Perimenopause Support: Celia Layman on Not Going It Alone

By Rachel Cline · August 17, 2026

Episode 38 · Radiantly Rooted with Rachel

Brain fog, 3 a.m. wake-ups, afternoon crashes. These are all real perimenopause symptoms, but they don’t have to be what getting older feels like. Maybe you’ve been told your labs are normal, or that this is just what aging is like, or you didn’t bring it up because the appointment feels too rushed.

My guest this week is Celia Layman, a Certified Menopause Coach and the founder of Embrace the Change: Perimenopause Support. After coming off the birth control pill, she landed in a rocky perimenopause and found a naturopathic doctor who taught her about health sovereignty. Now she guides other women on this journey.

We get into why there’s so much perimenopause information now that it’s become its own overwhelm, why her gut healing waited on her emotional healing, which hormone labs to ask for at each stage of life, and everything happening at Holistically You 2026 on September 19.

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Editor’s note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Each turn is labeled with the speaker’s name, Rachel in teal and Celia in brown.

Celia’s Perimenopause Story

Rachel: Welcome back to Radiantly Rooted with Rachel. I have a very special guest with me today, Celia Layman. Welcome, Celia.

Celia: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Rachel: I’m just gonna read Celia’s bio really quick, and then we will dive right on in. Inspired by her own transformative healing path, Celia is the life behind Higher Health, LLC, and founder of Embrace the Change: Perimenopause Support. She’s also partner in the vision behind Holistically You. So Celia, I would love to hear more about your journey and what brought you here today.

Celia: Well, my journey started several years ago when I made the decision to discontinue the birth control pill, and then found myself in the throes of perimenopause, and had a very difficult experience with that, but also had very good support from a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Alexandra Cope. And through that journey, I learned so much about my own ability to heal, and about my body, and about hormones and nutrition. But the one thing that I was lacking was the support from other women who were going through similar journeys. Whether they had been on the pill or not, perimenopause can be really rocky.

Celia: And so that inspired me, as I was phasing out of my teaching career, to want to start Embrace the Change, which offers support groups for women who are going through perimenopause, and I also more recently started doing one-on-one coaching, power talks for women going through perimenopause.

Nobody used to say the word perimenopause

Rachel: That’s so powerful, and I feel like we’re in a very unique spot these days where I remember growing up, you never heard the term perimenopause. People didn’t seem to talk about this kind of thing. You know, my mom and her sister, they didn’t talk about this stuff around me. And now I feel like we’re very fortunate to have not only the open dialogue around it, but also people like you to help guide people through, because everybody I talk to these days is dealing with some of the symptoms of perimenopause.

When There’s Too Much Information

Celia: That’s right. And there is so much information out there, even more now than there was three years ago when I first started these groups, and that’s good. It’s a good problem to have. But it also can lead women to feeling confused or overwhelmed because there’s so much out there. And so I’ve tried to do a lot of research on my own to sift through and find out which are the best resources, which are the most practical, the most trusted, to be able to help hand women a list and say, “Okay, these are some resources. Start here. You don’t have to be so overwhelmed.” And then the fact that we meet in person as a group is also something I think is a really important process for that healing and community.

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Okay, these are some resources. Start here. You don’t have to be so overwhelmed.

Rachel: I think that’s a really powerful point. Actually, two of them. One, the sense that there’s no shortage of information out there these days, so much so that it is very easy to be overwhelmed and even overstimulated by it without knowing where to start. And I think in my own experience in different ways, that has been really the value of reaching out for the support from a coach who’s walked this path before you, who knows how to sift through that information, and to your point, save people a lot of time and overwhelm. But then also being in community with other people and recognizing that you’re not alone on this journey, that there are other people going through this with you. It just makes you feel like you’re being held and you’re just not alone.

The Community That Changed Her Healing

Celia: That’s right. Yeah, the community part has been a big part of my healing, and it has expanded for me to also include a large network of providers here in the Valley that have supported my work, given me an opportunity to rent space from them to hold the groups in person. A lot of them have participated in the group, just as regular attendees, and then they’ve been able to tell their clients and patients about the group. So I’ve really appreciated that sense of support, that acceptance, because before I didn’t have a background in health and wellness. I was coming out of the education world. And to be so widely accepted by the Women of Wellness and other groups here in the area has just been really big for me, and that’s been a big part of inspiring me to continue on with the work.

