Mrs Paula Rastrick

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Mrs Paula Rastrick

I am a hormonally sensitive woman, a complex trauma survivor (C-PTSD, ADHD, Autism, HSP, AuDHD). Post Grad Cert - Psychological Trauma.

🎯 Helping sensitive women navigate hormones, HRT & trauma.
🧠 A nervous system first approach
📖 Hormonally Sensitive Women ~ out Jan 26
⬇ Free resources
📗 Upcoming author | Free tools ↓
linktr.ee/thebrainbodymethod I specialise in the science of Hormonal Sensitivity, early life stress and trauma. Trauma Therapist and Coach. My evidence based book is being published 2025. Our life stories are written into our nervous systems through genetics and epigenetics. - You cannot separate your hormones from your life story and your nervous system profile. Early life stress, adverse childhood experiences and attachment wounds are strongly associated as risk factors for a variety of women's health issues, amongst these are:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), Postnatal Depression, Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), Ehlers - Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Auto-immune disorders. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Highly Sensitive People, Autism and multiple mental health diagnoses including Anxiety and Depression.

07/09/2025

✨As I began writing my first book about being a sensitive woman back in January 24 - after having treatment for melanoma.

✨I also found myself mirroring my own awakening process - due to some personal transformative encounters and changes in my life.

✨The writing wasn’t separate from my life - it ran alongside it and every word seemed to also start to mirror the transformation I was living.

✨Putting work aside to write about my own childhood trauma meant also facing parts of myself I had buried long ago.

✨Old patterns of compliance and self-abandonment surfaced, demanding to be reckoned with. And at the same time, my midlife awakening was unfolding - a breaking open that made everything I once hid impossible to ignore.

✨Perimenopause isn’t just about hormones, though they play their part.

✨It’s about the nervous system, the psyche. About feminine consciousness rising.

✨About the old traumas resurfacing, shadows of the past pushing up through the cracks until the authentic, spirited self insists on being seen.

✨Writing my story became part of living it. And what I now know is this: midlife is not a crisis of identity. It’s the place where we finally stop hiding, and begin to reclaim who we truly are.

✨This month I be returning to write my newsletter - link is in the bio

✨If you would like to join a new movement and understanding of what it is to be a sensitive and empowered woman in midlife.

Paula 🫶

06/09/2025

🚩The Menopause Mafia: HRT Marketing & Psychological Power Plays

🚩So much of the online HRT conversation looks like empowerment on the surface, but underneath it’s fuelled by hidden psychological tactics - fear-based marketing, misinformation, covert persuasion, silencing, smear campaigns, blocking, avoiding questions and more.

🚩These strategies don’t empower sensitive women. They enforce Stepford Wives–style conformity, tribal hostility, and the illusion of unity - serving agendas, not women.

🚩That’s why I have created the Menopause Mafia series. Each week, I’ll decode one of these power plays in more depth - so you can start to see through misinformation, the illusion and distortion and make informed choices that are truly your own.

🚩Because this conversation should empower sensitive women - not misrepresent or distort information and control them.

✅I welcome differences of opinion - that’s how we all learn and grow. But I won’t tolerate abuse or attack.

✅Let’s raise the standard of this debate together.

✅It’s not about whether you take HRT or not - it can be a great resource for many, many women - I used HRT and I am not against it.

✅This is about dismenting marketing and serious misinformation so that EVERY woman can make more informed choices.

✅My focus is on sensitive women.

Paula 🫶

04/09/2025

✨One of the other reasons I’ve been quieter on social media is because since January last year, I’ve been living inside a different kind of work.

✨ I took time out to write my book, Sensitive Women. But writing wasn’t just writing it also became a parallel powerful spiritual journey, as much about my own psyche and feminine energy as it was about the book.

✨This has always been part of who I am. After pregnancy, I had to turn inward to find myself again. And in midlife, I’ve been called to do the same - but deeper this time.

✨To retreat and face the shadow. To sit with my spirit. To ask myself those hard questions and to come back to authenticity.

✨Over these past 20 months, I’ve been emerged in that process. It hasn’t been neat. It’s been painful, beautiful, emotional, disorienting, messy and necessary - not in a negative way.

✨There were times it felt like a Dark Night of the Soul - but eventually even that became a breaking open, not a breaking down.

✨This awakening has changed me. It’s why I had to step back, to give myself fully to both the writing and the inner work.

