My Holistic Therapist

If stress feels heavier and more relentless in midlife, it’s not because you’re failing - it’s because the strategies that once kept you functioning are no longer sustainable. In this episode, I unpack what stress actually is, why chronic stress is not normal, and why so many women don’t get traction despite doing “all the right things.” I explore how self-override, avoidance, and surface-level ne...

As the new year begins, many women in midlife feel a quiet pull to do things differently - not through pressure or reinvention, but through deeper self-honesty. In this episode, I’m speaking to women who have spent years people-pleasing to feel safe in relationship, and who now find themselves overwhelmed, disconnected, or unsure of who they are beneath those patterns. I explore how the fawn respo...

In this episode, I share why I don’t encourage New Year’s resolutions - especially for women who already carry a lot of internal pressure and self-expectation. I explore how resolutions can quietly erode self-trust when they’re not aligned with our nervous system, capacity, or deepest knowing, and why what we often label as “self-sabotage” is actually the body trying to keep us safe. I’ll walk you...

You’ve done the therapy. Taken the supplements. Tried journaling, yoga, maybe even medication. So why are you still stuck in survival? In this episode, I break down one of the most common frustrations in healing: doing “all the right things” and still not feeling better. I explain how trauma impacts the nervous system and why traditional top-down approaches, like CBT, often fall short if your body...

Anxiety, burnout, emotional numbness - what if these aren’t just symptoms, but signs your nervous system is stuck in survival mode? In this episode, I unpack what nervous system dysregulation really feels like, why it often hides behind high-functioning behaviours, and how to recognise the patterns in your own life. We’ll explore the key nervous system states (fight/flight, shutdown, and regulatio...

In this episode, I’m sharing a personal reflection that I suspect many women in midlife will see parts of themselves in. I talk about the quiet but powerful shifts that happen around fifty - when motherhood evolves, menopause arrives, identities soften, and we start asking deeper questions about who we are now and who we’re becoming. Using the Existential Psychology framework and the modern lens o...

Ever wondered why you  can’t  relax during the silly season, no matter how much you try? In this episode, I’m breaking down what’s actually happening inside your nervous system at the end of the year, and why December sends so many women into overwhelm, irritation, or complete shutdown. From collective stress in shopping centres to neuroception, co-dysregulation, and that wired-but-tired feeling,...

In this episode, I’m exploring the quiet revolution happening inside so many women in midlife - the moment where we start to ask,  “Is this it?”  and begin to re-evaluate the relationships, marriages, and friendships we’ve carried for decades. I dive into new research around overall divorce rates and I also look at what friendship really looks like in this season. This is a grounded, compassionate...

In this episode, I’m exploring what really happens when your body - and your hormones - decide they’re done with people-pleasing. For many women, midlife brings a strange mix of liberation and guilt. The part of us that’s spent decades smoothing things over and keeping the peace starts to feel exhausted, while another part begins whispering,  “I can’t keep living like this.” We’ll talk about the h...

You know those moments when you catch yourself thinking,  “I know better than this” , but you still overreact, shut down, or find yourself managing everyone else’s emotions? In this episode, I’m unpacking the hidden ways emotional immaturity can still show up, even in self-aware women who’ve done years of therapy and inner work. I’ll share a personal story about a friendship that ended, explore wh...

What if your inner critic isn’t a mindset problem - it’s a physiological one? In this episode, I unpack how the state of your nervous system directly shapes your thoughts, perceptions, and self-beliefs - especially in midlife, when hormones are recalibrating and stress tolerance starts to change. I’ll share why so many women feel like they’ve “failed” at talk therapy, what’s really happening when...

In this episode, I dive into what really happens when your lifelong habit of saying “yes” stops working. If you’ve spent years being the calm one, the capable one, the glue that holds it all together, and now find yourself exhausted, irritated, or wondering where  you  went in the process - this conversation is for you. I talk about how chronic people-pleasing (the fawn response) collides with the...

