Often times, clients will see me for an assessment, they'll read their treatment plan and then quietly disappear. It's like their mind convinces them that this is going to open up a whole world of trouble. Of course your mind does that! It's standard. It's doing exactly what it’s designed to do. Protect you. It wants to keep things predictable and contained. So when the invitation to go deeper starts to become a possibility, it makes sense that your mind wants to pull you back. It believes "this inner work malarky might be too much" And yet, there’s another part of you which is quieter and deeper but just as important. It's the part of you that knows an intervention is needed because it wants to release something, it wants to come home to itself. In this week’s episode, I gently demystify what “doing the inner work” actually looks like in reality and why it doesn’t have to be as intense or overwhelming as you might imagine

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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

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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

Send me a direct message

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