Sarah Hopton Psychotherapy

28/10/2025

October’s letter has just gone out, a reflection on midlife rebellion, creative courage, woodland clearings, and the quiet alchemy of change.
https://wix.to/ncivZKk
Inside, I write about:
What trees teach us about release
The joy of singing again with my choir
Creative encouragement (and a poem that’s now with a magazine!)
Seeing Caamp live and how their music became a metaphor for transformation
As ever, From the Forest Edge isn’t about being perfect or “fixed.” It’s a space for those of us living in the in-betweens, where growth, creativity, and wildness meet real life.
Same edge. Same mess. Same magic.

Sarah x

Sarah Hopton Psychotherapy, Down-to-earth counselling and psychotherapy for adults feeling burnt out, anxious or stuck. Based in Staffordshire & Nottinghamshire – online and in-person sessions available.

26/10/2025

Somewhere between who we were told to be and who we actually are, there’s a quiet rebellion happening.
It’s not loud or glittery. It doesn’t look like crisis—it looks like women coming home to themselves.

Midlife isn’t a breakdown. It’s a reckoning.
A peeling away of “shoulds,” of invisible labour, of trying to fit into rules that were never written with us in mind.

This piece is about that moment—the one where you realise belonging doesn’t mean shrinking.
It means standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other women who’ve stopped apologising for existing on their own terms.

If you’ve ever felt the pull to burn down the old story and start again, this one’s for you.
Read Sisterhood & the Midlife Rebellion: Belonging Beyond the Old Rules → https://www.sarahhopton.com/post/sisterhood-the-midlife-rebellion-belonging-beyond-the-old-rules

When I was younger, I thought rebellion meant loud music, ripped jeans, and refusing to do what I was told. And in some ways, it did. But standing here in midlife, I’ve realised rebellion looks different now.Rebellion is saying no to what empties me. Rebellion is claiming space where I was told to...

21/10/2025

Struggling to maintain productivity while battling ADHD at work? You're not alone! Discover strategies to navigate burnout and enhance your work experience in our latest blog: https://wix.to/UFHhku4

On paper, you look fine. You’re hitting deadlines (mostly), keeping up appearances, and working harder than most people realise. But underneath? You’re running on fumes. Your brain’s juggling a thousand tabs, you’re masking mistakes, and burnout is always one step behind you.This is the hidd...

21/10/2025

Is therapy making you feel frustrated and lost? You're not alone! Sometimes it can seem pointless, but that's just part of the journey. Embrace the messiness and know it’s leading you somewhere meaningful. Read more here: https://wix.to/1uFTKWQ

No one tells you this when you start therapy: sometimes it feels like nothing’s happening. You show up week after week, spill your guts, cry a bit, rage a bit and then you leave wondering: what was the point of that?You’re not imagining it. Therapy is messy. It can be frustrating, uncomfortable,...

18/10/2025

Therapy isn’t tidy.
It’s messy, frustrating, sometimes feels completely pointless.
That is the point.

You’re not failing because you still cry in week ten or can’t explain what’s “working.”
Healing doesn’t happen in straight lines or Instagram quotes, it happens in the muddle, the silence, the small choices to show up again.

Messy counts.
Always.

🪶 Read more: https://www.sarahhopton.com/post/therapy-is-messy-frustrating-sometimes-feels-pointless-that-s-the-point

No one tells you this when you start therapy: sometimes it feels like nothing’s happening. You show up week after week, spill your guts, cry a bit, rage a bit and then you leave wondering: what was the point of that?You’re not imagining it. Therapy is messy. It can be frustrating, uncomfortable,...

16/10/2025

Let’s be honest, most of us have told our hairdresser more than we’ve ever told a therapist.
There’s something about the ordinary spaces, a salon chair, a checkout line, a neighbour’s fence, that feels safer than the therapy room. No clipboard. No pressure. Just a human who listens while life happens around you.

But that tiny exchange, the moment someone notices you’re not quite yourself, is where healing often begins.

My latest article explores why we open up in those places first — and what that reveals about what we truly need when life feels overwhelming.

It’s not that therapy replaces the everyday listener. It’s that both remind us we’re wired for connection, not perfection.