Rachel: And I think it’s such amazing community that we have here in the Shenandoah Valley with all of these amazing wellness practitioners, and everybody supporting everybody else. And it’s just been so valuable to me as well on my own journey, meeting all of these other people, and knowing who to refer people to if I’m not the right person to support them. And just knowing, oh, okay, this is what you’re dealing with right now. I know who you can talk to, who can help you, and who can support you in that. It’s so powerful.

Practitioners need support too

Celia: It is. Yes. And for us too as practitioners, to not forget that we can seek the help and the services of these women that we surround ourselves with, for us when we need it, not just sending other women there, but knowing when is the time that we need a little extra support in our healing journey.

Rachel: That’s true. That’s true. I know that when I’m looking for help for myself, the first place I go is to our network of wellness practitioners here in the Valley.

Celia: Yes. It’s growing all the time, and we’re so fortunate to have it.

Mind, Body, and Spirit Were Never Separate

Rachel: And so, talking about this network of practitioners, it’s a very widely varied group of people. And talking about, like we were talking about a little bit before the show, everything’s interconnected, the mind, the body, the spirit. You can’t address one issue without touching on all three of those. Do you wanna talk about that a little bit from your own experience?

Celia: Yes. So with holistic healing, I have found that there is no separation between mind, body, and spirit. And it can be so easy to separate the two and think about our physical symptoms, and anything that might be a struggle for us in the emotional or spiritual realm, as being totally separate. But along the way in my journey, I found that more complete healing was to be found when I was also dealing with the inner wounds from things that happened in the past.

Healing her gut by healing her emotions

Celia: And that when I started paying attention to those and hearing what my body was trying to tell me, that that was when my body felt safe enough to go through the complete healing from some of the post-birth control complications that I had, that developed into some pretty severe GI issues. So I’ve experienced firsthand that interweaving of healing my gut and healing emotions, and how my gut healing is so much more complete because of that emotional healing.

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That was when my body felt safe enough to go through the complete healing.

Rachel: That makes so much sense, because I was surprised to learn how connected the gut and the mind are in that stress response, and it really is a powerful connection. And we’ve got to be mindful to take care of our nervous system so that we can feel safe enough to fully release, fully let go, and really allow ourselves to embody this healing journey that is so multifaceted and complex.

Celia: Yes. Yes, it is very complex, and our body does keep the score, as the title of the book says, and I experienced that firsthand. I found so much freedom and healing as I was able to grasp the fact that everything is connected, mind, body, and spirit.

What Health Sovereignty Actually Means

Rachel: Yes. Yes. And so we were talking about this idea of health sovereignty, being informed and having a voice as we navigate our healthcare. Would you like to speak to that just a bit?

Celia: Yes. That also became a part of my journey because in the years leading up to my decision to go off birth control, I had asked providers about it and whether that would be a good thing and how I might do it, and I was often met with resistance, even ridicule and just almost, like, belittling when I would ask those questions.

Learning to be your own advocate

Celia: And so for years I put it off, and then when I finally made the decision to go off birth control once and for all, I knew I was going to need the support of a naturopathic doctor, which was Dr. Cope, whom I discovered in Charlottesville. And she began to talk to me a lot about the concept of health sovereignty and discovering your own voice, learning how to be your own advocate with a doctor, learning how you can learn which labs that you need to ask your provider for to get to the root cause of your symptoms, and that you don’t have to just take what is handed to you without questioning it, that you can not only ask for a second opinion, but you can do your own research, and that you know your body best, and that those are rights that you have when you go into a doctor, that you can ask those questions.

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You know your body best, and those are rights that you have when you go into a doctor.

Celia: You can ask for them to explain why they’re doing something. You can ask for other options. You can ask for them to explain the risk to you. So all of those are aspects of health sovereignty that I think oftentimes get overlooked, or it’s a concept that we’re not even familiar with, because we’re just so used to going into the 15-minute appointment, taking what the doctor says, not questioning it, and then oftentimes not really having our problems addressed.

When You’re Told It’s All in Your Head

Rachel: I’ve been in conversation this past week with a couple of different women who have told me that they struggled for years being either misdiagnosed or being told that their symptoms were all in their head. There wasn’t anything medically wrong with them. And the fact that they did continue to do research and go back to get different opinions, they were eventually able to find support in their health journey.