✨Because hormones are only one part of healing for sensitive women. The deeper work is spirit and psyche and the powerful feminine energy rising in us at midlife asking to be seen.

✨Now, as I arrive in September, I do so changed. More honest. More whole. More my wild, authentic, free spirited, raw, sensitive and messy “self”.

✨And now this is also the heart of Sensitive Women for me - that midlife isn’t always a crisis, it can also be an awakening.

✨It’s a call to stop silencing and self abandoning our energy and spirit - to ditch the mask and live in the fullness of who we truly are.

Expect my content to now reflect this bold new approach.

Paula 🫶

01/09/2025

🚩The Menopause Mafia- HRT Misinformation & psychological power plays.

🔹I have decided to call them the Menopause Mafia because this is no longer about one doctor, one medic, one influencer or one post.

🔹It’s now a system - An online network shaped by groupthink, echo chambers, cult-like marketing and covert psychological power plays that silence women and distort the HRT debate.

🔹I know this because I’ve lived it. I was dosed incorrectly, with no recognition of hormonal sensitivity, trauma informed care or the nervous system.

🔹When I tried to raise legitimate safety concerns, I was attacked, smeared, blocked, and silenced both publicly and behind the scenes.

🔹I’ve even been attacked online by people who don’t know me, don’t know my story, and don’t understand the harm I endured.

🔹And I now know I’m not alone. Women tell me the same stories: dismissed as “poor absorbers,” told to “just increase the oestrogen dose,” blamed for their own symptoms while their nervous system and sensitivity are ignored.

🔹This is no longer a minor online issue. It is toxic and it erodes trust, causes harm and does not serve sensitive women.

🔹That’s why I refuse to be silent any longer. The Menopause Mafia is not empowerment - its control dressed up as an illusion of care.

🔹Part of my online presence is to now hold up the mirror, decode the psychological tactics and dismantle the misinformation being used to market HRT as a simple “one size fits all”.

🔹More importantly, to open space for a trauma-informed, nervous-system-first approach to hormonal sensitivity.

🔹Each week, I’ll be unpacking these dynamics so you can step out of online HRT groupthink, break free from dangerous and controlled echo chambers, and make decisions that are truly your own.

🔹Because sensitive women deserve better.

🔹I welcome all comments. I don’t have all the answers and the truth is, none of us do but the misinformation has now reached levels that cause harm.

🔹Differences of opinion are welcome, because that’s how we all learn and grow. But I will not tolerate anymore abuse because that is what it is - abuse of power hidden behind medical title’s.

Paula 🫶

05/07/2025

Every day sensitive women are being misled by the biomedical model and Doctors on social media when it comes to both HRT and hormones.

It’s shocking.

It’s dangerous.

I have just completed a book that argues fiercely against the over simplified HRT narrative and advocates for understanding more about sensitive nervous systems.

I am taking a short rest whilst book is edited (version 2) - writing and researching takes a lot of energy.

I won’t be wasting my energy on fighting against misinformation - that’s why I have created my own framework - Sensitive Women.

If medics, scientists and researchers wish to discuss, debate and move this conversation forwards so that we can all help more women - then please do so and I embrace this with open arms - I’m simply doing my bit.

Doctors who spout misinformation on social media and ADHD podcasts and then refuse to even engage in conversation whilst blocking - are dangerous to sensitive women.

I will be back soon and thank you for being here.

Paula

17/06/2025

📍If you have ever been told you’re too much.

📍Too emotional. Too reactive. Too sensitive.

📍Let me say this clearly - you are not “too much”.

📍Your nervous system is more tuned in to your emotions, feelings, stress, your sensory world, hormones and your environment.

📍What you’re feeling isn’t a flaw - it’s a reflection of how your nervous system and hormonal profile have developed together, over time.

📍Your stress sensitivity, your emotional intensity, your hormonal shifts - they are all interconnected.

✅Shaped by your genetics.
✅Influenced by your early environment and epigenetics.

❌Amplified by a medical system that ignores nervous system sensitivity and labels it as “just hormones.” Or worse as mentally ill or “disordered”.

But some women do have more sensitive nervous systems.

And once you understand it, you begin to feel less fragile, less broken and more powerful.

If this resonates, I write a newsletter that goes deeper into these connections.

✅It’s for women who want research led education, not oversimplification. Because there is no one size fits all.

There are also multiple free resources in the link in my bio for sensitive women including my free newsletter.

Paula 🫶

16/06/2025

🧠Sensitive Women - is the term and evidence based framework I have created through writing my book and through years of integrating lived experience, research, trauma specialism, and the experiences of women in my community.

