Redwood Ellis Coaching

Just back from 10 days in Dubai training leaders in the oil and gas industry using a new state-of-the-art rig simulator. A truly eye-opening experience, delving back in to my BA training days using crucial non-technical tools.

The difference being I now (20+ years on) have a greater understanding of how important self-awareness & mental fitness is in our lives!
I look forward to returning later this year and working with a much missed ‘Crew’ team!

Thanks to Animas Centre for Coaching for including me in your alumni series, it was an absolute joy speaking to David.

From Turbulence to Transformation: How a Confidence Coach and Wellbeing Strategist Cultivates Mental Fitness - Animas Coaching Discover Emma Ellis’s transformative journey as a confidence coach and wellbeing strategist, empowering individuals and organisations to unlock potential through self-awareness, resilience, and mental fitness.

BBC News this morning trailed the Panorama programme ‘The Menopause Industry Uncovered’ which is on this evening at 8pm.

It is already on iPlayer. I have watched it. Twice.

I don’t work for Newson Health and have never been a patient. However, whilst I agree that menowashing is a ‘thing’ - and not a great 'thing'. I’m really confused, and a bit disappointed, as to why the BBC have chosen to show the Newson clinic in such a negative light.

The BBC’s argument was around a handful of women who came forward accusing the clinic of over prescribing estrogen. These women may have legitimate concerns but out of the 45,000 women the Newson Health clinic have seen in the past 4 years is this a representative balanced view?

I personally use double the amount of body identical estrogen gel recommended by NICE (I have had a hysterectomy so do not need to counter with progesterone) my recent bloods showed my estrogen levels are average. This suggests I am a low absorber. As a non-healthcare professional it's not rocket science to understand that we all absorb gels through our skin differently!

1 in 5 women are thought to be low absorbers. However, the NICE guidelines (FIRST published in November 2015 - yes only 9 years ago – what happened before that?) recommend quite a low dose, I guess to be safe.

I believe many NHS healthcare professionals use the Newson Health’s ‘Confidence in the menopause’ course as a CPD learning tool - possibly because as of 2021 a survey showed that 33/46 medical schools in the UK only 59% had mandatory menopause medical training on the curriculum.

Is that why 45,000 women have attended the Newson Health Clinic since 2020?

Maybe the real reason we have this conflict of information and a bit of ‘us and them’ between the NHS/NICE and private clinics/celebrity endorsements is because we lack research into women’s health due to gender bias, historical exclusion, lack of awareness, or perhaps because most reproductive science research only focuses on women at the peak of their childbearing years.

So.

Are the BBC menobashing? Scaremongering? Will this set back women’s views on the menopause and HRT yet again??

And look at the dreadful picture the BBC have used of Dr. Louise Newson – that is definitely NOT the smiley image the BBC usually use! Why? 🤔

“If you are finding neurodivergence confusing and ambiguous that is because it IS confusing and ambiguous it’s not because you’ve missed a meeting” Dr. Nancy Doyle Genius Within CIC

I have just completed a Neurodiversity in coaching course with Animas Centre for Coaching It has been an incredible personal and professional journey.

Here are the top 10 inspirational things I learnt that I would like to share with you.

1. Don’t get hung up on the language around neurodivergence, it is constantly changing - if in doubt ask!

2. There’s a move away from the medical model from “I have dyslexia” to the social model “I am Dyslexic”.

3. You don’t need an assessment - unless you’re in education or need financial or medical support.

4. Just as we have biodiversity, we have neurodiversity. We need neurodivergent people in the world. It is thought 20% of the population are neurodivergent. “We need variation in any species because if resources change and conditions change certain members of that species will prosper above others it’s a survival mechanism" "I don’t see a box. In a time of crisis we need people who don’t see boxes” Chris Packham

5. When you’ve met one neurodivergent person - you’ve met ONE neurodivergent person. Neurodiversity is as individual as personality.

6. Whilst it would be great to say neurodivergence is a lens to be looked through, not a label to be placed upon. Having an understanding (and for some an official diagnosis) of how and why you think, act and live as you do as a neurodivergent person is incredibly empowering.

7. Neurodivergence has always been in existence when we put specialists in schools and tried to make them generalists, telling them to sit down and learn the same thing and write the 'correct' answers to questions that made no sense to them then judged them by their ability to read and write and memorise by rote - we made neurodivergent people feel unintelligent and failures because they didn’t pass exams.

8.We no longer measure via a spectrum. We use a spikey profile plotting skillsets on a graph. Neurotypical will have a wavy profile, neurodivergence a spikey profile a higher level of difference between the peaks and troughs. Neurodivergence are specialists not generalists’ thinkers.

9.More girls are undiagnosed than boys. Many girls have been misdiagnosed as having general anxiety or bipolar.