You can read it here →
https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/articles/why-we-confide-in-hairdressers-before-therapists?_gl=1*1n8qrle*_gcl_au*NDY3MjMyNzc1LjE3NTUwMDc3NjY.*_ga*NTc3MDgxNzQ3LjE3MzkyOTYxMzI.*_ga_BMWGCG64PD*czE3NjA2MjI2MDckbzEyNyRnMSR0MTc2MDYyMjc5MCRqNTMkbDAkaDA

You’re not broken. You’re human. And sometimes, the conversation starts with a haircut.

09/10/2025

Sometimes the hardest part of healing isn’t talking about what happened. It’s learning to feel safe in your own skin again.

When your body’s been in survival mode for years, slowing down can feel like danger. Stillness can feel like falling. But safety isn’t a switch you flip. It’s something you rebuild — one breath, one moment, one gentle return at a time.

This new piece explores how to come back to your body when your nervous system doesn’t quite trust you yet. It’s for anyone who’s tired of being told to “just relax” and ready to understand why that’s so much easier said than done.
Read the full post:

Coming Back to Your Body: Finding Safety One Step at a Time https://www.sarahhopton.com/post/coming-back-to-your-body-finding-safety-one-step-at-a-time
You’re not broken. You’re just learning what safe feels like again.

04/10/2025

The trees aren’t afraid to let go. They don’t cling to what’s finished or apologise for changing. They just… release.

My new blog, Let It Fall: What Leaves Know About Release, is about what happens when we stop trying to hold everything together and start trusting the natural cycle of endings.

Sometimes the wind takes what we’re not ready to release.
Sometimes the body knows before the mind does.
And maybe that’s not loss — maybe that’s growth.
Read more: https://wix.to/UNE1B2N

You’re allowed to let go. Even if it’s messy. Especially then.
Sarah x.

The leaves are falling now.Not drifting, not fluttering—but letting go. Some with grace. Some in wild, wind-whipped spirals. Some barely noticeable. Others impossible to ignore.And I watch them—not with sadness, but with something close to awe.Because the trees don’t seem worried. They don’t...

02/10/2025

Burnout isn’t just “being stressed.” It’s your body saying no more.
Sick leave is at its highest level in 15 years — not because we’re weaker, but because the pace and pressure of modern working life are colliding with human nervous systems that can only take so much.

This piece is for the ones holding it all together at work but quietly falling apart. For the people signed off sick, laptop closed, wondering how it came to this. For anyone still clinging to the myth that “pushing through” is strength.

Sick leave isn’t failure. It’s information. It’s your nervous system drawing a line.

Read the full article here:

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/articles/burnout-and-sick-leave-what-happens-when-your-body-says-no?_gl=1*gjghld*_gcl_au*NDY3MjMyNzc1LjE3NTUwMDc3NjY.*_ga*NTc3MDgxNzQ3LjE3MzkyOTYxMzI.*_ga_BMWGCG64PD*czE3NTk0MjkyMjgkbzEyMiRnMSR0MTc1OTQyOTI0MCRqNDgkbDAkaDA.

28/09/2025

From the Forest Edge — September newsletter
September’s letter explores what it means to live at the threshold — the edge between endings and beginnings, gathering and letting go.
Inside:
-Reflections on grief, belonging, and midlife reclamation
-Tools for managing low mood and fear with compassion
-New writing on rejection sensitivity, coming home to yourself, and what the forest teaches about stillness
-The launch of a new blog series: Rewilding Yourself
-And the music carrying me through this season: Caamp & The Lottery Winners

Read the full newsletter here:

Hello ${contact.name.first} Welcome back to From the Forest Edge — my monthly-ish letter for those of us living in the in-betweens. September has always felt like a threshold month. The mornings sharpen, hedgerows grow heavy with berries, and the first fires are lit. It’s a season that whispers:...

26/09/2025

We’ve been sold a lie about midlife.
That 50 is the start of decline. That we should shrink, fade, accept “less.”

I don’t buy it.
Midlife isn’t decline, it’s reclamation.
Of voice. Of choice. Of the wild parts of ourselves that were never lost, just buried under expectation.

I’ve written about what it means to stop seeing this season as an ending, and start living it as a fierce, unapologetic beginning.

Read the full piece here:
https://www.sarahhopton.com/post/the-midlife-awakening-why-50-isn-t-decline-it-s-reclamation

You’re not broken. You’re not past it. You’re right on time.

For years, we’ve been told a lie: that midlife is the beginning of the end. Slow down. Fade out. Take up less space.But standing here at 50, I don’t feel invisible. I feel awake.Midlife isn’t a crisis. It’s a reckoning. A point where you stop asking, What do they want from me? and start aski...