Episode #43: Highly Sensitive and Bipolar: Finding Stability, Identity, and Hope with Catherine Stratta

A conversation about navigating bipolar disorder as a highly sensitive person with a few different modalities and a lot of self-compassion.

Welcome back to The Happy HSP Podcast. I’m your host Kimberly Marshall, and today I’m joined by Catherine Stratta. She’s an international coach and speaker who specializes in helping her clients manage anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.

Catherine shares her own struggle with high sensitivity and bipolar, along with the challenges of getting a helpful diagnosis and balancing the proper care for your unique body and experience. We also talk about the hope and relief that is possible after finding the right medication, tools, and support.

This conversation is a powerful one, whether you struggle with bipolar disorder yourself or long to help those who do feel more grounded, supported, and at peace.

I hope you enjoy it. 

Kim: Catherine, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s great to see you.

Catherine: It’s lovely to see you too. Thank you for having me.

Kim: So, my first question for you is about your own personal journey with high sensitivity and how you found out that you had this trait and what that was like for you.

Catherine: Well, to be frank, I didn’t find out till very late. I always knew that I felt energy very strongly and I suppose my parents talked about me as being very shy because I didn’t like going into new places or even going into crowded rooms. I found that quite debilitating because I just felt so much around me and it was almost as if I was being crowded on. 

But, really, I found out probably about four years ago when someone started talking about that. I think it was on LinkedIn, actually. And I was like, oh, this is actually ... When I started looking at it, I thought that’s just me. Because I had mood swings that started when I was 12, because that’s when my experience of bipolar started, I was having those emotional highs and lows from then. But I also, when I was a child at school, I do remember, if I sat near a window with the sun near me, I would get a migraine.

So, I was obviously sensitive to light, and I didn’t like too much sound either. So, I think I kind of noticed odd things. And then when I started having my mood swings, I thought I was very odd then. So that all kind of rolled up into the highly sensitive trait plus the mood swings, which made me feel actually quite different for a long time.

And to be honest, there was a lot of stigma about having bipolar, and I never told anyone until I actually had to because I was working, and I had a breakdown in actual fact. So, everything with me was kind of rolled up. Plus, human design-wise, I’m a projector. So, I do feel people’s energy because my aura sort of penetrates, and I sense people’s energy strongly. So, there’s a lot of background stuff as well as the highly sensitive thing. So, for me, I just think it’s quite an overwhelming package.

Kim: Yeah. As you were saying that, that was my sense. That must have been a lot for you, especially when you’re young and just starting to see this pattern. So, can you tell me a bit about that? I’d love to explore each of these points, but I know you do work with bipolar. So, can you share that with me? That’s a tough journey.

Catherine: Yes. Yeah. So, as I said, my mood swing started when I was 12. My parents just thought it was adolescence,but it was kind of either one thing or the other. I was either very low or very high. And I can remember my mother saying to me, why don’t you save some of this for when your next low, when I was kind of happy. But with bipolar, you can’t, you’re either. And in actual fact, I did get to medical school because I was quite bright and I wanted to be a doctor. 

So, I went to medical school. And while I was there, I actually was in hospital with depression for eight months, which was tough actually, very tough. And when I came out, I had to take a psychological test to get back into medical school, which again was hard, but I got through, and I got in back again. And then because I’d done three years, so I got in and did a fourth year. But by the end of that time again, working on the wards and doing exams and things, I started to get depressed again.

And it was at that point that I was just like, I’ve struggled, really struggled to do this. And basically, it doesn’t seem to be the right path to me because it’s just so much struggle. So, I decided to give up, and that was hard. I can remember just, I wasn’t a child who cried because my parents were very, my father was very, “You don’t cry.” Keep your emotions in that old kind of upbringing thing. And I cried for about two days after having given up medicine because I didn’t see myself as doing anything else, and I was very lost. And of course I was starting another depressive episode as well. But, actually, that was, looking back at it now, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me because I took some time out, and I met a consultant psychiatrist, and he was just amazing.

He sat me down, and he said, “Well,” he said, “I haven’t read all of your notes, but I can see you’ve had a really difficult time.” And he just sat there for that. And it was the first person who I felt had ever listened to me. I felt kind of seen and heard and it gave me goosebumps to feel that some other person was reacting like that. 