10.The crossover between Autism/ADHD and other neurodiversity traits is thought to be above 60%.

I hope in the future there will be no boxes to tick to say a new employee requires ‘special assistance’ just individuals telling people in interviews what they need in the workplace to make them more productive and healthier at work.

Once again, I wake up to the BBC reporting that "A large study has said that CBT and mindfulness may help to relieve the menopause symptoms in some women". "These treatments can be used as well as, or instead of HRT"

"When people have hot flushes, they tend to get very anxious about having them. So, what CBT aims to do is to counter these negative cycles, by getting people to use strategies to think about different ways of looking at things”. Aimee Spector, UCL clinical-psychology-of-ageing professor.

Now, I'm a huge supporter of CBT and practice mindfulness daily.

However.

CBT and mindfulness will not physically replace the hormone that is causing the hot flush i.e. Estrogen.

This blanket statement is not helpful. It causes confusion to the one-third of the entire female population going through peri/menopause and to the healthcare professionals who are not prescribing HRT because they are still hung up on the debunked 2002 WHI study, or have not updated their training on peri/menopause.

This is so frustrating because a huge percentage of the women I speak to struggle convincing their healthcare provider to take their symptoms of the peri/menopausal seriously.

Hello all, I will be running an 'Introduction the Peri/Menopause' session at MindSpace 39 Broad Street, Stamford, next Tuesday 6th February 7 - 9.30pm.

Having recently completed the Newson Health ''Confidence in the Menopause' course I was asked by Emma Allman (MindSpace PeriMenoPlus+ group leader) to join the group to discuss all things Perimenopause, Menopause and as it is the beginning of the year we thought we’d go back to basics!

I will do an informal presentation, followed by plenty of opportunity to chat and ask questions. The session is open to any woman who is struggling to find research-based information on the menopause, or who would just like to chat and a cup of tea with other women who are at this stage of their lives.

The group is free and open to all women. However, we would like to run a session for men later in the year, so please do get in touch if you are interested in attending.

Please register to attend the session via the MindSpace website.

https://lnkd.in/gWh4gqVG

Though there may be spaces available on the night.

If you can’t make it on the night, please contact me and I may be available to run sessions (or be a guest on your podcast) on either peri/menopause, mental fitness or wellbeing strategies in your business or community group.

When I was at school, a million years ago, dyslexia was rare and seen as a disability. It is not.

I recognized I was a dyslexic thinker recently. I was always an avid reader so presumed I wasn't dyslexic. However, understanding a dyslexics 'working memory' now I realise my inability to sit exams wasn't a failure on my part - it was just how my brain worked!

The way our school system is set up it tests dyslexics weaknesses rather than their strengths.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Einstein.

1 in 5 people are dyslexic.

Dyslexic's are good at problem solving, are creative, observant, highly empathetic, big-picture thinkers, great at making connections, have strong narrative reasoning and three-dimensional thinking. All the skills today's employers are looking for.

You can now add Dyslexic Thinking as a skill on LinkedIn.

Following this brilliant course by I have developed a short webinar on this topic if you would like to find out more get in touch.

Thank you Rutland & Stamford Mercury, and news editor Suzanne Moon, for featuring my article on menopause during Menopause Awareness Month. It's wonderful to see this local support.

I particularly love the head line next to it too!

If you'd like any further information around coaching and the menopause or running an awareness campaign in your business do get in touch.

Thank you @rutland_and_stamford_mercury and news editor @suzannemoon for featuring my article during Menopause Awareness Month. It's wonderful to see this local support. I particularly love the head line next to it too! If you'd like any further information around coaching and the menopause or running an awareness campaign in your business do get in touch. #pausetotalk #menopauseawarenessmonth #menopauseatwork

Brilliant course. Would recommend.

13 million women are currently going through perimenopause/menopause. The vast majority are carers of one kind or another. It's not rocket science to understand that if we look after women at this time of their lives it may be pretty helpful!

I took this CPD course (Also downloaded by 30,000 health care professionals across the world) because I wanted to be informed as I'm finding in my coaching sessions, whether in the companies I work with or my private practice, many women (and a few men!) want to discuss this important subject.

TOP TIP - My advice to any woman feeling blah.. check/research what your hormones are doing - at ANY age!

Brilliant course. Would recommend. 13 million women are currently going through perimenopause/menopause. The vast majority are carers of one kind or another. It's not rocket science to understand that if we look after women at this time of their lives it may be pretty helpful! I took this CPD course (Also downloaded by 30,000 health care professionals across the world) because I wanted to be informed as I'm finding in my coaching sessions, whether in the companies I work with or my private practice, many women (and a few men!) want to discuss this important subject. TOP TIP - My advice to any woman. Feeling blah.. check your hormones at any age!