Menopause and Mind

Soundscape Workshop on ADHD and Menopause – Make Some Noise!

18:30 – 20:30 @ The Cornerstone Community Centre, Hove

Come and help us make a soundscape that represents your experience of menopause and feeds into future menopause and ADHD research… 

Booking via Eventbrite is essential! However, no prior experience is necessary, this will be a space of expression, exploration and sharing experiences in new ways. We will experiment with recording spoken voices, percussive sounds and/or any other noise making you feel comfortable with. We’ll build up layers of different recordings of sounds to capture and express moods, experiences and feelings.

The workshop will take place in the St Johns room of the Cornerstone Community Centre, 6:30pm – 8:30pm and the space is wheelchair accessible. If you have any questions or requirements around accessibility please email us menoandmind@gmail.com 

We will record then edit and sample your audio recordings, shaping them into a ‘soundscape’- collage. This will be played back, for feedback, reflection and further collaboration in early Spring.

You do not need a formal ADHD diagnosis to attend. If you would like to know more about what ADHD feels like, and whether it may be something you have, you might be interested in watching some of Lorelei’s videos on YouTube: ‘The Admin Zone’ – could it be any harder to get our meds? #LifeinADHD sketch #Comedyisthebestmeds 

The workshop will be run by Lily Murray and Heather McKnight.

What is a soundscape?

A soundscape is a recording that creates the sense of a particular emotion, place or experience. We are looking at creating a soundscape or soundscapes that capture some of the experiences around menopause and ADHD, this will be a way of helping to communicate to others, both explaining our own experiences and perhaps even validating theirs.

Booking via Eventbrite is essential!

Tell me more about the research…

I’m Lily Murray and my research is looking at:  ‘ADHD and menopause’ using a collaborative style of documentary-making that enables us to co-create our own stories. I’m currently working with Heather to create an ADHD & Menopause soundscape or ‘wall of ADHD sound’ to represent what goes on in our brilliant brains and minds.

The gender gap in the diagnosis of ADHD, ADD, and autism is a well-documented phenomenon. In the case of ADHD, boys and men are diagnosed at a much higher rate than girls, women and non-binary individuals. The majority of research has neglected ADHD among girls and, to a greater extent, among adult women, and the impact on other gender identities is only just emerging. My research aims  to generate new evidence on how hormonal changes affect these groups, considering key hormonal life transitions around puberty, pregnancy and menopause.

I’m Heather McKnight and I am also a researcher looking at critical utopian theory and how we used perceived spaces of failure as creative opportunities for building a new and better way of being. The Menopause and Mind cafes tackle the failures of which menopause related mental health struggles to be adequately supported, and the medicalised construct of failure of menopause where there are persistent narratives of the failure of the body and mind and the perceived end of ‘usefulness’ of the reproductive body, despite the critique of these narratives within the spaces. 

Using creative activities such as soundscaping there is an exploration and expression of feelings bringing to the surface what is hidden and allowing for world-building in the cracks of our society. Weaving failure into the fabric of the utopia, the images and artistic creations from these sessions are both hopeful and critical, allowing for both an expression of failure and new hopeful structures to be emergent from the chaos that are radial on a personal and societal level.

About Menopause and Mind

Menopause and Mind focus on raising awareness of the impact of menopause on mental health, and provide support for people experiencing menopause-related mental health struggles. Our focus is on well-being, transformation and connection. We explore creative approaches to mental well-being and practices of collective care. In this workshop, we will work with collage to explore share, and connect with others about our feelings around menopause and the climacteric. Our spaces are intergenerational so if you are menopause-curious or not sure if you have started peri-menopause yet you are still welcome to join us, to learn and share.

Inclusivity

We recognise that the mainstream narrative of menopause does not include everyone and discriminates and excludes many marginalised voices, including (not exhaustively) LGBTQIA+, trans voices, minority ethnic voices and neuro and physical diverse groups. We also recognise the negative impact that adverse childhood experiences have during menopause and that menopause happens at many ages, and impacts on those experiencing POI (Premature Ovarian Insufficiency) and surgical menopause can be particularly challenging. There is a lack of information of the impact of other conditions, such as endometriosis, on menopause due to a lack of high-quality research. Menopause and Mind embrace menodiversity and welcome any person experiencing menopausal symptoms from any background. We are open to feedback to improve our sessions, and to ensure that we are using inclusive language and approaches.

We support the aims of the Menopause Inclusion Collective and are a trans-positive organisation.

Website – https://menoandmind.org/ 

Twitter – https://twitter.com/menoandmind 

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/menoandmind