Most women drawn to inner work in midlife aren’t new to self-awareness. They’re often the ones who’ve held a lot… who’ve coped, adapted, and learned to be the strong one. They can see their patterns, they understand themselves… and yet something still sits just out of reach. Especially in menopause, when things feel less buffered and harder to override, there’s often a quiet sense that something deeper is asking to be felt… alongside a hesitation to really go there. This episode speaks to that space… the part of you that knows there’s more, but isn’t quite sure how to meet it.

Work with me 121: www.sallygarozzo.com

Join Becoming Waitlist: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

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Most menopause conversations focus almost entirely on hormones. But what if that’s only part of the story? In this episode, Sally Garozzo explores emerging neuroscience on estradiol, fear circuitry, and trauma exposure, including a 2025 study suggesting that estrogen interacts differently with the brain’s threat regulation system depending on prior stress and trauma history. We unpack why HRT helps many women but isn’t always the whole answer, how the nervous system shapes our menopausal experience, and why understanding the intersection of menopause, trauma, and nervous system regulation can offer a more complete picture of midlife wellbeing.

Research referenced in this episode

• Stevens JS et al. (2025). Estradiol modulation of threat circuitry and PTSD vulnerability.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12745815/
  
  
• Sartin-Tarm A et al. (2020). Estradiol Modulates Neural and Behavioral Arousal in Women With PTSD.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7606348/
  
  
• Glover EM et al. Estrogen and extinction of fear memories.
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25796471/
  
  
• Wegerer M et al. (2014). Low estradiol and fear extinction responses.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4256064/
  
  
• Zeidan MA et al. (2011). Estradiol enhances fear extinction recall via vmPFC–amygdala interaction.
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3197763/

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Work with me 121: www.sallygarozzo.com

Join Becoming Waitlist: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

Send me a direct message

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In this episode we explore what it's like when your 'felt sense' isn't believed especially in childhood and how this impacts our health and our menopause. We look at how subtle, repeated invalidation shapes the quality of our attachments, why women often become the emotional regulators of their families, how functional freeze develops, and why menopause can feel like all of this unravels at once. We also examine the difference between attunement and optimisation — and why healing begins with being met, not fixed.

It's a good one for anyone who feels there's more to menopause than 'just' hormones.

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Work with me 121: www.sallygarozzo.com

Join Becoming Waitlist: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

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I currently have six paint samples on my living room wall. They are all technically blue. None of them are the same. Which feels… symbolic. In this episode, I’m thinking about menopause not as art and refinement. As the shift from fluorescent to tonal. From performance to composition. There’s a turtle. There’s London. There’s a river that looks like it’s meandering but absolutely knows where it’s going. And somewhere in the middle of all that: the quiet realisation that midlife might not be demolition, it might be editing.

If you’ve ever stood in front of a wall thinking, “This one almost works… but not quite,” this conversation might feel familiar.

Bring your undertones :)

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✅T o put your name down on the waitlist for Becoming, here's the link: www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

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📲 Connect with Sally:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

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The DUTCH test has become one of the most talked-about hormone assessments in the menopause space. Some women describe it as illuminating and empowering. Some medical professionals describe it as unnecessary, over-interpreted, or a waste of money.

So why the disagreement?

In this episode, I step back from the noise and explore what’s actually being argued. What assumptions sit underneath functional hormone testing? What assumptions sit underneath conventional medicine? And why does this debate feel so emotionally charged?

Rather than taking sides, we look at the psychological and structural differences between these two paradigms — and what happens when menopausal women find themselves caught in the middle.

If you’ve ever felt validated by testing… dismissed by medicine… or confused by the intensity of the conversation online, this episode is for you.

Join the waitlist for BECOMING

🔗 Join the waitlist:
https://www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

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📲 Connect with Sally:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

Send me a direct message

Support the show

We live in a culture that rewards certainty. In this episode, I reflect on the energy surrounding recent public controversies and ask a different question: what if moral outrage is sometimes a nervous system strategy rather than moral clarity? Drawing on anxiety physiology, childhood conditioning, and midlife change, I explore how certainty can feel like safety, and why building capacity for uncertainty might be the real work as we step into midlife.

Join the waitlist for BECOMING

🔗 Join the waitlist:
https://www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

*********************************************

📲 Connect with Sally:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

Send me a direct message

Support the show

There’s a kind of care that looks loving on the surface, yet somehow leaves both the receiver and giver more tense than before. This episode delves into this often unexplored territory. It’s called ‘the discipline of not intervening’. Of course I'm not talking about neglectfulness, but I am talking about healthy restraint. And what becomes possible when silence and space are allowed to make room for the natural order of things to emerge. If you’ve ever noticed yourself holding everything together, or sensed the quiet cost of always stepping in, this episode may be for you.

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Join the waitlist for BECOMING

🔗 Join the waitlist:
https://www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

*********************************************

📲 Connect with Sally:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

Send me a direct message

Support the show

We talk a lot about slowing down and how it's really good for us, but we talk much less about what it means to stay. Like really stay.... without doing it for productivity gains.

This episode explores holding space for yourself, not as a technique, but as a way of inhabiting yourself, experiencing yourself without the need to learn from it yet (and why that's really good for your HPA axis!)

Join me for this short but profound episode.

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‘Becoming’ is the new membership I’ve created for this phase

Becoming is a space for women in this in-between phase where old identities no longer fit, and new ones haven’t fully arrived yet.

The waitlist is now open.

🔗 Join the waitlist:
https://www.sallygarozzo.com/becoming

*********************************************

📲 Connect with Sally:

Email: info@sallygarozzo.com

[On-Demand Masterclass] How To Heal The Trauma Underlying Your Menopause Symptom Severity [£17]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/healingtrauma

[Online Practitioners Diploma - Self Paced] Menopause Wellbeing Practitioner [£127]: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/meno

[One to One] Bespoke Transformational Hypnotherapy & Coaching: https://www.sallygarozzo.com/rapid-transformational-therapist

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sallygarozzomindmentor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallygarozzo/

Send me a WhatsApp: https://wa.me/message/FTARBMO7CRLEL1

Send me a direct message

Support the show