The Yoga Psychology Centre

19/06/2026

Hello lovely new (and not so new!) followers 👋

I’m Jill - a clinical psychologist and pregnancy yoga teacher.

For many years, I’ve worked as a perinatal psychologist supporting women experiencing anxiety and depression during pregnancy and early motherhood.

But it wasn’t until I went through my own pregnancy that I realised just how many thoughtful, capable women are quietly struggling beneath the surface.

Women who aren't necessarily experiencing a mental health difficulty or looking for therapy.

Women who are used to coping.

Used to figuring things out.

Used to being the person other people rely on.

Then pregnancy arrives and suddenly they're lying awake at 2am researching symptoms, second-guessing decisions, wondering why they can't seem to switch their brain off.

They don't feel like themselves.

And they can't understand why.

That’s the work I do now.

Helping women to understand why pregnancy can feel so much harder than they expected, and support them to move through it with more self-trust, confidence and ease.

Most of the women I work with don't actually need more information.

They need to stop treating a deeply human experience as evidence they're doing something wrong.

They want to trust themselves when uncertainty shows up.

To make decisions without endlessly replaying them afterwards.

To rest without feeling guilty.

To stop carrying everyone else's worries while ignoring their own.

To feel grounded enough to enjoy this chapter of their life instead of spending it trapped in overthinking, pressure and self-doubt.

If that sounds familiar, come say hi 💛

18/06/2026

Hello there! Thanks for coming to have a look at my page. Just a note that I'm much more active on Instagram these days than Facebook. So if you'd like to find out more about me and the work I do, do come and find me here:

215 Followers, 200 Following, 97 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Jill | Perinatal Psychologist & Pregnancy yoga teacher ()

15/06/2026

You’ve managed teams, published papers, won awards.

You've spent years proving to yourself that you're capable, competent and able to overcome challenges.

So why does pregnancy suddenly feel like the one thing you can't figure out?

You expected the nausea. The tiredness. The physical changes.

You didn't expect to lose trust in yourself.

To be sitting on the nursery floor, laptop open, six tabs deep into baby monitor reviews, and somehow feel less certain than when you started.

To leave a midwife appointment replaying something she said because you nodded along even though you had no idea what she meant.

To finally lie down for a rest and spend the next twenty minutes mentally rewriting your to-do list.

You've spent years building a life where effort gets results.

Then pregnancy arrives and the formula stops working.

The more you try to think your way through it, the more unsettled you seem to feel.

If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

I hear some version of this every week from the women I work with.

Women wondering what's wrong with them.

Women assuming they should be coping better.

Women treating a very understandable experience as evidence that they're somehow getting pregnancy wrong.

Because pregnancy isn't just changing your body.

It's changing your relationship with uncertainty, identity, control and trust.

And nobody talks about that part.

Most women don't need more advice.

They need more context.

If this feels like where you are, I've put together a free guide called The Missing Context that explores the bigger picture behind stress, overwhelm and uncertainty in pregnancy.

Pop your details here and I'll send it over to you: https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/missing-context-297490

Jill x

14/06/2026

You're used to being the woman with answers.

The one people come to for advice, the one who manages the moving parts, the one who gets things done.

Yet here you are, six tabs deep into baby monitor reviews, somehow feeling less certain than when you started.

The part nobody talks about is that pregnancy doesn't just change your body.

It changes the lens you're looking through.

The decisions that used to feel easy suddenly take three days.

You find yourself researching things you never thought twice about before.

You keep waiting to feel prepared, yet somehow the more prepared you become, the less certain you feel.

And because nobody warned you this might happen, it's easy to assume you're doing pregnancy badly.

I've lost count of the number of women who tell me:

"I thought I'd cope better than this."

The problem is that most women are trying to understand their experience without the full picture.

Without the context of what pregnancy is asking of their body, identity, relationships, and sense of self all at once.

Sometimes the biggest relief isn't fixing anything.

It's realising your experience makes sense.

I've put together a free guide called The Missing Context for exactly this reason.

If you've been wondering why pregnancy feels harder than expected, you can get your copy here: https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/missing-context-297490

13/06/2026

You wanted this.
You chose this.
You may even have waited a long time for this.

So why do so many capable, intelligent women find themselves wondering:

"Why am I finding pregnancy harder than I expected?"

Often it's because nobody has given them the full picture of what's happening beneath the surface.

The physical changes.
The identity shifts.
The uncertainty.
The nervous system adaptations.

The parts of pregnancy that rarely get talked about.

That's exactly why I created The Missing Context - a free guide that explains the bigger picture behind stress, overwhelm and uncertainty in pregnancy.

If you've been feeling unlike yourself lately, you can get your copy here: https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/missing-context-297490. ❤️

11/06/2026

Your body is doing something extraordinary right now.

Your brain is changing too.

