About us
We recognise that menopause can impact upon a woman’s physical and mental health, self-confidence and vitality for life, her personal relationships and working abilities. Our team of specialist menopause healthcare clinicians provide holistic, individualised care and treatment that supports women to attain wellness.
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Monica Barnes
Originally from Scotland, Monica Barnes is our Clinical Director and founder of Menopause and Wellness. Since qualifying as a nurse in 1996 she has worked extensively within senior nursing leadership positions including various charge nurse, senior charge nurse, head nurse and professional lead positions within the UK, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
Monica created Menopause and Wellness due to her own difficult experience with menopause and the problems she experienced in having both her symptoms recognised as being menopausal and then accessing timely menopause care and treatment. Her experience put her on a path of personal and professional exploration and she began researching and undertaking specialist menopause training in an attempt to understand what was happening to her and what treatments could support her with her symptoms. During this process, she came to understand the substantial lack of knowledge and understanding that exists with regard to menopause care and treatment. Monica has shared her own menopause story in the link below, to give women an understanding of why she has created Menopause and Wellness.
Monica holds a master’s degree in nursing and is a trained Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) therapist. Monica has also undertaken further specialist menopause training with the Newson Health Menopause Society and British Menopause Society. She is a member of The British Menopause Society, The International Menopause Society and the Australasian Menopause Society. She is also currently the Chairwoman of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Society New Zealand.
Creating a new pathway in menopause care
There are 34 symptoms of menopause and women experience these differently. As such, every woman’s journey throughout menopause is unique. Menopausal symptoms impact upon women’s physical, mental and emotional wellbeing as well as their day-to-day functioning. With this women benefit from being supported by a team of specialist multidisciplinary menopause clinicians who can care for their holistic needs.
Menopause and Wellness is New Zealand’s first specialist multidisciplinary menopause clinician service. Our team consists of nurse practitioners, nurse prescribers, menopause specialist nurses, Health Improvement Practitioners, Menopause CBT Therapists, Nutritionists and Personal Trainers to meet women’s holistic care needs.
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Our Mission
We are New Zealand’s leading multi-disciplinary menopause service with clinicians who are all trained in menopause. Our whole person approach to menopause care helps women with specialist treatment aimed at physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing.
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Extended Appointment Times
Our clinicians support women within an initial 50-minute appointment giving you the time needed to discuss yoursymptoms, medical history and explore treatment options in partnership with yourspecialist clinician.
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Evidence-Based Treatment
All care and treatment provided by our team is in alignment with best-practice clinical guidelines for menopause care and treatment from global menopause societies. This ensures that all clients receive high-quality, safe, effective and evidence-based menopause care and treatment.
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Improving Access to Hormonal Care & Treatment
Women can self-refer to our services and our team supports women of all ages who are experiencing difficult symptoms. This includes treatment for perimenopause, menopause, post menopause, early menopause, PMS, PMOS and PMDD.
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Reducing Cost Barriers to Menopause Treatment
Menopause and Wellness is working in partnership with employers to reduce the cost barriers that prevent women being able to access specialist menopause care and treatment. Many employers are fully funding staff to access our range of specialist services, through their Employer Assistance Program (EAP) provision. This enables women to access our full range of services with no personal cost.
Our team
Monica has two teams of multi-disciplinary health care specialists who are supporting women with specialist menopause care and treatment across New Zealand. Her private menopause clinic team provide care and treatment to clients either in person in Wellington or via telehealth consultations across New Zealand. Appointments can be booked via our website with no referral needed.
Her EAP menopause service team provide employer funded, telehealth consultations to women nationwide via referral from their Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provider. These appointments cannot be booked via our website as appointment bookings are managed through Georgia and Jess within our admin team.
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Our team of senior nurses is led and supported by Monica Barnes, our Clinical Nurse Specialist. All of our nurses have a specialist interest in menopause and have undertaken accredited menopause training through Newson Health Menopause Society. This enables them to provide individualised and comprehensive support to women for their menopausal care needs.
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Our Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) are senior nurses who work within an advanced scope of practice. They have all undertaken specialist accredited menopause training and each are members of global menopause societies such as The British Menopause Society, Australasian Menopause Society and International Menopause Society.
All of our mental health clinicians who provide Menopause CognitiveBehaviour Therapy (CBT) are trained in CBT and have additionally undertakenspecialist accredited training in Menopause. They support women with mentalhealth and wellbeing in menopause providing treatment for menopausal symptomssuch as sleep issues, fatigue, low mood, irritability, anger bouts and anxiety.
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Our team of Menopause Health Practitioners consists of Health Improvement Practitioners, Physiotherapists, Nutritionists and Personal Trainers. They support women with holistic care focused on mental wellbeing, stress management, sleep, nutrition, exercise, and pelvic health.
Want to Join Our Team
We are actively looking for Health Partners to help support our clients
Transform the health and wellbeing of your organisation.
Contact us today to discuss how we can support your workplace with menopause.