Rachel: But I think it’s so important for us to know, and I, as someone who can be somewhat shy and somewhat soft-spoken, sometimes I feel like when you are in the doctor’s office, you don’t have a whole lot of time with them. They kind of just wanna brush it off, or take the most obvious thing and not go deeper into that mind, body, spirit connection. They just wanna address the surface level issues. And it’s almost like you feel like you’re being rushed if you wanna take the time to ask questions or go deeper.

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We’re just so used to going into the 15-minute appointment, taking what the doctor says, not questioning it, and then oftentimes not really having our problems addressed.

Celia: That’s right. Yeah. And that’s what I appreciate about the holistic practitioners in our area that are more integrative, that take the time to treat the whole you, to get to the root of the problem. And if it’s beyond their scope, if it’s something that they cannot continue to support you with, they’re happy to refer you on to someone else, and that we can all have our own personal network, our own circle of healers that are dedicated to healing the whole us.

Inside Holistically You 2026

Rachel: So you are co-hosting Holistically You 2026 in September. New Hope for Healing. It’s September 19th. And you have gathered quite a network of holistic practitioners to join you in this event. Do you wanna share a little bit about that?

Celia: Yes, yes. This event is definitely inspired by the connections that I have in the valley with women practitioners, and it’s the culmination of my own healing journey, and some of these things we’ve been talking about with just the transformation that I experienced and learning about the connection of mind, body, and spirit, and learning about health sovereignty. Those are a lot of the themes of this year’s Holistically You, and I know those are themes that our main speaker, Dr. Alexandra Cope, and all of our breakout session leaders, I know that those are themes that they also align with and are inspired by.

Rachel: That’s amazing. And so when women come to this event, they have the opportunity to pick what they’re interested in, to talk to people one-on-one or in small group settings to get that support, so that they’re not just taking in information, they’re taking in support and community at the same time.

Keynote, breakouts, and a day you customize

Celia: Yes. We’ll start out the morning with our keynote speaker. She’ll give her presentation, and then we will break out into breakout sessions that women will have a chance to sign up for ahead of time, so they can customize their own day according to what they’re most interested in and where their passions are, and they can be choosing to hear from experts on topics of hormones, gut health, pelvic floor health, chronic inflammation, nutrition, perimenopause, and more. So we’re really excited about that opportunity for women to be able to customize their own day. And then at the very end of the day, we’ll have a more casual time that attendees can mingle with the practitioners and providers and have some time to get to know them face to face.

Rachel: That sounds like such an amazing opportunity, and I know I saw your flyer, and you’ve got quite an amazing lineup of speakers to come that day. So I know it’s going to be very valuable, and it fits right in with your concept of health sovereignty we were talking about before. Just giving women the choice to customize their own experience, and bringing all of these people together in the same spot. Because I don’t know about you, but what I have found in my own experience, and going back to what we were talking about earlier, it’s rarely just one thing we’re dealing with at any certain time. You might be dealing with stress. You might be dealing with hormonal issues. You can be dealing with gut issues. And so to have all of these different topics available at the same time is just such a great opportunity for us.

What Celia hopes women walk away with

Celia: Yes. We’re very excited for women, and we’re hoping to be able to spread the word, and to be able to have a full house that day. So we hope that, first of all, women will walk away with new friendships with other women who are also seeking better health. We’re hoping that they will walk away with connections to these local holistic practitioners who will treat the whole person. And we’re hoping that women will walk away with the knowledge of what labs to ask their provider for. That’s something that will be addressed that day. And then we’re hoping that in the area of health sovereignty, women leave with that empowerment, knowing how to use their own voice and having the courage to use their own voice as they navigate healing in our very complicated healthcare system.

Rachel: And that’s a good point, that it’s not just knowing how, but also having the courage to speak up for yourself, because the two go hand in hand. It’s easy to have a list of things you wanna talk about when you walk in, but then having the courage to actually speak up for yourself when you’re in that situation, I think that that’s really valuable.

Which Labs to Ask For at Every Stage

Celia: And to have that list of questions in your hand, and the list of labs there to hand to the provider, can really help when you’re feeling a little tentative.

Rachel: Yeah. I wouldn’t even know where to start with labs, so that would be really helpful for me as well.