If you've had a difficult journey to pregnancy, it makes sense that you might feel more vulnerable.

And despite what social media sometimes suggests, you don't have to feel grateful and glowing every minute of every day. You can love your baby deeply and still feel scared, overwhelmed, fed up, uncertain, or emotional.

The women I work with are often surprised by how difficult pregnancy feels.

They're thoughtful, capable women who are used to handling things well.

The kind of women who are successful at work, who research everything thoroughly, who usually find a way through challenges.

But pregnancy is different.

There is so much uncertainty.
So much change.
So much that can't be planned, solved, or controlled.

And when you're used to coping well, feeling unsettled can quickly turn into self-judgement.

"Why am I finding this so hard?"

"Why can't I switch off?"

"Why am I reacting like this?"

Often, they assume the answer is that they're simply not coping very well.

But what if there's more going on than that?

What if you're responding to a huge physical, emotional, and psychological transition in exactly the way a human being might respond?

What if you've simply been missing part of the picture?

If you've got a sneaky feeling there's more going on than simply "not coping very well", I made something for you.

It's a free guide exploring the missing context behind stress, overwhelm, and uncertainty in pregnancy.

You can get your copy here: https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/missing-context-297490

I'd love to know what you think.

06/06/2026

When pregnancy feels uncertain, many of us respond by doing more.

We research more.
Plan more.
Check more.
Prepare more.
Think more.

It makes sense.

We're trying to feel safe.

But often, no matter how much we do, the feeling we're looking for never quite arrives.

Yoga has a concept for this.

Aparigraha

Often translated as letting go or loosening our attachment to certainty and control.

It's the practice of recognising that sometimes what we need isn't more effort.

It's a different relationship with uncertainty.

The problem isn't preparation.
Preparation can be incredibly helpful.

But sometimes we're no longer preparing.

We're searching for certainty.

It can sound like:

"I just need a bit more information."
"I just want to be prepared."
"I just need to think this through one more time."

The question is:

Can you notice when preparation turns into a search for certainty?

One tends to leave you feeling informed.

The other tends to leave you feeling exhausted.

Aparigraha offers a different way.

Instead of:

"How can I make uncertainty go away?"

What if the question became:

"How can I meet uncertainty with a little more trust?"

Not trust that everything will go perfectly.

Trust that you can respond to whatever comes.

A small practice to try this week.
The next time you notice yourself reaching for one more article, one more checklist, or one more reassurance:

Pause.

Take a breath.

And ask yourself:

Am I looking for information?

Or am I looking for certainty?

Just noticing the difference can change a lot.

This is one of many yoga practices that can help you move through pregnancy with more steadiness and self-trust.

Follow along for the rest of the series and let me know your thoughts.

05/06/2026

You wanted this.

You chose this.

Maybe you spent months, or even years, hoping for this pregnancy.

So when people ask how you're feeling, it can seem like there's only one acceptable answer:

"Excited."
"Happy."
"Grateful."

And you are.

But that's not the whole story.

Because alongside the gratitude is something else.

The uncertainty.

The responsibility.

The feeling that your whole world is quietly shifting beneath your feet.

Nobody told you that you could feel deeply grateful for your pregnancy and still find it incredibly hard at times.

That you could love this baby already and still feel overwhelmed by everything that's changing.

That you could be excited and scared.

Certain and uncertain.

Ready and completely unprepared.

All at the same time.

I hear some version of this every week from the women I work with.

Women wondering why they're struggling to reconcile all these different feelings, when actually there's nothing to reconcile.

They’re all part of being human.

If pregnancy has been feeling harder than you expected, you're in the right place.

I'm a perinatal psychologist and yoga teacher, working with women who are finding pregnancy harder than they expected, and who know there must be a better way.

Hit follow, or come say hi in the DMs - I'd love to hear from you x

02/06/2026

Ever wondered what's really driving that?

Take the quiz to explore 10 everyday pregnancy moments that reveal the patterns many women get caught in.

You can find it here: https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/quiz

31/05/2026

Pregnancy can easily start feeling like a test.

A test of whether you're responsible enough.

Prepared enough.

Knowledgeable enough.

Maternal enough.

So what should be a simple choice suddenly feels loaded.

The pressure isn't coming from the decision itself.

It's coming from what the decision has come to mean.

As a psychologist working with pregnant women, I see this pattern all the time.

The wallpaper, the pram, the baby monitor. The decision changes, but the pressure underneath often stays the same.

If this feels familiar, my 3-minute quiz will help you understand the patterns that may be shaping your experience of pregnancy.

✨ Through 10 everyday pregnancy scenarios, you'll discover what happens when self-doubt, pressure, and the need to get it right start taking over.

And what you can do about it.

You can find it here:
https://go.theyogapsychologycentre.co.uk/quiz