So basically he then said, “I think it’s time we put you on lithium.” And I didn’t really want to go on lithium, but I kind of saw where he was coming from, and I thought his energy felt right with me. I felt that he was there and he was present, which again, a lot of people aren’t, are they when you talk to them? And so, I said, okay, I will. But four weeks afterwards, I was like, wow, this must be what normal people are like.

Because it just held me in the middle. I was no longer either high or low. I just felt like I wasn’t treading on sand. It was a really kind of hard thing to explain to people, but it was kind of life-changing for me, just that drug.

And lithium’s a bit like Marmite, people either like it or hate it sort of thing, but I actually got on relatively well. I didn’t have that many side effects, and it gave me like a springboard because it held me safe in a safe space. And I was able then, I had a 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry managing and with clinical trials. 

So, I went into research because I’m a 1-3 projector, so I’ve got a very research-orientated brain, and I like trying new things. So, for me, tying up my medical experience, because I didn’t have a degree or anything, I’d just got the four years at medical school and the clinical research where I needed to understand medically what was happening to people was a real winner. So, I did 25 years of that. And then when I got to 2018, I had a blood test because you have to have blood tests with lithium every three months or so.

And my doctor said that my kidney function had just plummeted, so she was going to have to take me off the drug. And it was 2018, and I was just coming into menopause. And I thought because mine started at roundabout 12, which is puberty for me, I thought I was going to be okay. And I’d kind of believed this all the time. I was kind of almost looking forward to menopause because I thought before and after there’s some kind of stability, and very unfortunately I was completely wrong. 

March, I remember so well, March the 1st, 2018, I took my last lithium tablet because she tailored it down for me. So, I took the last tablet and then within two months, she didn’t give me any other medication. Within two months, I had gone from 70 kilos to 53 kilos, and I was suicidal within that short time. And it was such a shock to me, because as I say, I had thought everything was going to be fine. 

And I couldn’t see a psychiatrist because the lists were too long. So, she phoned someone up and he suggested that I went on this drug called Lamotrigine, which actually is a drug they give to people with epilepsy as well. A lot of those drugs for mental illnesses are the same. And I think probably, I think one of the most likely issues with mental illness is it’s a metabolic problem, and it’s most likely mitochondrial.

And I do take a mitochondrial supplement now.

Kim: I was going to ask you about that because they always say it’s a chemical imbalance, but you’re thinking it’s mitochondrial related. That you’re born with, I’m guessing, you’re born with?

Catherine: Well, there’s a very strong heritability with bipolar. So that if you have it, there’s a very strong likelihood that your first degree relative, one of your first-degree relatives, so, father, mother, child, aunt, uncle like that will have it as well because 44% of identical twins will both have it, even if they’re bought up in somewhere different. So, there is a strong genetic trait, but it isn’t like you can look at a couple of genes and say you’ve got it. It’s much more complicated than that. But yes, it is inherited. 

So, basically, I was in quite a state. I started this new drug, and it was really unpleasant. When I was eating, I couldn’t control my chewing properly. So, I would be kind of chewing the inside of my mouth when I was eating. It was horrible and I had scars and the inside and everything.

And also on the ends of my fingers were sort of starting to be numb and my fingernails were getting so that they were bending back. It was really, really unpleasant. And then I started getting a rash, and I went back to the doctor. I said, “I’m sorry, I am slightly less anxious than I was, but it’s done nothing. I still feel terribly depressed, and I’ve got all of these other symptoms.” 

Kim: Oh my God.

Catherine: And so, I was sort of rather beside myself because I didn’t know what else they were going to do. But then by this time it was June, and I got to see another consultant psychiatrist who again was very good. And he suggested something called Clotiapine, which was a second-generation antipsychotic. 

And not that I wanted to be taking an antipsychotic because I don’t actually get psychosis. I have Bipolar II where you have hypermania rather than mania. But one thing it did do was it helped me sleep. And with some people in bipolar, they can’t stop sleeping, and other people have insomnia, and I’m an insomniac one. 

So, I was so tired because I wasn’t resting properly, and I started this drug, and it did help me sleep. So that was one thing. And we started on a very low dose again and started telling it up.

And then at the end of June, when I’d just started on it, my mother got a bowel cancer diagnosis, and she was given six months to live. 

Kim: Oh, I’m so sorry. 

Catherine: And well, we were very close, and basically, I lived about an hour away, but she was very lucky. We were able to have her at home. We had a hospital bed. We had all of the end-of-life things and everything so that she would be okay. She never had to go into hospital because that was her worst nightmare. She just did not want to go to hospital.

