I’m a Solution-Focused Hypnotherapist & Psychotherapist and Author.
I offer an empathetic, supportive space to help you navigate anxiety during midlife.
I’ll help you settle your nervous system and focus on the practical steps you can take to feel better.
We’ll get you feeling so much more calm, capable and clear - so you can enjoy life again.
Looking for my qualifications?
Find them here.
I’m Stella tomlinson (she/her).
The Philosophy Behind My Practice
I believe that change is possible.
And that we each have the inner resources and wise guidance available within us to move forward.
… If we can just calm the brain’s smoke alarm, step out of survival mode and reclaim some perspective so we can access them!
And as a feminist, a highly sensitive person, and a lover of life's deeper mysteries, the heart of my approach is rooted in my own deep commitment to living with meaning, purpose, and joy…
... So my intention is to help you shape a life
authentically your own.
Why Hypnotherapy?
For 25+ years, I have been fascinated by how deep relaxation opens a portal to your wisest self.
And hypnosis takes you into a deeply focused relaxed state.
Here we can put your subconscious mind to work to create the life you long for.
This makes lasting, positive change feel natural and manageable rather than a struggle.
Why Solution Focused?
There comes a point where analysing the past stops bringing relief.
I spent years analysing my past through talk therapy, journaling, and inner child work.
It helped me understand why I felt stuck, but it also left me feeling a bit broken.
I was ready to stop focusing on the wounds and start focusing on where I wanted to go.
Turning toward the future was the exact relief my nervous system was craving.
Why Midlife?
Because I am walking this path right alongside you (born in 1975).
This turbulent transition can feel deeply disorienting as hormones shift and identities change.
But I don’t view it as a crisis or decline.
I see it as an awakening: an opportunity to strip away who you were told to be and finally remember who you actually are.
How I arrived Here
My path to this work has been shaped by over 25 years of personal and professional exploration in emotional wellbeing, mind–body practices, and inner development.
Since 2011, I have been teaching, sharing and writing books in these areas — always with a focus on helping people feel more connected to themselves and their inner experience.
My background includes practising and teaching yoga, meditation, mindfulness, menstrual cycle and nature-based awareness, grief tending, and inner child work.
Over time, this naturally led me toward a more grounded, therapeutic focus on how the nervous system and brain science shape our emotional experience.
A shared felt-sense
Having navigated perfectionism and self-doubt myself, I understand the weight carried by deep-feeling souls and creative minds.
My practice helps retrain the nervous system so you can embrace self-compassion and find the motivation to move forward.
The threads that bind my work
No matter what chapter of life I have been in, I’ve always been drawn to the same underlying thread:
How we find our way back to ourselves when life feels overwhelming,
fragmented, or disconnected.
How I work now:
My focus is grounded and therapeutic.
I now support women in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are experiencing things like:
anxiety and overwhelm
overthinking, procrastination and mental/creative blocks
stress that shows up in the body as tension, discomfort/pain and fatigue
low self-worth and low confidence
porous boundaries and complicated family dynamics
Together, we work gently with your nervous system to empty your nervous system’s stress bucket and create a spacious, grounded everyday reality.
My way of working:
I bring a calm, compassionate, and down-to-earth approach to this work.
You will find our time together to be practical, structured and supportive, helping you feel safe, understood, and not overwhelmed by the process.
No pressure to relive the past: You don’t need to talk about past trauma or share anything you are not ready to. We never dig up old pain.
Future-focused: We focus entirely on your preferred future, introducing small, achievable shifts that build over time to enable lasting, meaningful change.
Sessions are designed to be an effortless sanctuary of gentle enquiry and deep restorative rest.
This is how you’ll see me when we connect via Zoom: in my peaceful, private office.Qualifications
Hypnotherapy Qualifications
Diploma in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (DSFH) | CPHT | October 2025 - July 2026.
Hypnotherapy in Practice Diploma (HPD) | National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) | Considered the gold standard in UK Hypnotherapy qualifications [In progress | October 2025 - October 2026]
I am a member of the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and a registered student member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy. I am fully insured and have an Enhanced DBS.
Further Hypnotherapy study
HypnoMenopause® Practitioner Training | Academy of The Inner Mind | August 2026.
Understanding the Gut-Brain Axis | CPHT | April 2026.
Uncommon Hypnosis | Uncommon Knowledge | Summer 2025.
