Skylark Hypnotherapy

Hi everyone! 👋 It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I took a deliberate step back from social media to focus more deeply on my client work and some additional learning (and honestly, to reclaim some of that scrolling time! 😊)

I’m Pauline, a Hypnotherapist specializing in helping midlife women reclaim their inner calm and do what matters to them.

As someone navigating midlife myself, I deeply understand the unique challenges this season of life brings. Through a blend of hypnotherapy, CBT, ACT, and mindfulness techniques, I help women break free from overwhelming thoughts, feelings, and unhelpful patterns of behaviour that hold them back from living their most authentic and meaningful lives ✨

These past months have been filled with supporting wonderful clients as they navigate anxiety, low mood, sleep challenges, phobias, self-esteem issues, chronic pain, and menopause-related symptoms. Every transformation reminds me why I love what I do.

With the festive season rapidly approaching 🎄, I know the pressure on women often intensifies. That’s why I’m back with regular posts sharing practical tips and gentle reminders to help you stay centred and care for yourself during this busy time.

I’d love to hear how you’re doing - drop a hello in the comments! 💝

This client came to be with a number of difficulties that she was facing, but after just one session there were noticeable improvements and after 4, she was like a different person and it was such a joy to be a part of her journey.

For some clients, the changes they desire can happening in a just a few sessions, for others it can take much longer. But change is possible, even after many years of dealing with a problem.

So if you’re struggling with stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, or have something else that is holding you back from living your life to the full, DM me to find out more about how I can help.

🌸 If you’re struggling with anxiety, it’s helpful to check whether your anxiety could be fuelled by one of these lifestyle factors.

☕️ While that cup of tea or coffee may give us a quick pick-me-up, excessive caffeine intake can sometimes rev up our nervous system, leading to feelings of restlessness and anxiety. Studies have shown that high doses of caffeine can increase anxiety levels. ☕️

🍷 Although a glass of wine or two may seem like a good way to unwind, alcohol can disrupt the delicate balance of neurotransmitters in our brains. Studies suggest that alcohol can interfere with the production of serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), both of which play a crucial role in regulating mood, and it can impact sleep.

💤 Sleep deprivation not only leaves us feeling groggy and unfocused but also increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol which can cause you to feel more anxious. Additionally, research has shown that lack of sleep can heighten the activity in the amygdala, the part of our brain responsible for processing emotions, leading to heightened anxiety responses.

📱 While social media can be a way to stay connected, it is often a source of comparison and self-doubt, fuelling anxiety. Be mindful of your screen time and curate your online experience to focus on positive and uplifting content that boosts your spirit.

🚶‍♀️ Movement is not just essential for our physical health but also for our mental well-being. Lack of regular physical activity can result in increased levels of stress hormones and reduced release of feel-good endorphins. Find joy in movement, whether it's dancing, yoga, or simply taking a walk in nature – your body and mind will thank you.

🤝 Whilst we all need some level of alone time, a lack of social connection can create feelings of isolation and heighten anxiety levels. Social support can act as a buffer against psychological distress. Making time for genuine connections, engaging in heartfelt conversations, and creating your support network is vitally important.

Do you find any of these factors make your anxiety worse?

Is your anxiety trying to tell you something?

Anxiety isn’t your enemy. It’s a normal human response and it’s trying to keep you safe.

Fighting against it and trying to make it go away can make it shout louder for your attention.

Acknowledging and sitting with your anxiety can allow you to identify what it is the anxiety is trying to draw your attention to 🙏.

Do you struggle with a specific fear or phobia?

Here’s 7 steps to help you overcome them:

1. Reflect on your 'why'
2. Plan your experiment
3. Notice your anticipatory anxiety
4. Plan coping strategies
5. Visualise facing your fear
6. Undertake your experiment
7. Review (and celebrate) your progress.

Check out my blog ‘7 Steps to Overcome Fears and Phobias’ to learn more https://www.skylarkhypnotherapy.co.uk/blog/7-steps-to-overcome-fears-and-phobias

📣 Calling all you midlife women who’ve been letting your fears hold you back! It's time to rewrite the narrative of fear in your life. Embrace discomfort. Embrace growth. Embrace the journey of becoming the best version of yourself. You CAN overcome that which stands in your way. 💪✨

I help women to connect with their values, with what is truly important to them. When guided by your values, you have the courage to do the things you want to do, even when the way forward is scary.

What fears have been holding you back?