Kim: Sure…scary. 

Catherine: Very scary for her. So anyway, so she died on the 1st of December, 2018 actually. And then in 2019, February, I was given a breast cancer diagnosis. So, I had to have a mastectomy and I was still quite depressed, and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. But again, I was really lucky. The psychiatrist who was with me gave me a psychologist for a whole year to work with because I had cancer, I was still depressed, and I hadn’t really started grieving for my mother. 

And this lady, she was just amazing. She really was. I mean, she was a PhD in psychology, but she was also a medical doctor. So, she had a lot of qualifications and she was a bit like me. She had a kind of research brain. She was interested in doing different things, and she suggested I look at different modalities, so more of a holistic side rather than just the drugs.

And I was interested. So, basically, we had an hour a week, and I would go off and find things and she would find and we’d just talk and see how things were. And some things worked, some things didn’t work, but it was a discovery thing. And then by the end of that year I’d started, I’d decided because I had to decide whether I wanted a reconstruction or not. And it took me a while to decide that, and I did. So I had a reconstruction, had a total mastectomy, and then a reconstruction on one side, and I was starting to begin to feel better. And then it occurred to me that I could actually use the knowledge that I’d gained, the tools that I’d gained over that time working with her to help other people. And I’d already got a coaching qualification. So, I thought, why don’t I put that together with coaching and start helping other people with bipolar, because there isn’t really much help here.

And a lot of what I do now is actually helping educate people. So, helping explain to people’s families what it’s like to have this and how, because people say, “Well, I have moods.” And you say, “Well, no, not like that.” And I explain. And then that helps their loved ones be more integrated because support is so, so vital for people. 

Having that someone who will watch, kind of gently watching, not obtrusively, but gently watching, because when you start either going up or down, there’s a small window, if you notice it, where you can actually do an intervention to stop yourself going either way. It’s a small window, but it does exist. And so, if you’ve got people who can understand what you’re going through and that you will spend a bit of time with you, make sure you’re okay when you start, you might be on the phone, and they might think, “Oh, you’re not sounding quite right. You’re getting a little bit talking a bit too fast or whatever.” 

And then their friends and relatives can help them. And I also help people get a diagnosis, because in the UK still, it’s nine and a half years, the average time to diagnosis from the first symptoms.

Kim: Really?

Catherine: Yeah, which is an awful long time. When you think about what damage can be done in that time, nine and a half years. 

Kim: Why does it take so long to…just the way that it’s set up or?

Catherine: It’s really the fact that people don’t tend to go to the doctor when they’re happy. So, if you have hypermania, you’ll go, and you’re depressed, and then the doctor will say, “Oh, well, last time you had antidepressants, you haven’t come back for a couple of years because maybe that’s how long it takes for things to

Kim: This isn’t an ongoing issue. This is just an episode. 

Catherine: It’s an episode. Exactly. So, you get episodes and then they look back and they’ve only got 10 or 15 minutes to do something. So, they look back and say, “Oh, last time you did this.” But that is actually quite dangerous because with people who are bipolar, if you just give them an antidepressant, you can accelerate them into a manic or a hypermanic episode.

Kim: Really?

Catherine: Yeah, so it’s quite dangerous that they, just to be honest, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t, but you risk it if that person may have bipolar. But because I mean, bipolar, it’s 2% here, and I think it’s roughly 2% anywhere. So, it’s not actually that uncommon, but there are a lot of people who aren’t diagnosed under the radar a bit. So, by the time they’ve come back or whatever, then the doctor hasn’t seen them when they’re okay.

Kim: There’s not enough pattern to make the…

Catherine: There’s not enough pattern to make it, exactly. And they just look back and they think, “Oh, I’ll give them these and they get them out of my surgery and move on sort of thing.” So, if someone comes to me and they say, a lady came to the other day and she said, “Oh, my daughter’s having these episodes.” 

And I said, “Okay, what we’ll do is I’ll sit with you and I’ll sit with her and we will explain what you need to say when you go to your general practitioner, your doctor, your general doctor here.” And then that doctor will be able to refer you to a psychiatrist because in the UK it has to be a psychiatrist who diagnoses, so you’ve got to be referred. But that original doctor has got to pick it up and refer it rather than thinking, because the depression, of course, is a lot more common, just general depression on its own.

Kim: And what’s the importance of the diagnosis? Is it so that you can get the right kind of care or...

