Paula Rastrick on our brain--body connection in perimenopause - could you be an HSP?

Middling Along

My guest this time is psychotherapist Paula Rastrick, creator of The Brain-Body Method - an integrated trauma informed approach to menopause for Highly Sensitive Women.

Paula’s story has a good many twists and turns - from a career in HR to moving into sports science and medicine working with a Premier League football team, to then setting up her own physio, yoga and pilates business…in her own words “a high-functioning stress-head”, she started to unravel as she unwittingly hit perimenopause.

An ad for a private menopause clinic in 2017 led her down the path of believing HRT would be the answer to her prayers, but unfortunately for her, the high dose of oestrogen that she was started on only led to further ‘unravelling’ - including leaving her husband and young son for a time.

Persistent heavy bleeding combined with the psychological symptoms that were worsening eventually led to the realisation that the prescription she had been given was out of balance - with high oestrogen unopposed with sufficient progesterone. Her subsequent research, delving into her own history of complex childhood trauma, and how this, combined with being a Highly Sensitive Person, made her more susceptible to the impacts of oestrogen have formed the body of her current work on the interplay between trauma, SPS (Sensory Processing Sensitivity) and perimenopause.

In this conversation we dig into:

• What it actually means to be a Highly Sensitive Person (aka someone with Sensory Processing Sensitivity) - how many of us may be HSPs and how that impacts on the brain and nervous system
• How unsafe environments, particularly in childhood, prime our nervous system to be hypervigiliant, and trauma rewires the developing brain
• How HSPs may be more sensitive to medication - including hormone therapy
• How repressed trauma often pops us in perimenopause
• How “shoving the sh*t back in the cupboard” tends to backfire eventually…

If, like me, you’re fascinated by the interplay between trauma and menopause symptoms, then you won’t want to miss this one!

You can find out more about Paula’s work at https://thebrainbodymethod.com and find her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mrspaularastrick/

You can also find us over on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/middlingalong_podcast/ and you can listen to past episodes at https://middlingalong.com

Join our newsletter, The Messy Middle, for fortnightly goodness into your Inbox: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/323784/90772270045202190/share

We’re delighted to be listed as one of the Top 25 podcasts for midlife and menopause here: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/podcasts-about-the-menopause/

It would mean so much if you’d subscribe, rate, and review us to share the love and help others find the podcast too!

You can also find me at https://www.instagram.com/managingthemenopause or at www.managingthemenopause.com where we offer 1-1 coaching and workplace training.

Get our free 'Guide to your GP appointment' at https://www.managingthemenopause.com/free-resources