🔹This is not a diagnosis. It is not a protocol. It is a lens for understanding an often invisible population of women whose health experiences do not fit the biomedical model.

🔸The biomedical model remains too narrow and it does not explain the lived experiences of myself, or of so many of the women I speak with and work with. Sensitive Women™ has emerged to fill that gap - to name and validate what so many of us know to be true.

🔹Sensitivity is not a flaw, and it is not a weakness. It is a multifaceted, multidimensional way of being in the world - touching every layer of life: nervous system sensitivity, trauma imprinting, relational and attachment patterns, hormonal sensitivity, and traits we often currently categorise under the umbrella of ‘neurodivergence.’

🔸I am here as a change-maker and advocate — not claiming to have all the answers, but opening the space for a wider, joined-up, more compassionate conversation. Sensitive Women™ is grounded in lived experience — and in a trauma-informed, neurobiologically-informed lens.

🔹This space is not for everyone and that is intentional. It is not a space for quick HRT advice, for one research paper to ‘prove it,’ or for prescriptive medical guidance. It is a space for deeper understanding, reflection, and building a better conversation about women’s health, hormones, trauma, and sensitivity.

🔹If this resonates with you then please follow and you are welcome. If it doesn’t - that’s perfectly fine, this space may not be for you.

🔸Sensitive Women™ is my original intellectual property. Please do not copy or adapt this language or model without permission.

Paula

24/05/2025

Before I even had words, my nervous system was already adapting to my childhood environment.

Not just what was said - but also what was missing.

There was emotional inconsistency, emotional absence and I was also a child of an alcoholic.

The chaos. The unpredictability. The deep-down knowing that something wasn’t safe as the parentified eldest daughter.

There were also narcissistic patterns in one of my parents. Where love was conditional tied to performance, and I was outsourced to manage their emotional regulation as opposed to being a child.

As I grew up, my nervous system learned to scan, to soothe, to fix.

I became attuned to everyone else’s moods.
Always trying to stay one step ahead to avoid disconnection or chaos.

It took me decades to realise this wasn’t just emotional trauma - it was also nervous system wiring.

Shaped in early life.
And still manifesting in adulthood.

Writing my book cracked something open.
I began to look back at my relationship patterns with emotionally unavailable men, trauma bonds and my own pattern of codependency.

How I kept trying to rescue people who reminded me, unconsciously, of what I couldn’t fix in my family.

How I confused anxiety with love.
How I made myself smaller just to feel chosen.

And I see it now.
This wasn’t just about relationships.
It was my nervous system trying to resolve what it never got to complete in childhood.

If you were the child who grew up subconsciously walking on eggshells and and if If you grew up navigating addiction, silence or emotional absence and dysregulation.

If you’ve ever wondered why you keep repeating the same subconscious patterns -
It’s not your fault.
But it is in your nervous system story.

And understanding your story just like I have done is where healing begins.

Comment ❤️ if this resonates with you and remember to join my newsletter for more in depth exploration- link is in bio.

Paula

19/05/2025

We’re often told that perimenopause symptoms stem solely from declining estrogen levels.

But for many women, especially those with sensitive nervous systems, this over simplified and incorrect narrative doesn’t capture the full picture.

I was prescribed high doses of unopposed oestrogen during perimenopause at a stage that my oestrogen was already spiking way higher.

Instead of relief, I experienced heightened anxiety, emotional flooding, bleeding, histamine reactions, heightened inflammation and more nervous system dysregulation.

This wasn’t due to a simple hormone deficiency - it was my nervous system reacting to hormonal changes.

Dr. Tory Eisenlohr-Moul’s research sheds light on this phenomenon. She describes a “dimensional affective sensitivity to hormones,” where individuals have amplified responses to normal hormonal shifts.

This sensitivity can manifest as mood disturbances, cognitive challenges, and physiological symptoms.

In perimenopause, it’s not just about hormone levels - it’s about how our individual bodies and brains respond to these changes. For those with trauma histories, ADHD, neurodivergence or heightened stress sensitivity, understanding this interplay is crucial.

We need a more nuanced, trauma-informed approach to HRT - one that considers individual nervous system sensitivities and doesn’t rely on a cut and paste biomedical one-size-fits-all model.

After being extensively medically gaslighted for trying to raise the issue of (individual) sensitivity I will keep sharing research.