Catherine: Yeah, it’s so that you can get the right kind of care. And so, they don’t just give you anti-depressants on their own because they don’t really work very well. 

Kim: You’re saying that there’s more modalities is the word you used. What is that? Can you explain a little bit what that means?

Catherine: Yeah. So, modalities are things like breathwork or vagal stimulation, different ways of dealing with something. So like EFT, the emotional freedom technique, that’s a different modality. So those were the types of things that I was learning about when I had that wonderful psychologist to talk to and to interact with. 

And it’s in those that I’ve found a lot of help, like helping people to regulate their nervous system. And this helps people with anxiety and depression because I also do standalone anxiety and depression because that’s been such a big feature of my own experience. And I know with highly sensitive people, that’s a feature there as well. So that’s quite important. It’s important to be aware of the fact that you can train your nervous system and what you can do because things happen, there’s stress, there’s always going to be stress, and your first reaction to it, you can’t control because you’ve got your amygdala in your hind brain, which is going, oh, high alert.

But then after that initial reaction, then you can choose how you respond. And I help people regulate their nervous system so that they can calm themselves when that happens and then they can get themselves out of that sympathetic back into the parasympathetic rest and recuperate.

Kim: Right. That flight or fight response where you really can’t think clearly. 

Catherine: Exactly. 

Kim: You’re in a heightened state of anxiety and yeah, your awareness just kind of goes down the tubes.

Catherine: Yeah, exactly. It does go down the tubes. That’s a brilliant way of saying it, actually. It does. So yes, but you can be taught to do that. And the more you learn how to regulate, then when something comes up, when that trigger comes up, you can recognize the trigger and I know what to do. And then if you say you calm down and you can make a decision or do what you need to do.

Kim: From a grounded space. Yeah, makes sense.

Catherine: From a grounded space and from your body not being in that kind of cortisol and seeing everything and thinking, what do I do now and getting in that state. And also, it’s really bad because cortisol, that stress hormone increases inflammation in your body, and inflammation is pretty bad for you and it’s also very aging to have that kind of thing and having…

Kim: You don’t want that.

Catherine: You don’t want that. 

Kim: So, when you’re talking to people about their bipolar, I’m curious, are a lot of people who suffer with bipolar highly sensitive, or is that all across the board too kind of?Do you see connection there? 

Catherine: I mean, some people are, because with bipolar, the experience is that you are very quick at picking things up when you’re in a manic or hypermanic situation because it’s as if everything’s accelerated, and you talk quickly, you see things, but you make connections quicker.

Kim: Quickly, right.

Catherine: So yeah, so there are some, not everyone, but some people are, and those people that are really respond very well to the nervous system regulation.

Kim: Right. Is that because they can sense it a little bit more deeply or understand their body, they’re more in tune? Why do you think?

Catherine: I think they’re more in tune with their body. They’re more intuitive and they gather more information quickly and they’re interested. I think highly sensitive people have more of a curiosity about things because there is so much going on for them. So yeah.

Kim: Yeah, I think that’s a thing that we do notice when we go through things, a lot of us, like you did, the research to try and figure out, okay, what can I do about this? And then it kind of sometimes becomes our life’s purpose in a way, which happened with you. 

Catherine: Yeah. 

Kim: So, when you talk about the different ways to treat bipolar, so you’re saying not just medication is helpful. What are the different things that can help people who are in this space that kind of gives them an overall view of all the different things that can go into their support, would you say?

Catherine: Yeah. I mean, so the first thing is not saying “my bipolar.” The first thing is de- identifying with it, saying, “I am a person exactly with bipolar disorder. So, I am the person and here is this disorder, but I’m still a person in my own right.” And getting them to understand to accept the fact that they have this almost like a trait, having a trait, they have this, but it doesn’t need to define them.

Kim: Right. It doesn’t have to become their identity.

Catherine: Exactly. Because a lot of people it does and they kind of hang onto it. And I think that is quite dangerous for people because if you use different modalities, I mean, I use coaching because my coaching is Move Beyond Bipolar because I’m teaching people to understand about it and go forward so that they can use the tools that we are learning to help themselves.

Kim: To rise above it and not sit and sink and spin in it.

Catherine: And it’s the spinning, exactly. Because people who have it will probably have it the rest of their lives. At the moment, there isn’t a cure.

