The idea for Papalona came to me (slowly) over years of practice as a hypnotherapist and in the early years of being a mum.
I was struck by how treatment for the vast majority of my clients involved looking at and replacing issues that they had unwittingly absorbed in childhood. And I was always in awe of how quickly they could be healed when we unlocked the debilitating belief and replaced it with one that was so much healthier for their wellbeing. I kept wondering how many of us had been taught to play small, to keep quiet, to think we weren’t good enough or that we’d never be slim or healthy or fit in or good at maths or any of the 1000s of issues that presented, masked under symptoms of panic attacks, anger outbursts, over-eating, addiction and low self-esteem (to name but a few).
And what would our lives had been like it we’d never absorbed that belief or if it had been rectified when we were still young??
It was only when I became a mother myself, that I realised that I had no idea what beliefs my kids were absorbing – I only knew that telling that I loved them and they were enormously important to me wouldn’t counteract the constantly hassling them to hurry or leave me alone when I was answering emails…. Let aside trying to actively counter the huge amounts of messages they were getting via tv and social media (and their peers in the playground) that they weren’t cool, thin, clever, pretty or “x” enough
And I also realised that there was nothing available for stressed mums like me to support our kids mental health without adding another onerous “should” to my already burgeoning list.
In short, Papalona was inspired by a few fundamental principles:
- Encouraging good mental health (or treating people whose mental health is suffering) doesn’t have to be hard or challenging;
- There’s a lot that we can positively do to ensure our children’s mental health;
- It shouldn’t be hard or time consuming and it should be easy for parents’ to use; and in fact
- Anything that can help parents too – has to be a good thing
Over the last year or so since we first launched, it’s been wonderful to see how much our recordings have helped so many people of all ages – to children starting nursery or being scared of the dark, older children struggling with confidence, resilience, and eating disorders or adults suffering from anxiety or insomnia. Every testimonial has made my heart sing.
But I realised that I wanted our recordings to be even more accessible to everyone. If your child has a single issue that you want to treat, then an individual purchase which can be repeatedly played makes sense. But what if there are multiple issues and you don’t know where to start? Or what if you have a couple of kids with different issues and frankly, you could do with something to help you stop being quite so frazzled?
During lockdown, people were sharing their favourite Netflix films and I thought what a great model – being able to access the films or box sets you wanted to watch, without having to pay full price or have them clog up your hard drive. Streaming allows you to watch what you want, when you want. And it makes it easy to recommend things to mates too.
And so our membership programme was born. Easy access to all the recordings you want – streamed from any device. And unlike Netflix whose films whilst enjoyable are soon forgotten, the results of streaming our audios are long-lasting.
We want as many people to access the recordings as possible – because we firmly believe that good mental health should be accessible for all. So we have 2 tiers to our membership programme.
Our Core package includes the key tracks that we consider are fundamental to everyone’s good mental health. Listening to our Calm & Relaxed, Confidence, Resilience, and Optimism tracks will generally bring palpable results whatever the issue. And of course, for not very much more, our Premium package gives access to a wide variety of tracks specifically tailored to help support people with issues such as anxiety, anger, body confidence, making friends, developing a love of learning and so on – with new tracks being regularly added.
And all our members also discounts of purchases and access to a supportive private Facebook group where they can ask questions and seek advice in relation to their own particular issues.
Because Papalona is also about community.
Being a parent may be wonderful and fulfilling at times- but it’s also hard, and challenging and it can often feel very, very lonely. Not anymore. At Papalona, we want to support you – whatever it is that you and your family are going through – you won’t have to do it alone.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our Membership scheme – take a look at our Join Us tab and explore all the options available….