Reclaiming rest, resilience, and relief: Erin’s journey through menopause with Evia

“I probably started having hot flashes a year and a half ago,” she said, “but when I look back, I’d been struggling with sleep since 2013. It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve slept through the night.”

At 51, Erin had spent years attributing her symptoms to stress, burnout, or poor lifestyle habits. “I was waking up hot and drenched in sweat, dragging myself through the day, thinking I was just overwhelmed or run down. But eventually I realized – this wasn’t just stress. It was hormonal.”

Her symptoms went far beyond hot flashes. Erin experienced palpitations, dry skin, itchy eyes, joint pain, weight gain, migraines, and even hair loss. “I went to the ER with heart palpitations. After spending thousands on tests, they told me it might be anxiety. I’d never had anxiety before. But then I saw on social media that palpitations were a perimenopause symptom. Everything started to click.”

Like many women, Erin began piecing things together on her own through social media, podcasts, and conversations in her community. “We just don’t talk about menopause enough. I had no idea that symptoms like dry eyes or brain fog were part of it. But once I started connecting the dots, I knew I wanted to find a way to manage all this naturally.”

Finding a non-hormonal solution that worked

Erin wasn’t ready to consider hormone therapy. “I’ve always reacted strangely to medication. And with cancer in my family, I wanted to avoid pharmaceuticals for as long as possible. I was already cutting caffeine, doing Pilates, intermittent fasting, switching supplements – doing everything I could to get healthier.”

That’s when she heard about Evia, a clinically validated hypnotherapy app developed by researchers at Baylor University in the US. Designed specifically for women experiencing menopause symptoms like hot flashes and disrupted sleep, Evia offers a five-week structured program delivered entirely via mobile app. The sessions are based on more than two decades of research showing that clinical hypnotherapy can significantly reduce hot flash frequency and severity – often by up to 80% – without medication or hormones.

“I’d heard about Evia from someone in my recovery group,” Erin said. “She told me she used to have horrendous hot flashes after a hysterectomy and that she got relief through this program by listening to these guided sessions and imagining herself on a cool porch. That stuck with me.”

Though she was initially skeptical about hypnotherapy, past experience made her cautious rather than dismissive. “I had a bad experience with hypnotherapy 20 years ago and thought, ‘That’s not for me.’ But once I spoke to Dr. Gary Elkins, the creator of the program, I felt reassured. The whole approach felt meditative, not spiritual or strange. It was about relaxation, breathing, and calming your body.”

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Better sleep, fewer hot flashes, and emotional calm

The impact was almost immediate. “Now, I’m sleeping through the night. If I do wake up, the hot flash is mild and I fall back asleep quickly. That alone has changed everything. I wake up and I don’t feel horrible anymore.”

While the program offers a variety of hypnotherapy sessions with different themes, Erin preferred listening consistently to the ‘Deep Lake’ session every night as she went to bed. “It’s 17 minutes long, but I’m out cold before the end. On nights I hear the whole thing, I know I’ve had too much stress or caffeine. It helps me track my own health.”

She also incorporated morning sessions from the app’s daily rotation. “Some resonated more than others, and over the five weeks, I figured out which ones worked best for me. They’ve become part of my morning routine now.”

Hot flashes during the day didn’t disappear completely, but became far more manageable. “If I’m at a conference or a crowded room and I feel one coming on, I take a breath, imagine that porch, and it passes. I’m not knocked flat anymore.”

Whole-body healing, from migraines to mood

Beyond physical relief, Evia brought benefits Erin hadn’t expected. “My migraines went away. I’m less anxious. I’ve become way more chill – noticeably more relaxed. And I think the biggest change is that I’ve gotten better at setting boundaries. I listen to my body more.”

She also noticed a shift in how she related to menopause. “I used to push through everything. Now I hit pause when things feel off. I can recognize when my environment’s causing stress. It’s not just about hot flashes – it’s emotional insight, too.”

The daily hypnotherapy sessions helped her develop a new kind of self-compassion. “There’s so much emphasis in the program on kindness to yourself, on feeling safe, on letting go of tension. I didn’t even realize how much tension I’d been carrying in my back until those sessions walked me through releasing it.”

A message for clinicians

For clinicians looking to support women through menopause with evidence-based, drug-free tools, Erin believes Evia is a powerful option. “It’s not hypnosis like you see on TV. It’s not about being out of control or manipulated. It’s guided meditation with clinical purpose – and it works.”

She encourages women to try it, even if they’re skeptical. “Menopause is happening whether we like it or not. We’re going to spend time and money dealing with it. Why not try something that improves your sleep, lowers your stress, and gives you back control in just a few weeks?”

Erin isn’t ruling out hormone therapy someday, but for now, she’s grateful to have found Evia. “This was the first thing that actually helped. And not just with hot flashes – it helped me sleep, it helped me breathe, and it helped me be a better version of myself. That’s worth everything.”

Explore the science behind Evia

In Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy: What You Need to Know, Dr. Gary Elkins shares the clinical foundations behind programs like Evia. His new book offers a practical, research-backed guide to using hypnosis for symptom relief. 

Purchase the book

It only takes 15 minutes a day to start feeling better – try Evia.

Take control of your menopause experience – discover how Evia can help with sleep, hot flashes, and more.

*Name has been changed for privacy

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