So, what we have to do is we have to say, “Okay, we have this. What are our options? What can we do now?” Yes, we can control our nervous system. We can also help sleeping. And one of the biggest things with having bipolar is that the circadian rhythms, which are those rhythms that tell us when to eat, when to drink, when to sleep or not, are not very ... They’re kind of almost with it broken with people with bipolar. So, one of the most fundamental things is getting the sleeping pattern right, because very often what will happen is they will be sleeping well and then something will happen and their sleeping pattern will be disrupted and it will go on disrupting. And then that will bring on another episode. That’s one of the main things that can start an episode.

Kim: Yeah. And society isn’t very forgiving when it comes to sleep and rest and the hustle culture. And we’re just so off our own natural rhythm.

Catherine: Yeah. And we’re human beings, aren’t we? We’re not human doing. We’re beings, and we should be.

Kim: We need to be nurtured. Yes. 

Catherine: Yeah. And also looking after yourself because sometimes when people have bipolar, they tend to get ... They don’t really look after their own interests very well because there’s a lot of judgment around it. People might feel ashamed, but I tend to try and bring people back to compassion, self-compassion and have that understanding, this is what I have, but there are things I can do and I need to just nurture myself more maybe than other people, but that’s okay and learn as much about it because all people have different patterns with bipolar, so it’s very individual, but you learn about what triggers you. 

It’s like what triggers anxiety, what triggers your bipolar. And what you do then is you try and avoid the triggers or you do something else. Or if you are at work and you’re expected to entertain clients late into the night, that can be very difficult because then you’re sleeping patterns.

Or I mean, in one of my jobs, I was jetting off all over the place and I was flying to America a lot, and that was very disruptive because of all the jet lag and things, flying over to the West Coast and then coming back and then or having those dreadful few days when it’s you’re almost sleepwalking.

So, it’s kind of getting what your pattern is. And I help people see where they are…

Kim: Recognize... 

Catherine: And what’s happened to them. Recognize it. Because once you’ve recognized it, you can do something. It’s like the response thing. You can start responding and finding out what it is that you need to maybe avoid, what you need to do differently, and what different modalities will help. Whether if you’re not sleeping, you may need to have extra medication, or you may be able to manage with the bach flower remedies or something else that isn’t actually medication-based.

Kim: There’s hope.

Catherine: Yeah, there’s hope.And exercise. I mean, exercise has proved to be as effective as SSRIs, which are a form of antidepressants as effective, and there are no side effects to exercise.

Kim: Exactly. Probably something your body needs more. Yeah.

Catherine: Yes, absolutely.

Kim: Important to take medication if it does offer relief because…

Catherine: Absolutely. And I think medication has a huge place in bipolar disorder. I mean, mine would not have ... I would not have become stable had I not had some form of medication. And that’s the other thing, accepting that you may need to be on medication for the rest of your life. I mean, the doctor will say, “Oh, it’s like diabetes,” but it isn’t like diabetes, it’s something different. And I think now people are talking more about things like neurodiversity and bipolar isn’t on the neurodiversity because it’s a separate mental illness, but people are talking about mental illnesses more than they were when I was at work. I mean, when I was at work, I never told anyone I had bipolar because I would not have got the jobs that I’d have got.

Kim: Yeah. I mean, I grew up with quite a few people in my family that have suffered from bipolar, and it was something that was so ... There was a sense of shame around it or fear around it. And now I feel like the conversations are so much more supportive, so much more helpful, so much more kind and open, and that’s a relief in and of itself.

Catherine: You’re right about that. It’s the kindness all of a sudden. Because I remember when I had a breakdown, and I told people that I worked with, and some people just didn’t want to know me anymore at that time back in 2018. And it was sad, but that’s just how it was. But I’m hopeful that we are moving forward. And as you say, things are getting more open and there is more compassion for people who do have problems because most people have some kind of a problem, so it’s not normal.

Kim: Yeah. What’s normal? Exactly.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: Exactly.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: So with you on that, what would you say you struggle with when it comes to your high sensitivity still?

Catherine: I still struggle with noise. Even my husband, he was in the army, so he’s slightly deaf. And I struggle sometimes with the sound when he put television on very loud.

Kim: And he can’t hear it and he’s got to jack it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Catherine: I bought some small little earplugs and things. And if I go to a concert or something, a pop concert or something with him, I have to have earplugs because it is too much and I’m not very good with light show things. And also, my husband, after he was in the army, he worked for his last six months in South Africa, and I went out to stay with him at the about that time. And I can remember we went to this shopping center, and we went in and the lights and the noise and everything. And I just turned around and I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t. We’ve got to go.” And he had to take me home because I just couldn’t deal with all of that. It was like an assault.

