In today’s fast-paced world, women are facing an unprecedented level of stress. Many are juggling careers, caregiving, relationships, and personal wellbeing, all while trying to stay afloat. The result is a growing wave of burnout, anxiety, and hormone-related challenges that often go unaddressed or misunderstood.

In a recent episode of Therapist Unplugged, Laurie Poole welcomed clinical herbalist Nicole Haglund to explore the deep connection between women’s mental health, hormonal balance, and the healing wisdom of Chinese medicine.

From Personal Healing to Professional Calling

Nicole’s journey into holistic health began in her teenage years. After battling anorexia and later helping her husband reverse Crohn’s disease through nutrition and herbal medicine, she felt called to understand the deeper root causes of illness—physical, emotional, and energetic. Today, she supports women in finding balance through personalized herbal remedies and the diagnostic traditions of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Burnout Often Signals Something Deeper

Nicole sees a familiar pattern in her practice: women who are constantly exhausted, anxious, emotionally overwhelmed, and physically depleted. These symptoms don’t exist in isolation. Chronic stress disrupts sleep, digestion, hormone regulation, and mood.

“When you’re tired and stressed all the time, your sleep suffers. Then it becomes a vicious cycle,” Nicole explains.

Rather than addressing each symptom individually, she looks at how these issues connect. Her work focuses on energetic patterns and root causes, helping women find lasting relief without relying solely on medication.

Tongue Diagnosis as a Window Into the Body

One of Nicole’s most fascinating tools is tongue diagnosis, a traditional Chinese method where the tongue’s appearance reveals imbalances in specific organ systems. In one case, a client with severe depression and anxiety had a deep purple tongue, which indicated blood stagnation in the heart. After five months of herbal treatment, her symptoms and tongue color both improved dramatically.

This approach underscores something many women instinctively know: the mind and body are in constant conversation.

Supporting Hormonal Health with Ancient Wisdom

Chinese medicine offers valuable insight into life transitions like perimenopause and menopause. Nicole explained that in a healthy system, the adrenal glands gradually take over hormone production as the ovaries slow down. However, when a woman is already chronically stressed, those adrenal glands are often depleted. This can lead to hot flashes, insomnia, and other menopausal symptoms.

By supporting adrenal health through herbs, nutrition, and intentional lifestyle shifts, women can move through these transitions with more ease and far fewer symptoms.

Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening?

A recurring theme in this conversation was learning to trust what your body is trying to tell you. Whether it shows up as a gut feeling, emotional sensitivity, or physical symptoms, Nicole encourages clients to reconnect with what she calls the body’s “inner GPS.” These messages are not malfunctions. They are signals. At The Montfort Group, we often say that healing begins when we stop overriding the body and start honoring it.

Key Takeaways for Women’s Mental and Hormonal Wellness

• Chronic stress affects hormone regulation, sleep, digestion, and emotional balance

• Chinese medicine focuses on patterns and root causes rather than isolated symptoms

• Supporting adrenal health is key during perimenopause and menopause

• Your symptoms are messengers. Learning to listen is a powerful step toward healing

If you’re navigating anxiety, burnout, hormone changes, or chronic stress, this episode is for you. Discover natural, whole-person approaches that restore clarity, calm, and vitality by honoring both ancient wisdom and the intelligence of your own body.