Perimenopause doesn’t just bring hot flashes, it can quietly reshape everything about how you show up as a mom, partner, and person. And for highly sensitive moms, the emotional intensity, brain fog, and shifting energy levels can feel especially overwhelming.

In this honest, empowering conversation, Ashley Basilio, midlife wellness advocate, talks with Adrienne and Leah about her own perimenopause journey and how it collided with parenting teens, burnout, and identity shifts. As a certified menopause health coach and founder of the Strong Her Together community, Ashley blends science, warmth, and lived experience to help women understand what’s really happening, and how to respond with kindness, not guilt.

We dive into:

• What perimenopause actually is (and why it’s not just about reproduction)
• How hormonal shifts impact mood, memory, and parenting capacity
• Why highly sensitive women may feel these changes more deeply
• The surprising upsides of this life stage
• Practical tools for self-care, boundary-setting, and hormone support

Whether you're in perimenopause or preparing for it, this episode is a lifeline for any HS mom navigating change with grace and strength.

🧠 Recommended Resources

• 📘 The Menopause Brain by Dr. Lisa Mosconi
• 🌐 menopause.org – Find a certified menopause provider near you

🙋‍♀️ Where to Find Ashley

• Website: getfitwithashley.com
• Community: Strong Her Together
• Podcast: Stronger Voices (on all platforms)
• Instagram: @getfitwithashley

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

Anxiety is incredibly common for highly sensitive moms, especially after becoming a parent. In this episode, Adrienne and Leah have an honest, grounded conversation about how anxiety actually shows up in sensitive motherhood and why parenting can intensify it so much.

They explore how anxiety often lives in the body, not just the mind, and how it can look like hypervigilance, overthinking, people pleasing, perfectionism, difficulty resting, and feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions. They also talk about how overstimulation, lack of solitude, and constant emotional attunement to kids can keep sensitive moms stuck in survival mode.

This episode goes beyond awareness and into support. Adrienne and Leah share practical, nervous-system-based tools to help regulate anxiety, including grounding, breathing, co-regulation, somatic practices, temperature regulation, tapping (EFT), and hypnosis techniques designed to interrupt anxious patterns and create new neural pathways.

You’ll also hear a live hypnosis example that shows how anxiety can shift when you work with the body instead of against it.

DOWNLOAD the FREE Hypnosis tools Cheat Sheet here!

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.

Have you ever found yourself snapping at your kids and then feeling awful about it afterward? You’re not alone.

In this episode of Real Parenting for the Sensitive Mom, we talk with perinatal mental health therapist and researcher Nicole McNellis about mom rage — what it is, why it happens, and why it doesn’t mean you’re a bad mom.

We explore how overwhelm, resentment, unrealistic expectations, and nervous system overload can build up and spill over, especially for sensitive, deeply caring moms. You’ll also learn simple ways to understand what your anger is trying to tell you and how to respond with more compassion for yourself.

We unpack:

• The build-up → explosion → guilt cycle so many moms experience
• How resentment, overload, and unrealistic expectations fuel rage
• Why highly sensitive, perfectionistic, and people-pleasing moms are especially vulnerable
• The difference between outward explosions and internalized rage
• And what your anger is trying to tell you about your needs, boundaries, and support
• what coping skills work to help you feel better

Contact Nicole McNelis: nicolemacnellis.com and on Instagram @therapistmomcollective

We love to hear feedback about the show! Send us a text!

📲 Share this episode with another sensitive parent 🌐 Visit www.adriennebishopcoaching.com or risingsuntherapy.com for more support.

*DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not to be used for therapeutic or medical advice.