Kim: Yes.

Catherine: It’s just too much, too much information, too many things going on at the same time.

Kim: Chaos for the senses, not the best for us.

Catherine: No, exactly. Exactly. And also, when I go up hills in the car, my ears pop. 

Kim: Oh, wow.

Catherine: Yeah. And I can’t do fair rides or anything, those different or anything like that because it’s just, again, too much for me.

Kim: Yeah. Your body likes to be centered.

Catherine: Yeah.  

Kim: Calm. Quiet. Quiet…

Catherine: Yes. Iwalk on the earth, and I’m happy here.

Kim: It’s just fine. Yeah. What do you love about your high sensitivity? What do you love about the trait?

Catherine: I love being able to get in, because I love information and I love knowing things. So, I like being able to absorb a lot of things because it’s an experience. I find it can be quite fascinating that I’ll pick up things, and other people just won’t have a clue about…little small things that happen that I will notice. And to me, it’s all part of life and enjoyment of life, that kind of thing. So that’s my favorite thing, being able to actually be there, absorb thing, and then, oh, that’s just a lovely thing.

Kim: Yeah, it’s like a richer experience.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah.

Catherine: Yeah. And being out in nature as well, and you’ve got the birds and the trees and that. In spring when all the leaves are that beautiful green color, and then they go to the darker and all the colors, it’s just marvelous.

Kim: Yeah. And everyone’s walking by and we’re like, “But look, look at that. Isn’t that amazing?” Yeah. And people are like, “What?” We’re just like, “That’s it.”

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah. And what advice would you have for highly sensitive people who may be struggling? What would you say?

Catherine: I just think don’t start worrying that there’s something wrong with you. Just try and see that. You can find people these days, find a forum or something where there are other people that are experiencing what you’re experiencing. And then you can actually enjoy because you can find out what they do, how they cope if they’re overwhelmed. Because again, we’re human beings and we’re social animals. We need to connect with people who are like us. So, I think it’s important to find your tribe.

Kim: So important. That validation, especially when it comes to sensitivity and the way that we function and move in the world, when you find the people that share that, it’s just such a relief.

Catherine: Yes, exactly. You’re like, “Oh, thank goodness for that.” And you don’t have to explain things anymore. And you can go and do things with people who want to do the sort of things that you like doing.

Kim: Yeah.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: That sense of you, too. Oh yeah, me too. Got you. I totally understand. What a great feeling.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: So, tell me, you have a group coaching that you do, a program that you manage. Can you share a little bit about what that is and what that helps?

Catherine: Yeah. Yeah. So, it’s called Quit Anxiety, Gain Peace. And we start with, it’s an eight-week course. I teach it as a group program, but I also do one-to-one coaching as well with it for people who want that kind of extra immersive experience. And, basically, we start with simple things and we kind of work up. 

So, we start with breathing properly. So, we breathe into the diaphragm and then we do different breathwork exercise. I teach them to do lots of different exercises and that’s the first week. And we also look at gratitude practice because gratitude is just amazing. There are so many physiological benefits, reduced heart rate, just from gratitude, from experiencing it. And I teach people to basically have a little gratitude practice where they write down with physical, not on a computer, just write because then it goes through their brain, write down three things in the morning and three things in the evening. And then they sit and it’s first thing in the morning when you might have a bit of an anxious brain because gratitude pattern interrupts. So, it will stop those anxious looping thoughts. 

You just sit and you put your hands on your heart, and you just think of each of those things, and you let that wash over you. Because when you’re depressed or very anxious, it’s hard to feel love sometimes, but you can always feel gratitude because it’s an emotion that you manufacture yourself. So that’s the kind of first phase. 

Then I look at activating the vagus nerve, which brings you from sympathetic into parasympathetic. So from the into rest and recuperate. And we do different exercises for that. And then the next week we do EFT, tapping.

And then on the fourth week I do an intake session. I do rapid transformational therapy, which is a form of hypnotherapy with people. So, the fourth week is an intake session where they decide what issue they want to work on because we work on one issue at a time. So, it could be anxiety, it could be that they procrastinate something else they want to work on. And then the fourth session, fifth session rather, is basically us doing the hypnotherapy session, which is between 60 minutes and two hours. Normally it goes on for about 90 minutes. But what I do is we look at that presenting complaint, the thing they want to change, and we do a very quick induction, and then we look at the root cause. We go back to scenes where it’s the root cause comes up for that problem behavior or whatever. 

