Episode 81: Dr. Valerie Rein - Patriarchy Stress Disorder

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -0400

When I first heard the term “Patriarchy Stress Disorder,” I had a gestalt moment. In an instant, it seemed, I experienced a revelation of magnitude in which I could see the formerly invisible structure that I had existed within and that had impacted me for my entire life, but for which I had no name.

Listen in as Dr. Valerie Rein exposes the system of oppression the majority of us have been impacted by, but few of us have a context or a name for. Hear for yourself why her work is being hailed as the most important work of our time.

Dr. Valerie Rein has discovered Patriarchy Stress Disorder (PSD) and created the only science-backed system for helping women achieve their ultimate success, happiness, and fulfillment by healing the intergenerational trauma of oppression. She holds an EdM in Psychological Counseling from Columbia University and a PhD in Psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Her bestselling book, “Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women’s Happiness and Fulfillment” has been heralded by Amazon reviewers as "the most important body of literary work of our modern times" and "perhaps the most important book of the century for women." Her cutting-edge programs have helped thousands of women shift from survival to thriving and master the game of "How good can it get?" in their work and personal lives.

PATRIARCHY STRESS DISORDER (PSD) is generational collective trauma or oppression that women have experienced in the patriarchy for thousands and thousands of years. It manifests in multiple ways but ultimately creates an invisible barrier to women’s ultimate success, happiness, and fulfillment.
Most of us are socially conditioned to be “Good Girls,” “A Good Wife,” and “A Good Mother,” and as long as we live a life of compliance, we don’t experience a lot of friction.
Most women are not in touch with our desires; we simply follow the tracks laid down by the Patriarchy in terms of what roles we can fill and how we can live.
However, once we can see the invisible barrier, we begin the “jailbreak” journey, where we start to reach for our authentic desires and access our inner liberation.
One of the most significant issues women face is not having role models of women living fully actualized lives who have stepped fully into their own sovereignty and feeling whole in all areas of their lives.
Women may have mastered their lives in one area but still have trouble relaxing, being playful, or considering themselves successful. They can’t identify what’s wrong or what’s holding them back, and this is when the psychology of PSD really begins to get interesting because this oppression lives in our nervous systems, and it must be released and expelled.
When women go from surviving to thriving, once this hidden system of oppression has been revealed, a daily practice and community are essential to keeping the work alive.

Links:

Episode 31: Margaret Klein Salamon - Facing Climate Fears

Monica Rodgers | Revelation Media LLC — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 23:00:00 -0400

Margaret Klein Salamon, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist turned climate warrior whose work helps people to face the deeply frightening and painful truths of the climate emergency and to transform their despair into effective action. She is the founder and executive director of The Climate Mobilization, which advocates an all-hands-on-deck, whole society mobilization to protect humanity and the living world from climate catastrophe. Her book, Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, is a radical self-help guide for the climate emergency.

I heard about Margaret through Humanity Rising and reached out for an interview when I heard her talk about the emotional disconnect we humans have in facing the climate crisis. I became deeply curious about the root cause of this and wanted to dive more deeply into revealing the answers.

When I read her book, I was struck by one of the first paragraphs:

“Inside all of us, a battle rages. It’s the battle between knowing and not knowing, between fully facing the truth — emotionally, as well as intellectually — and shrinking from it. We sense we’re in a climate emergency and mass extinction event, but we have a deep-seated psychological instinct to defend against that knowledge. The pain is shouting at us: “Everything is dying!” Somewhere inside, we know that humanity and the natural world are in peril. Indeed, we feel the horrors of civilizational collapse and the sixth mass extinction of species, in our bodies. Our minds attempt to shield us from this pain — we avoid, distract, deny, and numb ourselves. But these defenses work only temporarily: When we fail to process our emotions and mourn our losses, the pain takes on tremendous power. It follows us around like a shadow, and we become increasingly desperate to avoid what we know.”

I often talk about our social training ground and our society’s obsession with avoiding our emotions. I’m struck by the parallels between our stunted ability to process our suppressed emotion and our inability to truly feel what’s happening to our planet.

But I love Margaret’s attitude in this excerpt:

“We — humanity — are putting together a team of heroes to cancel the apocalypse, to protect ourselves and the natural world from catastrophic collapse. You might not realize it, but you are on the roster. Your jersey is sitting in your locker. We need to figure out your position and get you into (emotional) shape. The first step is to show up to practice. We are waiting for you.”

In Facing The Climate Crisis, Margaret also surfaces the teachings of Fromm, who postulated that the only reason people would not rise against the possibility of worldwide nuclear destruction was that they were already experiencing devastating destruction, internally. This validates my deeper knowing around our own unconscious self-loathing - the idea that it is unconscious makes me even more motivated to help us realize that the very symptoms we think are normal are actually not, and are, in fact, unhealthy and very destructive.

There are so many symptoms of self-loathing. The very idea that any of us would not feel a measure of panic and deep grief at the reality we are facing is in itself a testament to how disconnected from our true nature we are. It also shows a deep disconnect from love and respect for ourselves and for others.

Margaret shares the bottom line:

“To solve the climate and ecological emergency, we must transform our destructive economy into a regenerative one, and we must do it at emergency speed. We don’t just need zero emissions in every sector; we need huge carbon drawdown projects that restore ecosystems and the soil. We need permaculture and food localization; we need an end to mass consumerism and endless growth; we need to give back half the Earth to nature to restore biodiversity, and we need to create a society based on protecting and healing humanity and the natural world. This means transforming not only our energy, agricultural, transportation, and industrial systems — it means transforming ourselves”

I would add that the path to transforming ourselves is the path inward to loving ourselves.

Links:

The Revelation Project - Episodes Tagged with “Social Conditioning”

Episode 81: Dr. Valerie Rein - Patriarchy Stress Disorder

Episode 31: Margaret Klein Salamon - Facing Climate Fears