For a deeper dive into Dr. Eisenlohr-Moul’s work, you can refer to her study on dimensional affective sensitivity to hormones across the menstrual cycle.

We are all unique - I share research based on early life stress and trauma and this is why understanding your own brain and body is the key to you building your own toolkit whether you take HRT or not.

Paula 🫶

15/05/2025

Please note this is not HRT advice.

I am not a medic, so I don’t give medical or HRT advice.

My content is to expand the conversation for women (like me) with more stress sensitive nervous systems, through a biopsychosocial trauma-informed lens.

I share research and insights to help women become more informed and more empowered.

Not by offering one-size-fits-all solutions, but by helping them better understand their individual responses and advocate for care that actually fits their nervous system profile.

Because I firmly believe that women are falling through multiple biomedical cracks because we do not have a trauma informed biopsychosocial healthcare model.

That is why I’m campaigning for radical change.

We have research - it’s just not being joined up or talked about and I believe that the nervous system is a major missed mechanism for many of us who are more sensitive.

It’s my belief that early life stress, attachment and trauma play a key role for sensitive women.

It’s not definitive- nothing is but it’s a conversation I will continue to push forwards so we get more joined up research.

Paula

08/05/2025

During perimenopause I was told by my HRT prescriber that all of my symptoms were simply due to oestrogen deficiency.

But the (individual) doses that I was given simply excaberated my pre existing nervous system sensitivity because the ratios were simply “too high” for me personally.

It was only after I started researching more and cross referencing I started to see that there is a huge link missing within the current biomedical model when it comes to potentially understanding why some women are more (individually) sensitive to hormonal changes.

For years, I blamed my own unrecognised teenage PMDD (spectrum) on simply being “hormonal” or PMT (Paula’s mental torture) as my boyfriend called it.

But something didn’t add up when it came to perimenopause and my higher oestrogen dose made me feel really much worse.

That’s when I started looking deeper and found research linking neurotransmitter dysregulation - particularly GABA and glutamate to my PMDD, post natal depression and perimenopause symptoms.

Then I noticed something else - similar patterns are showing up in ADHD and autism research too.

⚠️These findings don’t give us a neat, one-size-fits-all explanation or solution due to different brain regions.

❌They are not definitive and they do not apply to everyone.

But for me, they sparked a bigger question.

⁉️What if hormonal sensitivity is also nervous system sensitivity and underlying nervous system dysregulation! ⁉️

What if we are currently missing the role of joined up neurobiology particularly when it comes to hormones in women’s health?

I’m not here to offer medical advice.

I’m here to open a conversation.

To ask better questions.
Because women deserve better answers and more joined up and complete solutions.

Like me, If you’ve ever felt like your sensitivity isn’t just hormonal, you are not alone.

We urgently need more research, more recognition, and more support for the nervous system in hormonal health because I based on the research I cross referenced for my book - I believe its potentially much more interconnected than we realise .

Paula 🫶

07/05/2025

I did not fully realise my nervous system sensitivity and dysregulation until I finally crashed into perimenopause.

The anxiety.
The brain fog.
The emotional intensity.
The overwhelm.
The sensory overload.

It all just kept escalating at the same time my life seemed to implode around me. - I also had a lot of psycho social stress at that point in my life.

Looking back though - the signs were always there, buried beneath years of emotional invalidation, people-pleasing, high-functioning anxiety, codependency, addictions, toxic relationships, burnout and complex trauma from my childhood environment within a narcissistic environment.

I thought it was just me. Too emotional. Too much. Too sensitive.

But when progesterone dropped first in perimenopause and with it allopregnanolone - my brain lost its stress buffer.

GABA dropped even further and my already sensitive nervous system couldn’t keep compensating anymore.

My window of tolerance reduced to practically zero.

My hormonal sensitivity, trauma history, genetics and epigenetics and neurodivergence were all wired into my nervous system. And perimenopause lifted the lid.

You are not broken.

You are not too much.

You’re likely sensitive in a biomedical world that doesn’t yet understand what that means biologically and psychologically.

If this resonates, I go deeper inside my newsletter - where I share more on the research , the symptoms, and the solutions that actually helped me.

Link in bio or comment the words BBM if you haven’t already done so - this new conversation and understanding is growing.

Some of us have more sensitive nervous systems!

Paula 🫶

Address

Solihull
Solihull
B93 9EB

Telephone

+447841029924

Website

https://thebrainbodymethod.com/, http://linktr.ee/thebrainbodymethod

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