Are you ready to conquer your fears and break free from those nagging phobias? 💪🏼💫 If so, I'm here to help! Here are 5 tips to help you overcome those fears and live your best life! 🙌🏼✨

1️⃣ Face your fear head-on: The first step is to acknowledge your phobia and the impact it is having on your life. Why do you want to overcome it? How will your life be different? This is the rocket fuel that will give you the courage to face your fears. 🚀🌟

2️⃣ Seek support from loved ones: having a supportive friend or family member who can encourage you when things get tough can really help. 💖

3️⃣ Discover relaxation techniques: Find what works for you, whether it's deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, hypnosis or a grounding technique. These techniques can help calm your mind and body, making it easier for you to face your fears with a clear head and a determined heart. 🧘🏼‍♀️💆🏼‍♀️

4️⃣ Plan little exposure 'experiments': Take baby steps towards confronting your phobia. Start by exposing yourself to small doses of what scares you, and gradually increase the intensity. Remember, progress doesn't happen overnight, but with consistent effort, you'll see amazing results! 🌱🔍💥

5️⃣ Celebrate your victories: Every time you overcome a fear or take a step forward, celebrate! Treat yourself to something you love or reward yourself with some self-care. You deserve it! 🥳💃🏼💖

Remember ladies, you are stronger than any fear that comes your way. With a little determination and these 5 tips, nothing can stand in your way! 💫💖 Let's embrace life and let go of those phobias together! 🌟✨

Whilst IWD is all about celebrating the achievements of women, it is also about a call to action for accelerating gender parity, and the theme for this year is to ‘Inspire Inclusion’.

Inclusion is so important if we want to have a mentally healthy society. The exclusion, discrimination, abuse, and stereotyping that women continue to experience through so many aspects of our society can all contribute to mental health problems. And with women experiencing common mental health problems at 3 TIMES the rates that men do, (a statistic that has INCREASED from twice as likely back in 1993), it is clear that there is a HUGE amount that still needs to change.

So may we all have the conviction to call out stereotyping and bias, the courage to demand an end to discrimination, and the compassion to value and appreciate the uniqueness of all our different experiences. Let’s support each other for a better, more inclusive future.

Happy International Women’s Day!

It makes me so happy to get feedback as lovely as this from clients.

In just 3 sessions, this client was able to make significant changes and get back to living her life rather than being limited by her anxiety and phobia.

When I work with clients, whether on phobias or on anything else, it isn’t just the work we do in sessions that makes a difference.

At the end of each session we agree actions to be done between sessions. This could be listening to a recording of the hypnosis we do in the session each day, but can also include things like practicing a breathing exercise, keeping a record of unhelpful thoughts, or doing something in real life that we’ve practiced in hypnosis, such as visiting an airport (for someone with a fear of flying).

This client was very committed to doing her ‘work’ in-between sessions and this made a big difference in the rapid progress she was able to make.

If you’re ready to make a change to your life and would like some help, DM me to arrange a chat.

Great to see today’s Guardian talking about a study by University College London that has highlighted the benefits that ‘talking’ therapies (such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI) can offer to women through peri/menopause .

In my work with midlife women, I use an approach that integrates CBT, mindfulness, and hypnosis to help women deal with the challenges they’re facing - from anxiety and mood swings, to hot flushes and insomnia.

And, whilst these types of therapies are often referred to as ‘talking’ therapies (and indeed talking is an important and often very therapeutic component), there is much more to it.

It’s about building an awareness of what’s really going on, understanding how our thoughts, feelings and actions interact, and then using a range of strategies and techniques to help make lasting changes to what we think, what we do, and how we feel.

For example, this could involve relaxation or hypnosis practices to develop deep physical relaxation, mindfulness techniques to learn how to detach from unhelpful thoughts, and assertiveness techniques to enable someone to make practical changes to their situation.

As The Guardian article highlights, it isn’t necessarily about ‘talking’ therapies as an alternative to HRT during menopause. Therapy can be used as well as HRT (HRT doesn’t necessarily fix everything, and many of the things midlife women struggle with are not related to hormone changes), or may offer relief to those who can’t or don’t want to take HRT.

If you’d like to find our more about how CBT, mindfulness and hypnosis can help, drop a comment below or DM me.

Does the prospect of flying fill you with dread 😱?

It's that time of year when many of us are planning our summer hols and dreaming of jetting off to sunnier climes 🏝️☀️✈️

But, if you suffer from aerophobia (fear of flying), you might either avoid flying altogether - restricting your holidays only to places you can reach without flying, or you experience high levels of stress and anxiety when you do fly.

At this time of year I hear from and work with a number of people who are keen to overcome their fear of flying.

The approach I use - combining cognitive behaviour therapy and hypnosis - is highly effective in helping clients overcome all kinds of fears and phobias , not just fear of flying.

👉If you struggle with a fear of flying and you'd like to find out more about how I can help, comment 'Holiday' below and I'll DM you.

Where do the months go?!

It's been a busy few months helping lots of clients navigate the many challenges of midlife - stress, sleep problems, weight, pain, phobias, lack of confidence, low mood. Midlife is a complicated time, with lots going on, and so there are often lots of factors involved that contribute to the challenges we can experience. I've been helping my clients to develop their own toolkits of techniques, practices and lifestyle changes to help them navigate these challenging times.

I've also had to take a bit of time out myself to recover from a medical procedure. This allowed me some time to reflect on my own wellbeing and identify some areas where there was room for improvement. Although, as a long-time veggie I've always considered myself to be a fairly healthy eater, my diet had become less than optimal and I wasn't happy with how the food I was eating was making me feel.