Celia: Yeah, and depending on where you are, whether you’re in your 20s just trying to learn about your cycle, or you’re further down the road and wanting to start planning for a family and working on fertility, or postpartum, or all the way up to perimenopause and post-menopause, the labs look different, and that’s something that Dr. Cope is an expert in, in helping women understand what labs they need for the stage of life that they’re in.

Rachel: That’s really amazing, because I know that our hormones can really be like a roller coaster during some of these stages in our life. And so knowing specifically what stage and season you’re in, and what is going to be most valuable and helpful for you, that’s really helpful.

Brain Fog, 3 a.m. Waking, and Afternoon Crashes

Celia: Yeah. And then to have the results sometimes help you make more sense of what you’ve been experiencing. You’re like, “Oh, that’s why I’ve been having so much brain fog,” or, “That’s why my energy level has been tanking every afternoon,” or, “That’s why I’m waking up every morning at 3:00 a.m.” And so it can be not only helpful in getting to the root cause, but in validating the symptoms and the experience that sometimes we feel like are all in our head, or that we’re the only ones experiencing.

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Oh, that’s why I’ve been having so much brain fog. That’s why I’m waking up every morning at 3:00 a.m.

Rachel: And I think that’s a really important point to make, because I feel like sometimes we think that that is just part of growing older, that we’re gonna have the brain fog, that our sleep quality is gonna decline, that our energy is going to drop in the afternoon or whatever, and it doesn’t have to be that way. We can get support in those things so that we can live the vibrant life that we want to and feel well on all levels of our being, mind, body, and spirit.

Small Shifts That Work in Synergy

Celia: And sometimes it’s not as complicated as we think it will be. When we start taking some of those little steps to make small lifestyle shifts, they can make a big difference, and I see that a lot in my coaching. I’m sure you see it in yours, too, when women make those small shifts in their sleep hygiene or their bedtime routine, their nutrition, their hydration, their movement on a daily basis, incorporating yoga. And adding things that just make the day run more smoothly for them, that eliminate some of their stress, can improve their home environment, their work environment. Then suddenly some of those symptoms start to shift and not be as severe, and it doesn’t take such a huge, huge thing. It can be just those little small shifts working in synergy together that can lead us to higher health and to feel better at an older age even than we felt at a younger age.

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It can be just those little small shifts working in synergy together that can lead us to higher health.

It’s more doable than you think

Rachel: Yes, that’s so true. And I love what you said about the small shifts, because I’ve had clients tell me, “Oh, my gosh, these concepts, they’re simple, but they’re life-changing,” and that, “Wow, that’s a lot easier to do than I thought it was going to be.” And so I think sometimes we put off seeking support or getting support or starting on our journey because we think it’s gonna be so hard, or we have to make this big lifestyle shift, or that there’s no way we’re gonna stick with it. And so on the one hand, having that accountability and support from a coach or a small group, but also having somebody to guide you and tell you step by step what to do and how to do it, makes you realize that it is very doable, and it is sustainable.

Rachel: And you don’t have to transform your whole life to see results, to feel better, and to even feel better than you did before.

The Living Yoga Blueprint for every attendee

Every Holistically You attendee gets my Living Yoga Blueprint free. Access details arrive after you register, and you can see what’s inside it here.

Celia: Yeah, that reminds me of the simple steps that you probably address in your yoga blueprint, and I’m just really appreciative of you and your business sponsoring Holistically You, and the offer for a free gift of that blueprint for all of our attendees. I think they’re really gonna enjoy that, and that adds a lot of value to their experience, so thank you.

Rachel: Oh, you’re welcome. I sure hope so. I love being able to sponsor such an amazing event, and it helps to support our local community.

Registration and Group Rates

Rachel: And so event registration is open now, right?

Celia: Yes. It is open now, and the link to our landing page is on the website, and will be in the show notes. And I do want to add that we are also offering group rates, so no one has to come alone. Anyone that comes in a group of three or more, those tickets will be $95 each, which is a savings of $30 off of the regular $125 price. So we’d love to see women join together and bring a couple friends, or someone bring their mother and their daughter, or their grandmother and their sister. Just bringing special groups of women together like that, I think, will enhance the experience even more. And maybe bring someone that hadn’t had the courage to sign up yet, or that was a little bit hesitant to come alone.