So many of us learned early on that being ‘good’ kept us safe. We read the room, smoothed the edges, and made sure everyone else was okay - even if it meant disappearing ourselves. In this episode, I talk about the  Good Girl Wound  - how fawning begins as a brilliant survival strategy, not a flaw. I share how this pattern took root in my own childhood and how it quietly shapes the way women show...

This episode dives into the second session on the biology of food, stress, and sugar. I break down the adrenal sequence step by step - what happens in your body when you eat sugar, from the glucose surge to the adrenaline spike to the inevitable crash. We’ll explore why even “healthy eaters” can get trapped in this rollercoaster, and how food interacts with your nervous system state. I’ll also sha...

In this episode, I share the first part of the truth about why food means so much more to women than just nutrition . I talk about my own story of chocolate as comfort, why so many women “fail” diets (hint: it’s not about willpower), and how unresolved stress and trauma drive binge eating, snacking, and emotional eating. We’ll explore how your nervous system state shapes your cravings and why plan...

This episode is part of my special mini-series with Dr. Lucy Caratti:  How the Medical System is Failing Women in Perimenopause . In Episode 3,  How the Medical System is Failing Women in Perimenopause , we explore what really happens when women reach out for medical support during this transition. Many are met with quick fixes - a prescription for antidepressants, sleeping tablets, or a one-size-...

This episode is part of my special mini-series with Dr. Lucy Caratti:  How the Medical System is Failing Women in Perimenopause . In Episode 2,  Burnout in Midlife - When Stress Meets Perimenopause , we unpack why burnout hits so hard at this stage of life. Too often, women are told their exhaustion is just hormones or simply the reality of getting older, but the truth is far more layered. Decades...

This episode is part of my special three-part series with Dr. Lucy Caratti:  How the Medical System is Failing Women in Perimenopause . In Episode 1, we dive into  Mental Health in Perimenopause and the Hidden Hormone / Nervous System Link . So often women are told their struggles are simply the result of isolated symptoms, just part of aging, or that nothing can really be done. Together, Lucy and...

In this episode, I talk about why midlife feels so destabilising when the coping strategies that once kept you afloat, such as, people-pleasing, perfectionism, over-functioning suddenly stop working. I explain that capacity is biological, not about willpower, and how it shifts moment to moment depending on sleep, food, stress, and even who you spend time with. I share why pushing beyond capacity t...

In this episode, I explore the hidden cost of pushing through and overriding our body’s signals. From the emotional suppression that ramps up cortisol and adrenaline, to the perimenopausal symptoms we dismiss as “just stress,” I break down what happens when we ignore ourselves. I also share why midlife can be an awakening, and how learning to listen, rather than override, is the first step toward...

In this episode, I explore what it really means to heal at the root. Not just fixing symptoms or chasing quick solutions, but looking at ourselves as whole beings, physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. I share how bypassing, especially spiritual bypassing, can keep us stuck, and why true healing requires meeting our physiology first, then weaving in the mind, emotions, and spirit. Hea...

In this episode, I unpack the real difference between stress and trauma, and why so many people get confused. I explain what trauma really is (it’s not the event, but the experience in your body), how stress and trauma overlap, and why capacity is the key. I also share a real client story about moving from chronic people-pleasing into what she beautifully calls “fussy capacity.”

You can read every self-help book and know your trauma story inside-out, and still feel stuck. In this episode, I unpack why insight alone doesn’t shift old patterns, how living disconnected from your body keeps you looping, and why integration and insight is important. I share real examples, client reflections, and practical steps to bridge the gap between  knowing  and  actually living different...

In this week's episode we explore what Functional Freeze looks like and how being in this blended state can look like competence, but that in fact it's keeping you operational while shutting you down from your true needs. I'll unpack what it is (and isn’t), how it forms in childhood, and how to tell it apart from high sympathetic stress. And I'll also introduce fawning - the people-pleasing surviv...

Anxiety, burnout, emotional numbness - what if these aren’t just symptoms, but signs your nervous system is stuck in survival mode? In this episode, I unpack what nervous system dysregulation really feels like, why it often hides behind high-functioning behaviours, and how to recognise the patterns in your own life. We’ll explore the key nervous system states (fight/flight, shutdown, and regulatio...