Rhonda Joliffe and Chris Dockter
By Jody Kerzman
Hot flashes.
Night sweats.
Dryness.
All symptoms of menopause, and all miserable.
But two local women are working to make all of the symptoms of menopause a little more tolerable. And they’re doing it online.
Rhonda Joliffe and Chris Dockter are building a business to educate women about menopause, and to help those suffering with this change of life.
“We are all women, we’re all going to go through this,” says Chris. “But we can provide women with tools to make it more manageable.”
“A few years ago I started looking into doing an online program, but I just never got it done the way I wanted it to be. I put it on the backburner,” says Rhonda, who has been a nurse practitioner for more than 20 years. “In my work with patients over the last two decades I’ve realized that what women need is education, not medication.”
When Chris and her husband, Rhonda’s brother, moved to Bismarck a few months ago, Rhonda mentioned her idea to Chris. Chris immediately put her marketing skills to work on Rhonda’s website, RhondaNp.com.
“This is a powerful concept. We’re helping women regain control, which is so important because you feel out of control when this starts happening to you,” explains Chris. “Our ideal client is someone who is successful, educated, and really has control over her life and all of a sudden the wheels start to come off. We want to be there when the wheels start to come off, or even a little before that because it’s going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride. If you’re more educated, you know what’s going on, you won’t panic as much.”
Rhonda blogs on various menopause-related topics, like exercise, meditation, herbs and supplements, stress management, and more. The next step is adding an online program.
“It will be a comprehensive program. I’ll walk students through menopause step by step and make sure they have an action plan. We’ll talk about the most important part of diet, exercise, and sleep. Those things all change when you hit menopause,” explains Rhonda.
It is something these sisters-in-law turned business partners know first hand. They say their personal experiences, teamed with Rhonda’s medical knowledge, have helped them design an all natural program that really helps women, something that hasn’t been offered before.
“I remember panicking when my hot flashes started. I was super moody, had a foggy brain, and couldn’t sleep,” remembers Chris. “I thought I would go to the doctor she would give me meds and I’d be fine. But when she gave me a prescription for Prozac and said I should put a fan under my desk, I thought ‘This is not good, this is not how I want to live my life.’”
But what is good, is the program these women are developing. And because it’s an online program, they’ll be able to reach women around the globe.
And Rhonda says there are some positives that come with menopause.
“Women become more creative when they reach menopause, and we also gain valuable perspective,” she explains. “By the time we reach menopause, we’ve gone through that period of raising kids and caring for everyone else. Menopause is actually a time we can be a little selfish, and do what makes us happy. Women also become more community-minded and want to give back when we hit this stage of life. “
For Rhonda and Chris, that is exactly the case. They’re building this program because they have a deep desire to help others.
“We talk all the time about how us teaming up is the work of a higher power,” says Chris with a smile. “I felt drawn to come back to Bismarck, and this is why. This business is so exciting. We are building something from the ground up and it’s something that is truly going to help others. It is exciting.
“We want to turn the idea of menopause being something awful into something that’s not so bad. We want to help women be fierce and take control of this thing that is controlling them.”
