Sarah Hopton Psychotherapy

06/01/2026

Something a bit different today.
My poem “When the Wild Ones Finally Stop Running” has been published in the Counselling Matters Creative Collection — a special public edition celebrating creativity across the therapy world.

This isn’t a clinical piece.
There’s no theory, no fixing, no tidy conclusions.
It’s about what happens when the nervous system finally slows.
When survival mode loosens its grip.
When the body realises it doesn’t have to keep running.
Creativity matters in this work.
Not as a hobby. Not as an add-on.

But as a way we process, regulate, and tell the truth when words alone don’t quite cut it.
The magazine is full of poetry, art, music, photography, and creative writing from practitioners who know what it means to sit with the human condition — properly sit with it.

This is the public edition, so it’s there to be shared beyond therapy circles.

Have a read. Pass it on. Let it land where it needs to.
🔗 https://buff.ly/wUPABfy

You’re not broken.
And you don’t have to keep running.

This year's Creative Collection is here! 📖

This magazine is a space for our members to showcase their creativity. In this edition, you’ll find moving poetry, music, painting, and creative writing, alongside fantastic photography and a range of creative pursuits - even cheese making and cake baking!

This edition is our special public edition of Counselling Matters, so please share it with everyone who may enjoy it!

https://buff.ly/wUPABfy

28/12/2025

Christmas can sometimes feel like a season of masks. This year, let's talk about the importance of authenticity and being true to ourselves. Read more about how we can embrace our true selves instead of putting on a facade this holiday season. https://wix.to/tCUUsoN

Christmas is marketed as sparkle and joy, but for many of us, it’s the season of masks. The polite smile at the family table. The cheerful small talk when you’re tired to your bones. The pressure to perform festive cheer even when you’re aching inside.We don’t talk about it enough: Christmas...

28/12/2025

Feeling overwhelmed this season? Discover why resting can be the most radical act you can take. Embrace the quiet moments and let them rejuvenate you. Read more: https://wix.to/QifAOan

Boxing Day is when it hits. The noise quiets. The plates are stacked. The wrapping paper is still in the bin. And suddenly, your body realises how tired it is.Rest isn’t indulgence here. It’s rebellion.The Hustle of the HolidaysChristmas often becomes another hustle: • endless lists, • back-...

24/12/2025

The end of a year is often busy, yet it offers a quiet moment to pause and look at the work behind and the work ahead.

For many practitioners, this is the time to reflect on how they show up, what they carry, and what the horses have taught them through the year.

Awareness grows through reflection.
Presence grows through practice.

Award (Relational Horsemanship & Energy) begins Feb 1, fully online with a hands on in person learning weekend with the horses! A structured way to explore before committing to the full Diploma. Diploma enrollment closes Jan 31 for Feb start. Book an intro day or discovery call (link in bio) during this reflective time.

23/12/2025

Join me as I close the year at the Forest Edge. Discover thoughts on belonging, boundaries, and the beauty of beginnings anew. Read more here: https://wix.to/BGNIARl

By December, the woodland is bare. Branches etched against a pale sky, paths slick with mud, the hush of everything holding its breath. It’s easy to mistake this stillness for emptiness. But pause long enough and you notice: life hasn’t gone. It’s gone underground.There’s a lesson here about...

22/12/2025

The cost of holding it all together. The schema traps that reward endurance while quietly dismantling connection, intimacy, and self-trust.
So many men don’t come to therapy because they don’t care — they come late because they’ve been trained not to need. To manage. To suppress. To stay functional at all costs.
This article looks at:
– why control often replaces safety
– how emotional suppression becomes a survival strategy
– and why “coping” isn’t the same as living
If you work with men, love a man, or are a man who’s exhausted from carrying it all silently, this one’s worth your time.
You don’t have to fall apart to deserve support.
And you don’t have to do this alone.
Read it here:
https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/articles/the-weight-of-quiet-men-schema-traps-and-the-myth-of-control
Quiet strength isn’t about holding more.
It’s about finally letting something go.