So over the last few weeks I’ve been taking small steps to improve my diet and increase my fitness and I’m already feeling better for it 💪🏻

In the busy-ness of midlife, it’s easy for unhelpful habits to creep in and to start to believe that lacking motivation, feeling anxious, having poor sleep, low mood, putting on weight, etc. are the norm. Taking a bit of time to pause and reflect on things that you’re doing that may not be helping you, can help to identify changes you can make that would help support you through this phase of life.

It’s not always obvious to us what changes we can make, so if you’d like some help identifying what’s keeping you stuck, DM the word ‘STUCK’ and let’s have a chat 💬

Today is World Menopause Day and there’s lots of talk about all the symptoms that can be experienced during the peri/menopause years and the ever-increasing array of ways to ease those symptoms.

What I have found and seen with the women I work with in this stage of life, is that there are many factors that contribute to our experience during this time, not just hormonal changes. And that how we react to the experiences we have, what we think about them, and how we cope with the emotions that come up for us, can have a big impact on our quality of life.

When everything is mounting up though - work and family pressures, perhaps financial challenges, horrific and worrying global events, AND dealing with perimenopause changes and symptoms - life can feel like a downward spiral. Many of the women that come to me feel lost, like their previous resiliency and ability to cope with life has evaporated. They feel stuck, fed up, desperate not to let anyone down, and drowning in self-criticism.

The focus of World Menopause Day this year is to raise awareness of the links between reproductive factors and cardiovascular disease. There is much that we can do to help prevent cardiovascular disease:

getting regular exercise
healthy eating
maintaining a healthy weight
not smoking
getting sufficient sleep.

But all the pressures of midlife can make achieving these things much more difficult, and if you're mired in self-criticism, lacking self-respect and self-compassion, then the motivation to take action if often lacking.

My message today is that if you are struggling, please seek help. Don't try to just battle through. You're not being weak or a failure by reaching out - I believe it takes a lot of courage to reach out for help. It can feel nerve-wracking and the prospect of opening up to someone can stir up a lot of shame.

But even just talking things through with someone can make a big difference - the reassurance that you're not alone, that it's not just you.

There are many support options available - helplines, your GP, therapists like me, support groups.

And if you'd like a chat to see how I could help you, DM me to arrange a call.x

Later this month I will be joining the lovely Rebecca of Mangala Yoga for 2 Menopause yoga workshops.

I’ll be talking about ways that we can help manage the stressors of midlife and how this can ease the menopause transition, and how we can utilise the power of our minds to support ourselves on this journey.

There will be an online workshop on Wednesday 18th October and an in person one in the centre of Manchester on Saturday 28th October.

Click on the link below for more information or go https://mangalayoga.co.uk/workshops-retreats-in-cheshire-and-uk/ and select the date that you’d like to book. Tickets cost £22 for the online workshop and £40 for the in person one.

We’d love to see you there.x

Did you know that heart disease kills twice as many women as breast cancer??

Around 35,000 women are admitted to hospital following a heart attack in the UK each year - an average of 98 women a day, or four per hour.

Research shows that the decline in hormones during menopause has an effect on heart health. We need to take care of our hearts.

Join us for a wonderful workshop and create a toolbox with:
💗embodied movement and yoga
💗guided meditation
💗symptom management
💗complementary therapies
💗how to manage stress

"A fantastic workshop - I loved every minute. Such a wonderful, safe space to share my experience and seek advice from the lovely Rebecca." JO

Special guests include Pauline from Skylark Hypnotherapy and Tina, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, who has worked in the NHS for 36 years.

This is an intimate circle - up to 8 women only. Contact Rebecca for more information.

Find out more and save your spot here:
https://mangalayoga.co.uk/workshops-retreats-in-cheshire-and-uk/
Love Rebecca x

Does this feel like your life?

Do you feel like you're constantly on edge and struggling to cope, not sleeping well, eating poorly, drinking a bit too much, or often short-tempered 😨?

Life is demanding. FACT.

And, while the end of the long summer holidays may have brought the relief of getting the kids back to school 🎉, it also brings back school runs, all the school life admin, all the extra curricular activities, and, if you've got older ones, it may be the stress of starting college or uni.

But carrying around all this stress all the time is exhausting, and, if we're not careful, we can end up feeling overwhelmed and burned out.

So, if you think your stress bucket is getting full to overflowing, you need to do 2 things:-

1. ❗ Audit what's going into your stress bucket - is it all essential?
2. ❗Find ways to turn the tap on and release some of the stress.

If you'd like help getting on top of the stress and anxiety in your life so that you can enjoy a calmer, happier, more energised life, then I have a few slots remaining for 1-2-1 clients during September. I offer a free 15-20 minute introductory call to talk through what's going on for you, how I could help, and answer any questions you may have to help you decide whether working with me is right for you.

👉Simply DM me today with any questions or to book a call.

Pauline.x

⁣ ⁣ ⁣