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 insight doesn’t translate into change, and how nervous-system regulation becomes the missing step that rewires everything from the inside out.
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 hormonal changes of perimenopause, what’s really going on in your nervous system, and why your body is no longer willing to tolerate what it once did. This isn’t about losing it - it’s about finally finding yourself.
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 up in midlife - exhausted, over-functioning, and disconnected from who they truly are.
If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t stop people-pleasing even when you know it’s burning you out, this one’s for you.
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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 share practical, embodied tools to help you stabilize blood sugar, reduce stress-driven eating, and start listening to what your body truly needs.
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 plans collapse after a few weeks - not because you’re weak, but because your body is fighting to keep you safe.
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-fits-all approach to HRT. While these options can bring short-term relief, they rarely get to the root of why women feel so frayed, exhausted, and disconnected from themselves.
What’s often missed is the bigger picture: the way hormones interact with gut and liver health, how the nervous system becomes overtaxed, and how decades of survival patterns shape the experience of menopause itself. When these pieces aren’t joined up, women are left feeling unseen and unsupported.
This conversation reframes menopause as a profound transition - not a disease - and highlights why a whole-person approach is the key to moving through it with strength, clarity, and power.
Connect with Dr. Lucy Caratti
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 of people-pleasing, over-giving, and pushing through collide with declining hormonal buffers and a nervous system that has been running in 'survival mode' for far too long.
Resulting in deep depletion, irritability, and despair, not because women are weak or incapable, but because the old survival strategies simply stop working.
What’s needed now isn’t more pushing, but a shift toward boundaries, discernment, and aligning with what the body can truly hold.
Connect with Dr. Lucy Caratti
📲 Instagram
🎙️ Podcast
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 I unpack how hormonal fluctuations, a frayed nervous system, and long-held core beliefs collide in midlife, leaving so many women anxious, depleted, and questioning themselves.
This isn’t about character flaws. It’s about biology and psychology intersecting in ways most of us were never taught to understand, and reframing this struggle as part of a bigger, more hopeful picture.
Connect with Dr. Lucy Caratti:
📲 Instagram
🎙️ Podcast
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 takes us out of our window, why burnout isn’t a personal failure, and how midlife is actually an invitation to stop overriding your body and start working with it.
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 real healing.
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.
Healing isn’t about perfection or constant calm, it’s about capacity, connection, and coming home to yourself.
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 differently.
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 survival strategy that often occurs alongside freeze, and explore practical ways to start thawing.
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 regulation), what they look like day-to-day, and how to begin shifting from coping to true resourcing.
If rest feels impossible or you’re doing “all the right things” but still not healing - this one’s for 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, Alex breaks down one of the most common frustrations in healing: doing “all the right things” and still not feeling better. She explains how trauma impacts the nervous system and why traditional top-down approaches, like CBT, often fall short if your body isn’t ready.
You’ll learn:
What dysregulation really is (and how it keeps you in coping mode)
The difference between managing symptoms and healing at the root
Why coping strategies can masquerade as personality traits
How integration - not intensity - is the missing link
This is the episode to listen to if you’re exhausted from trying, and finally ready to understand what your system actually needs to heal.
My Holistic Therapist is a podcast for women ready to heal from chronic stress, trauma, and burnout - at the root.
Hosted by Alex Field, a clinically trained psychotherapist and naturopath, this show blends nervous system science, trauma-informed therapy, and functional medicine to help you understand your body, reconnect to yourself, and build real regulation.
No hacks. No fluff. Just grounded insight, lived experience, and tools that actually work, because real healing takes more than mindset.
Episodes include solo deep dives, interviews with others who join Alex to share their journey, and raw reflections on everything from somatic flashbacks to hormone chaos, midlife capacity, and why rest can feel unsafe.
If you’ve been surviving for decades, and you’re finally ready to come home to yourself - you’re in the right place.