Meet the founder,
Kate Hinkle
“I started Sage Consulting to further my professional growth, but if I'm honest, it's deeply personal.”
No one teaches us how to navigate midlife health. I can teach you the process: identifying symptoms, tracking patterns, talking with healthcare providers, advocating for your needs, building a supportive treatment team, setting meaningful goals, staying accountable, and achieving success.
About Me
I'm Dr. Kate Hinkle, a clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience supporting adults through life's challenges. I often say I have one of the best jobs around. I enjoy building relationships with my clients, hearing their stories, and working together toward their wellness goals. It's work I plan to continue for as long as I'm able.
But a few years ago, my practice started to shift. More and more of my clients were women in midlife, and I began to notice something important: the traditional therapy approaches I'd relied on for decades weren't fully addressing what these women were experiencing.
The moment of clarity came when I realized we weren't just dealing with "regular" anxiety or depression. Changing hormones were affecting mood regulation. Communication strategies couldn't address low libido when the real issue was vaginal dryness from dropping estrogen. Organizational techniques for stress management fell flat when clients were battling insomnia, brain fog, and crushing fatigue from perimenopause.
What looked like routine psychological issues were often rooted in medical changes. And yet, traditional therapy training hadn't prepared me, or most therapists, to recognize or address these hormone-related changes.
Every woman deserves specialized treatment, real expertise, and referrals to appropriate providers.
Why this became personal
As women in midlife, we have wisdom and resilience. Think about everything you've lived through and learned. But being the patient, the advocate, the communication hub between providers, and the researcher? It's exhausting.
Here's the truth: I started Sage Consulting to further my professional growth, but if I'm honest, it's deeply personal.
I'm a woman in my forties, and perimenopause has dramatically impacted my life over the last five years. I've experienced a host of changes to my health and wellness. Add to that the realities of becoming empty nesters, concerns about aging parents, and stepping into more leadership in my field as a mid-career psychologist. This time in life has many positives, but has been seriously challenged by changes from aging.
Finding my own healthcare team has been difficult. And sadly, research confirms that my experience is what most women face. It can take years to get the correct diagnosis, assemble the right treatment team, and find a plan that actually works—even when you're a healthcare provider yourself who knows how to navigate the system. We have to become informed advocates just to receive appropriate care. We have to trust that we're the experts on our own bodies.
How Sage Was Created
In response to my own health journey, I wanted to use my education, clinical experience, and skills to support other women during this time of change.
As a psychologist, I'm often the first healthcare provider women talk to about shifts in their health, especially changes in mood, functioning, and relationships. This puts me in a unique position: I can help women recognize when psychological symptoms might actually be rooted in hormonal changes and guide them toward the right medical support alongside our work together. Educating myself about the issues we face in midlife isn't just a personal interest; it's a professional responsibility.
That's how Sage Consulting came to be a space for women, by women, where you can finally feel supported, guided, and successful as you navigate midlife.
My Approach
A Relationship Where You Can Be Yourself
I read everything you share before we meet. Our first appointment starts where your forms leave off — not from scratch. You'll feel heard, understood, and guided from the very first conversation. Never questioned or judged.
Targeted, Individualized Support
You'll receive personalized health education, concrete goal-setting, and accountability tailored to your specific needs. We'll focus on practical strategies to implement your healthcare team's recommendations and achieve your wellness goals. There's no one-size-fits-all mentality here.
Person-First Care
We only set goals that align with what you want and what works for your life. Your priorities lead the way.
Honest Expectations, Real Progress
Our work together is not about achieving a symptom-free life. It is about defining your quality of life and helping you get there, regardless of health status and challenges. Many of the conditions that affect midlife women are complex and may always require some level of management. What I offer is real and sustainable — the knowledge, tools, and support to live as fully as possible, advocate effectively for yourself, and find real solutions where they exist. Progress is measured by how empowered, informed, and supported you feel, not by the absence of difficulty.
Research-Backed Professionalism
I come to every appointment prepared with current research and evidence-based information. We'll make the most of our time together.
Access to Effective Help
Every woman deserves support that actually works. That's non-negotiable.
Teaching You the Process
No one teaches us how to navigate midlife health. I can teach you the process: identifying symptoms, tracking patterns, talking with healthcare providers, advocating for your needs, building a supportive treatment team, setting meaningful goals, staying accountable, and achieving success.
Clear Boundaries
As a wellness consultant, I don't diagnose conditions or prescribe treatments, that’s your medical team's role. Instead, I help you work more effectively with your providers and implement their recommendations in ways that fit your life.
Staying Organized So You Can Focus on Living
Let's keep the medical logistics from taking over your life. You deserve to feel in control of your health and your healthcare rather than overwhelmed by it.
Areas of Focus
My work centers on the health challenges that most commonly affect women in midlife — many of which are underdiagnosed, misunderstood, or dismissed by the healthcare system. I have both personal and professional experience navigating these conditions and the complex, overlapping ways they show up.
Hormonal and Reproductive Health Perimenopause and menopause — the hormonal transition that affects mood, sleep, cognition, metabolism, and more. Thyroid conditions, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition affecting the thyroid that is far more common in women and frequently missed or undertreated.
Complex and Systemic Conditions Long COVID — the constellation of symptoms that persist long after the acute infection, including fatigue, brain fog, and autonomic dysfunction. POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) — a condition affecting the autonomic nervous system that causes dizziness, fatigue, and heart rate changes, often worsened by hormonal shifts. MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) — a condition involving an overactive immune response that can cause wide-ranging symptoms and is frequently misdiagnosed. Autoimmune conditions broadly — including the diagnostic journey, treatment navigation, and lifestyle management.
Mental and Emotional Wellbeing Anxiety, mood changes, and emotional dysregulation that are rooted in or worsened by hormonal shifts — distinct from traditional anxiety or depression and often best addressed through a combined medical and wellness approach.
Education & Specialized Training
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, ISPP Chicago
Master of Science in Counseling Psychology, Indiana University
Bachelor's in Psychology, DePauw University
Level 1 Health and Wellness Coach Training, Duke University
My Credentials
Professional Memberships
The Menopause Society (a leading professional organization dedicated to promoting women's midlife health)
American Psychological Association
Illinois Psychological Association
PsyPACT (Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact)
Commitment to Continuing Education
I regularly complete continuing education courses to stay current on the latest research and best practices in mental health, women’s midlife health, menopause management, and health coaching.