Other Qualifications & Training
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Foundations of Wellbeing | Dr Rick Hanson | 12-month online course | 2023.
Coping with Grief and Loss | Dr Rick Hanson | Winter 2022.
Positive Neuroplasticity Training | Dr Rick Hanson | Summer 2022.
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Total Yoga Nidra Immersion Experience | The Yoga Nidra Network | Autumn/Winter 2024.
Energy Emotional Freedom Technique Master Practitioner | Guild of Energists | April – June 2018.
Energy Emotional Freedom Technique Foundation | Guild of Energists | November 2017.
Jikiden Reiki Zenki (Shoden) Attuned | Certified by the Jikiden Reiki Institute | July 2017.
Restorative Yoga Teacher Training (30-hour immersion) | Certified Restorative Yoga Teacher | Adelene Cheong, Senior Assistant to Judith Hanson Lasater | September 2016.
Dru Meditation Teacher Training (Dip DMT) | International School of Dru Yoga | 2014 – 2016.
Dru Yoga Teacher Training: 200 hour teacher training course (Dip DYT) | International School of Dru Yoga | 2010 - 2012.
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Grief Through The Elements | Nici Harrison of The Grief Space | Spring-summer 2024.
Path To Second Spring Group Mentoring | Kate Codrington | Feb-June 2024.
Practices for Grieving and Heartache | Ancestral Medicine | winter 2022.
Menopause, the Great Awakener | Red School | Autumn 2020.
Bardic Grade of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids | Self-paced course March 2020 – Summer 2021.
Priestess of Brighde/Brigantia Training | Priestess Marion Brigantia, Glastonbury | January 2018 – January 2020, including the Elemental Goddess Healing modality.
Menstrual Cycle Literacy | Red School | 2017-18.
Hormone Harmony | Red School 2017.
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MSc Econ Information and Library Studies | 2000 | University of Wales Aberystwyth
BA (Hons) English | 1996 | Royal Holloway University of London
My Books
Writing has long been my way of making sense of the inner landscape - and help you to make sense of yours.
Over the years, I have published five non-fiction books dedicated to emotional wellbeing, inner resilience, and the transitions of midlife:
Her Soul Is Ablaze
I Am With You
Cycles of Belonging
Whispers From Mother Earth
Peace Lies Within
They’re books which aim to guide you to soulful self-acceptance.
Bridging Wisdom with Modern Science
While my rich literary and psycho-spiritual background remains the bedrock of how I understand the human heart, my clinical practice bridges that soulful wisdom with modern, science-backed understanding.
Today, I bring together everything I’ve learned over the past 25+ years into the focused, practical framework of Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy.
By calming the primitive alarm system of the brain, we quieten mental noise and ease physical tension.
I help you rewrite your default programming and honour your needs — so you can think more clearly, feel more balanced, stop simply getting through life … and step fully into A Life More Alive.
A few more things about me
My MBTI Type: INFP - a highly sensitive, creative seeker driven by authenticity, values, and a love for deep inner exploration.
Ideal Sunday morning: A cup of herbal tea, a blank notebook, and comforting silence gazing out at my little garden.
Nervous system reset: Listening to birdsong while watching the clouds float across the sky, or a 20-minute yoga nidra in a cosy “rest nest” on my bed.
Sensory kryptonite: Bright fluorescent overhead lighting, crowded shopping centres, and forced small talk.
Favourite season: Autumn — for the russet and amber leaves, the cooling air, the golden light and lengthening shadows … and the invitation to slow down.
Influences & Inspirations…
Alongside my formal training, I’ve been deeply shaped by the work of writers and teachers who explore emotional depth, inner experience, spiritual connection and the human psyche, including Sharon Blackie, Lucy H. Pearce, Uma Dinsmore-Tuli, Mary Oliver, Elaine Aron, Susan Cain, John O’Donohue, Rick Hanson, Bill Plotkin and Tim Freke.
These influences continue to inform my appreciation of sensitivity, reflection, and the inner life - even as my work has become more grounded in neuroscience and therapeutic practice.
A final note…
At its heart, my work is about helping you feel more at home in yourself again.
Not by becoming someone different - but by gently coming out of survival patterns, and back into a more settled, connected way of being.
You’re very welcome here
If you’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or simply not quite like yourself, you don’t have to navigate that alone.
This is a space where things can begin to feel a little steadier, a little clearer, and a little more manageable - one step at a time.
