Study, 2026
Does a new therapy program help women with premenstrual problems?
This paper describes a new therapy program for premenstrual problems but is too early to say whether it works, since it has only been tested with one woman.
What they did
Researchers worked with women who experience premenstrual changes to design a therapy program that combines talk therapy with art-based activities. They tested the program with one woman.
What they found
The paper describes what the program looks like and shows the story of one woman who completed it, but does not report whether her symptoms improved.
What it means for you
This shows a new approach to helping with premenstrual problems by combining talk therapy and creative activities. The main limit is that this is only a single case study. Much larger studies with many more women would be needed to know whether this therapy actually helps.
1
woman in the case study
About the study
- Original title
- Mapping the Body, Meeting the System: The Development of a Codesigned Psychotherapy Programme for Premenstrual Change
- Authors
- Megan E. Buys, Raquel Peel, Denise Buiten
- Journal
- Feminism & Psychology
- Year
- 2026
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- Person-centered talk therapy with internal family systems approach and art-based activities
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1177/09593535261464231
Original abstract
Tailored and comprehensive psychotherapy options have been requested by individuals experiencing negative premenstrual change (PMC) – inclusive of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and premenstrual exacerbation (PME). Whilst some studies present psychotherapy programmes or interventions for PMC, few provide detailed descriptions of the session contents or the rationale behind them. Only a small number of studies have explored participants’ acceptability of these programmes, and none have been codesigned with individuals who experience PMC themselves. This paper addresses the need for practice-led research by outlining the development process and session content of a codesigned psychotherapy programme tailored to PMC: a person-centred programme involving internal family systems (IFS) aspects and arts-based therapeutic activities. A case study using a single participant who completed the programme is used to illustrate the sessions, and the rationale behind them is discussed.
Reproduced under CC-BY.
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