So, we actually look at that root cause. Then they look at it and I give them the Dr. Phil question, so how’s that working for you? And they’re like, well, it’s not now. It might have when I was six, but not now. So, we look at that and then we reframe. And then I take the information that they’ve given me in the intake session the week before and what they’ve given me in the hypothetical session. And the last 15 minutes of the session, I do another recording, a transformation recording. 

So, they choose to stay in hypnosis or they come out and we go in again for the recording because I like to record it all together. And then I do a transformation recording, which is the behavior they want to replace it with. So, the negatives I flip into positives, and I’ve talked already about them in the intake with what they would like instead, life without the problem, what you want.

So, I record the life without the problem and them having phenomenal coping skills and always being able to do as a loving starting work or whatever it is. And then they listen to that recording for the next 21 days, and that helps them get through. And then we have three more sessions. We have sleep exercise and diet in week six. Week seven is all about reconnecting with yourselves and nature and mindfulness.

We can just bring it all together.

Kim: That is every single angle, even the subconscious level.

Catherine: Yes. And that’s why it goes in that way. We start with the nervous system, then we go to subconscious, then we go to meditation and mindfulness, because very often people are very anxious.

They’ve got so much going on in their mind that they can’t meditate.

Kim: Yes. I’ve heard that that can actually have an adverse effect where it makes you even more anxious. 

Catherine: Yes. Because you worry about not being able to meditate.

Kim: Yeah.

Catherine: Yeah.

Kim: Exactly.

Catherine: So that’s why it goes like that.

Kim: All by design. Thank you so much for the work that you’re doing. That’s just incredible. Where can people follow along on your journey and connect with you?

Catherine: So, people can follow me on LinkedIn. So basically, my name, Catherine Stratta. There’s only one of me on LinkedIn.

Kim: Okay.

Catherine: I have a website which is movebeyondbipolar.com. I’m on Facebook as well, Move Beyond Bipolar, and I’m on TikTok as well, Move Beyond Bipolar.

Kim: Awesome.

Catherine: Yeah. So yeah.

Kim: Well, it was so wonderful to meet you today. Thank you so much for sharing your journey.

Catherine: Oh, well, thank you so much. It’s been a lovely, lovely little chat. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Kim: Same here.

Thanks so much for listening in on my conversation with Catherine. I hope it reminds you that the experiences we suffer through don’t have to form our entire identity, and that no matter how hopeless our situation might seem, there is always someone out there who cares and longs to help. 

The modalities that work for us might not be what’s working for everyone else, either, so be sure to give yourself lots of space and kindness as you figure out what helps you along on your own unique journey.

Until next time. Take care!

About Catherine Stratta

Catherine is an international coach and speaker, with over 50 years lived experience of anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. She coaches and supports individuals and their families, friends, supporters and offers coaching to managers and employees in the workplace. She can also work with schools and offers informational presentations to both staff and pupils.

She offers a free 30-minute call to anyone affected by anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder. She works holistically, using modalities such as Human Design, Rapid Transformational Therapy® and Emotional Freedom Technique in her coaching.

Catherine has the HSP trait. She is also a 1/3 Projector, which means she is always looking into new techniques to help others in her work. She is currently working with quantum sound therapy, to become certified in voice code analysis so she can help people leave their anxiety and stress behind as they raise their vibration.

Follow along on Catherine’s journey:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-stratta-bipolar-expert/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/movebeyondbipolar/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/beyond_bipolar?igshid=YmtuOWJ5OGF1cm1w

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@move_beyond

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About Kimberly:

Kimberly Marshall is an ICF-certified Energy and Intuition coach for highly sensitive people (HSPs) and host of The Happy HSP Podcast. After 20 years in the publishing industry working for companies like Time Inc., Monster.com, and W. W. Norton, she left her corporate career to pursue work that better suited her HSP needs. She now helps HSPs reconnect with their intuition, energy, and soul’s purpose so they can live gentle, heart-centered lives in alignment with who they truly are.

Through her work, Kimberly hopes to shed more light on the reality of living with high sensitivity and inspire more HSPs to embrace their empathetic, loving, and gentle natures.

• Hosted/produced by Kimberly Marshall

• Edited by Fonzie Try Media

• Artwork by Tara Corola