Cowbridge Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We will be profiling some of these businesses and organisations in a feature called 'Up Close in Cowbridge'.

Today we're with Sarah Jane Marshall, a local hypnotherapist, to talk about mental health and wellbeing.

For many, the past 18 months have been the most disruptive, confusing and trialling period, what with waves of Covid infections, lockdowns and separations from those we love the most.

That's why caring for our mental health is more important than ever.

Sarah Jane Marshall is a solution-focused brief therapist and hypnotherapist based in the heart of Cowbridge.

Nub News sat down with Sarah to find out what can be done to improve mental wellbeing.

"Solution-focused brief therapy looks at creating things to help with your future, rather than analysing what happened in your past," she explained.

"The focus is making next week better than this week.

"We've got our optic brain, which what humans evolved to have and we don't share it other animals. It's how we cope and make decisions.

"But we've also got our primitive brain and this is the same one we share with monkeys. That's the one that tells us to 'fight or flight'. It's a quicker brain and sometimes it takes over.

"What we work on is helping the conscious brain be more in control, rather than the primitive and get them to work together."

Sarah's knowledge comes not only from her qualifications, but from first-hand experience of coping with mental health issues.

An army wife, her husband was often away for long periods of time.

Sarah described how she discovered a fascination for the human brain while being treated herself.

"I had really, really bad depression," said Sarah.

"I have six children, and I suffered really badly with post-natal depression.

"But my treatment made me want to do a psychology degree, I just found the human brain so interesting.

"I wanted to know what was wrong with me, but I realised there wasn't anything wrong with me, it's just that my brain needs to be programmed a bit differently."

The isolation and uncertainty of lockdown has made us much more aware of our mental health needs, and Sarah spoke of the benefits of addressing them.

"People are thinking and talking more about mental health, after being in lockdown," said Sarah.

"Everyone was carrying on and carrying on until they crashed. Now, some are coming and saying they felt good when they had time off and are wondering how they can get back to that.

"The waiting list for getting help through your doctor is so long, but there are people like myself in our communities that are trained.

"I love working with people and seeing the change. They come back lighter, their faces look younger. I'm very luck to get to work with them every day."

For those apprehensive about taking their first steps in therapy, Sarah reassured that it would be a comfortable and understanding experience.

"Phone or email me or come and have a chat. I'm very approachable and down to earth," she said.

"I offer a free initial consultation to explain how it all works and give a free MP3 to help get used to my voice and feel relaxed.

"There's no stigma or judgement of your mental health, because I have literally been at the bottom, and I've climbed out."

To find out more, visit https://sarah-janemarshall.com/