Rachel: That’s a really great idea, and such a great way to spend the day together with people that you care about. I know just recently in my yoga classes I’ve been seeing more of a trend where mothers and daughters have been coming together, or groups of friends have been coming together to get like a day away, a day in community. And it’s just such a nice way to nourish your soul, nourish your relationships, and take better care of each other.

A day women set aside for themselves

Celia: Yes. And that’s what we’d love for this day to be, is a day that women set aside for themselves. I know it’s a Saturday, but those chores can wait, and it’s going to be the beginning of fall when kids are already back in school. It’s about a month after school starts, so we’re hoping that by that time women have the space and the bandwidth to turn their attention to, what can I do for myself, because I spent the whole summer taking care of everybody else?

Rachel: Yes. And that reminds me, one of my clients said something to me recently about how she noticed that by taking better care of herself it was rippling out into her family and the people around her. And not only could they see and experience the difference in her, but also she was showing up much more fully for them, and she was just really delighted to see that ripple effect. So I’m sure the same thing will happen with your group.

Celia’s Closing Words

Rachel: Thank you so much, Celia, for being here with me today. I will drop the link to Holistically You down in the show notes, as well as the rest of Celia’s contact information. If there’s anything on your heart that you wanna leave our listeners with today, is there anything that’s coming up for you?

Celia: Yes. And I think it’s very connected to what you just said about how often we do take better care of others in our lives when we’ve been careful to set boundaries and take good care of ourselves. We can’t pour from an empty cup. And so I just really encourage women that if the summer has left you feeling kind of depleted, that this is an opportunity to set aside a day, to ask for help if you need childcare, to get the encouragement of friends to come together and to spend that time.

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When you pour back into yourself, the more you are able to be there for the people that depend on you.

We need your gifts

Celia: And just to realize that when you pour back into yourself, then the more you are able to be there for the people that depend on you, and that you’re able to show up more fully you, and to be able to give your gifts more completely to the world. And we need your gifts right now more than ever.

Rachel: We sure do. Thank you so much, Celia.

Celia: Thank you for having me. It was great to be back.

About Celia Layman

Inspired by her own transformative healing path, Celia is the life behind Higher Health, LLC, founder of “Embrace The Change” Perimenopause Support, and partner in the vision behind “Holistically You”.

Website: higherhealthva.net
Perimenopause groups and 1:1 Power Talks: higherhealthva.net/services
Instagram: @higherhealthva

Perimenopause Support FAQ

What is perimenopause, and when does it usually start?

Perimenopause is the transition leading up to menopause, when hormone levels begin fluctuating rather than following their usual rhythm. It often begins in a woman’s forties, though it can start earlier, and it can last several years. As Celia describes in this episode, it can be rocky whether or not you’ve been on hormonal birth control, and the symptoms rarely arrive one at a time.

Is perimenopause brain fog just a normal part of getting older?

Brain fog, declining sleep quality, and an energy crash every afternoon are common in perimenopause, and common is not the same as something you have to accept. These symptoms often have identifiable root causes. Getting the right labs for your stage of life can point toward what’s actually happening, which is why Celia says the results so often land as, oh, that’s why.

What is health sovereignty?

Health sovereignty means being informed and having a voice as you navigate your own healthcare. In practice it looks like asking why a treatment is being recommended, asking what your other options are, asking about the risks, requesting specific labs to get to the root cause, and knowing you can seek a second opinion. Celia learned the concept from naturopathic doctor Alexandra Cope, and she frames it as a skill you can build rather than something you either have or you don’t.

Can emotional healing really affect gut health?

The gut and the nervous system are closely linked through the stress response, and Celia’s own experience reflects that. Her post-birth-control GI issues didn’t fully resolve until she started paying attention to older emotional wounds and listening to what her body was telling her. In her words, that was when her body felt safe enough to complete the healing.

Where can I find perimenopause support in the Shenandoah Valley?

Celia runs in-person perimenopause support groups and one-on-one Power Talks through Embrace the Change. She also co-hosts Holistically You 2026: New Hope for Healing on Saturday, September 19 at The Ridge Lodge at Horizons in Harrisonburg, with a keynote from Dr. Alexandra Cope and breakout sessions on hormones, gut health, pelvic floor health, inflammation, nutrition, and perimenopause. Registration is open now, groups of three or more are $95 each, and every attendee receives my Living Yoga Blueprint free.