17/12/2025

The forest edge in winter is quiet.
Not empty — just listening.
The December From the Forest Edge newsletter is live.
It’s about grief, creativity, boundaries, and letting quiet count.
I’m away until 6th January and softening the pace until spring. I’m okay, just honouring the season I’m in.
If you’re doing the same, you’re not behind.

Hello Welcome back to the edge; that place between endings and beginnings, where nothing is fixed but everything is honest. December has a way of thinning the noise. What remains is what matters. I’m sending this before Christmas because I’m stepping away. The office will be closed until 6th Jan...

08/12/2025

Let’s be honest: a lot of what gets called “love” in adult relationships is really survival dressed up as devotion.
Self-sacrifice masquerading as care.
People-pleasing is mistaken for loyalty.
Walking on eggshells is framed as “keeping the peace.”
I see it every week in the therapy room — the quiet exhaustion of trying to love well while losing yourself in the process.
So I wrote about it.
My latest Counselling Directory article digs into what healthy love actually looks like, without the clichés, without the psychobabble, without the fantasy that two perfectly regulated humans just glide through life together (they don’t).
Real love has boundaries.
Real love has repair.
Real love has two people tending to the relationship and their own emotional worlds — not contorting themselves to fit someone else’s blueprint.
If you’ve ever wondered whether what you’re calling love is actually leaving you depleted, this one’s for you.
Read it here:

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/articles/what-healthy-love-really-looks-like-in-adult-relationships
And remember: you’re not too much. You’re not asking for the impossible. You’re allowed relationships that feel steady, mutual, and rooted in truth — not performance.
Take a breath. You’ve got this.
And you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Learn what healthy love looks like, how schemas shape relationships, and the signs of emotional safety, connection and respect.

02/12/2025

Discover the fascinating world of the Winter Wren, a small bird with a fierce spirit! From its quiet presence in the undergrowth to its enchanting song, there's so much to appreciate. Read more about this incredible bird: https://wix.to/7l8CgEK

The wren is easy to miss. Brown, quiet, mouse-like in the undergrowth. She doesn’t have the glamour of the robin, the brightness of the goldfinch, or the flash of the jay.But listen closely on a cold December morning, and you’ll hear her. A song so fierce it cuts through frost and silence. A voi...

26/11/2025

November Newsletter
November has been a month of truth-telling at the forest edge.
A trapped muntjac at dawn.
A nervous system in full panic.
A reminder that freedom is rarely graceful — sometimes it’s messy, shaking, instinctual… and still freedom.
This month’s newsletter is full of that energy.
Real talk about burnout, desire, survival, and the quiet work of finding your way back to yourself.
Inside you’ll find:
✨ A story about a muntjac deer and what he taught me about therapy
✨ New blog posts on nervous system overload, midlife desire, creativity as survival & wintering
✨ My latest published pieces on Counselling Directory
✨ A behind-the-scenes update on what I’m writing for 2026
✨ A first look at the online therapeutic resource space I’m building
✨ And the soundtrack that’s been carrying me through the darker days (Will Varley fans… come closer)
If you’re tired, stretched thin, or quietly unravelling behind the scenes, this one’s for you.
Read the full November issue:

Hello ${contact.name.first} Welcome back to From the Forest Edge — my monthly-ish letter for those of us who live in the in-betweens. Between burnout and breakthrough. Between old patterns and something not-yet-known. Between the version of ourselves the world expects and the truth that’s quietl...

26/11/2025

Discover the magic of the Italian Riviera. Let the salt air and stunning views awaken your senses. 🌊✨ Read more about this captivating journey here: https://wix.to/tmjxck3

I didn’t expect the sea to feel like this.Standing on the Italian Riviera, salt air tangled in my hair, light bending across the water in colours too bold for English skies, I felt something loosen. Not just my shoulders. Something deeper. Something that had been braced for too long.The sea didn.....

21/11/2025

Darker months are here, and it's time to nourish your nervous system! Explore our latest blog for tips on walking through these seasonal changes with grace. Read more: https://wix.to/F3H5zZw

Walk through the woods in November and you’ll notice something subtle: the pace has shifted. The canopy has thinned. Leaves soften underfoot. The forest isn’t blooming, but it isn’t failing either. It’s simply wintering.And maybe we need to remember the same.The darker months aren’t a mist...