76. Menopause, Trauma & Psychosis: Holistic Approaches in Midlife & Undoing Patriarchal Conditioning with Leah Harris, Lynda Wisdo & Marie Brown

One of the most overlooked experiences is menopause and perimenopause and impact on mental health. Societally we treat it like a disease or an ‘untapped market’ to sell more products. Many people feel isolated and alone in their mind-life experiences, and for some this can have extreme consequences. Today we have three experts by experience and training talking about how the system fails menopausal people and sharing their lived experiences in approaching this time of life as an incredibly transformative experience.

We also discuss:

• how early trauma and sexual abuse can re-emerge in midlife
• the “second peak” of psychosis
• spiritual emergency and holistic healing

• dealing with mortality and fear of dying
• sacred rage in menopause
• developing new archetypes for the "elder"
• the medicalization of pms and menopause
• hormone replacement therapies, estradial, etc.
• diagnostic overshadowing
• capitalism and the menopause “market”

Bios

Leah Harris is a psychiatric survivor, activist, and independent journalist. Their work examines mental health and disability policy, with a focus on deinstitutionalization and involuntary psychiatric intervention. Leah's writing appears in Truthout, the Disability Visibility Project, The Progressive, and Mad in America; and in the anthologies We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health (North Atlantic Books (https://www.wevebeentoopatient.org/⁠) and the forthcoming Mad Studies Reader (Routledge). Their memoir-in-progress, NONCOMPLIANT, traces two generations of psychiatric survivorship and resistance in their family, alongside in-depth reporting and analysis of America's failed mental health policies. https://www.leahiharris.com/

Lynda Wisdo, MA, CYT: Lynda is a survivor of childhood trauma and a menopause/trauma-related Spiritual Emergency.  After several years of mind/body healing, she went on to earn an MA degree in Transpersonal Studies and Spiritual Guidance along with certifications in Trauma-Informed Yoga, Transpersonal Hypnosis, Reiki, and Tarot for Women.  She has written a memoir about her experience with spiritual emergency titled Menopause in Crisis—When Spiritual Emergency Meets the Feminine Midlife Passage (⁠https://menopauseincrisis.weebly.com⁠) her hope being to offer insights and support to women who may be undergoing similar experiences.  She can be reached through her websites at https://lyndawisdo.weebly.com  or by email at [e-mail]

• Trauma & Menopause Conference 2024: Healing the Effects of Trauma Through the Challenges of Perimenopause with Lynda Wisdo, MA, CYT https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trauma-menopause-conference-2024-the-intersection-of-trauma-menopause-tickets-798528298637

Marie Brown, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist working in private practice and the public mental health system in New York City. She is the current President of the US Chapter of the International Society for the Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis and an original co-founder of Hearing Voices Network NYC. She is co-editor of Women & Psychosis: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (with Marilyn Charles) https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498591935/Women-and-Psychosis-Multidisciplinary-Perspectives⁠ and Emancipatory Perspectives on Madness (with Robin Brown) https://www.routledge.com/Emancipatory-Perspectives-on-Madness-Psychological-Social-and-Spiritual/Brown-Brown/p/book/9780367360160⁠. Website: https://mariebrownphd.com/ Twitter: @BrownMarieC

Resources:

Yale Study on Menopause & Psychosis + All resources mentioned here:

https://www.jazminerussell.com/blog/menopause-trauma-psychosis-holistic-approaches-in-midlife-undoing-patriarchal-conditioning

Sessions & Information about the host: ⁠⁠JazmineRussell.com⁠⁠

Disclaimer: The DEPTH Work Podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any information on this podcast in no way to be construed or substituted as psychological counseling, psychotherapy, mental health