannock, Staffordshire, and specialises in wellbeing in the workplace – attended a menopause meeting at the force’s headquarters in Birmingham last week.

He said: ‘In the case of menopause, the most common thing people think about is the night sweats and the lack of temperature control, that sort of thing.

‘You can teach people selfhypnosis so they can use their mind to go off to somewhere with a nice cool refreshing breeze and they feel the effects of that. One of the ladies emailed me back saying she’d had the best night’s sleep in ages, and another said she’d felt better than she had in a long time just after that group session that we did.

‘If you can imagine yourself without [symptoms], then you can use hypnosis to bring that about.’ Mr Woods said the session had been a learning exercise for him ‘as, being a man, menopause is not something I know a massive amount about’.

Nevertheless, he said menopausal staff would see the benefit from just a few minutes of selfhypnosis each day. He added: ‘I can’t change the menopause but hopefully I can give them some tools to manage it better, even if it’s just better sleep.’

Since 2013, the police service has had a National Menopause Action Group which shares information and good practice. West Yorkshire’s Chief Constable Dee Collins, who chairs the group, appeared on ITV’s Lorraine show last year to encourage other employers to adopt a sensitive approach.

At the time she said: ‘I think there should be a duty on employers to consider the impact of menopause in the workplace ... what I want to do is spread the word beyond policing, into the public and private sectors, because anybody who is an employer needs to think about this as an issue.’

In 2016, West Midlands became the first police force in the country to stage menopause awareness sessions, led by a company specialising in alternative training techniques.

A study of menopausal staff at the force found four in five suffered symptoms that affected their work, with fatigue, anxiety and memory proving more of a hindrance than hot flushes. Several other forces now run similar menopause education sessions for staff.

In January, Nottinghamshire Police introduced a menopause policy which acknowledges the need for a room to be provided for when staff need to ‘rest temporarily, cry or talk with a colleague’. The guidelines ensure menopausal women can sit near doors, have a desk fan and receive better access to showers to help them cope with hot flushes.

The measures were brought in after former chief constable Sue Fish, who retired last year, found women were quitting after suffering menopausal symptoms – which she said was a ‘waste of talent’.

The menopause usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, as a woman’s oestrogen levels decline. The average age for the menopause in the UK is 51, but one in 100 British women will go through the change before they turn 40.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘Steve was invited to a meeting to talk about his services. There was no endorsement or costs involved, just an information session provided as part of our ongoing support to colleagues through the menopause support forum.’

The force said there were no immediate plans for Mr Woods to run another session there.

‘Tools to manage it better’