Introducing the Shapeshifting Crone
TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE
Everything is political. Whether you vote or not, the quality of the air you breathe, the food you eat, and the water you drink is determined by legislation and regulation. We all live within borders determined by politics. What we learn in school is foundational knowledge that informs our perception of history, science, the arts and humanities, and beyond. Education is influenced by politics. Political influencers have had a chilling effect on what is taught in schools in recent years, such as bans on critical race theory because it offends racists. Unmitigated gun violence has become the norm in the US. Critical thinking, digital and media literacy, and emotional intelligence are essential skills that shape our worldview. Not everyone is afforded access to developing these skills, and it’s often political by design. Culture wars keep voters bickering and the status quo remains. Populations remain oppressed by the systems designed to “keep them in their place.”
Capitalism devours everything: Earth’s natural resources and our health and well-being. You don’t have to have an explicitly traumatic past fraught with abuse to feel the pressure of chronic, lifelong stress. Our lifestyles: the endless hustle, the push for infinite growth, rising prices and a never-ending roll-out of subscription services, rage bait on social media, civic unrest in a time of intense political turmoil, pollution and environmental stressors due to over-resourcing and climate change, all contribute to the very physical impacts of chronic stress. And it’s making people sick.
I was diagnosed with Complex PTSD (CPTSD) at the age of 51. Suddenly, my fragmented mind and chronic health problems made sense, like all the pieces of a puzzle falling in place. Since then, I’ve spent the last 5 years studying the neurobiology of CPTSD, somatic therapy, and polyvagal theory. As someone who has suffered decades of medical problems that were often dismissed and minimized, medical trauma after medical trauma piled up on top of the trauma I endured as a child. It took 30 years to be diagnosed with endometriosis. One of the surgeons who operated on me was as angry as I was about the negligence, especially after I told her I’d been complaining about the debilitating pain since I was in my 20s.
I’d started advocating for using patient experiences to improve healthcare when I started going through perimenopause, and my advocacy work has expanded into disability rights and mental health awareness. After giving a series of talks to medical students and healthcare providers about CPTSD and all the medical problems that come with it, I decided to create an educational platform about trauma-informed care—so welcome to The Shapeshifting Crone.
The Shapeshifting Crone is inspired by pre-Christian Irish history and lore. A good deal of my recovery work has been centered on decolonization, and works such as Dr. Jennifer Mullan’s Decolonizing Therapy helped me dig deep into how generational trauma shapes us, and a chapter on Irish heritage and the diaspora had a profound impact on my view of my family and the environment I was raised in. This platform will not only address CPTSD, chronic illness, and disability, but also the systems that are the root of complex trauma and the behaviors of said systems that exacerbate our symptoms.
In Irish lore, the bean feasa, or wise woman, was said to be a healer of trauma.(1) They were sometimes of otherworldly origin or served as mediators with the otherworld, helping communities in times of crisis. The Shapeshifting Crone will use examples from the lore to explain concepts of trauma and offer guidance and a library of resources about trauma-informed care and managing CPTSD.
I’m here because after writing a fiery blog post about experiencing medical trauma as someone with CPTSD, I was invited to give talks to medical students and healthcare professionals about the neurobiology of complex trauma and what trauma-informed care should look like. On one panel, after I gave my talk, I was silenced during the Q&A session because I wasn’t a licensed mental health professional. The doctors on the panel were unable to answer some of the questions they were asked, but I had the answers. With my mic silenced, I sat there and steamed about how performative the event felt. I was out there sharing my story so others might have a better chance at getting diagnosed earlier, to be taken more seriously in medical settings, and yet, I walked away feeling like I was just an item on the event organizer’s checklist.(2)
Since then, I’ve earned three certifications about trauma-informed care, and I’m at that phase of the menopausal transition where being silenced about mental health and healthcare feels like a crime against humanity. I’m not shying away from uncomfortable topics. I live with Long COVID and will be sharing what the research says about the long-term effects of the virus. This will (hopefully!) be a good resource for people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses who have experienced medical trauma. I also work in healthcare, and will share what I know to help people advocate for themselves and their loved ones. I’ll also share everything I can about trauma-informed care for anyone working in healthcare, education, or other profession. Everything I do, from my day job to my advocacy work, is dedicated to improving communication and quality of care.
In ancient lore, the crone was an outlier, someone who occupied a liminal space and provided help with an air of eccentricity. As Clarissa Pinkola Estés says in her series on the archetype of the crone, “Behave yourself...barely. Behave yourself by submitting yourself to the wise and wild forest, not the collective. Behave yourself by keeping your promises to daring and courage and creativity and to the wisdom source you say you follow.”(3)
Thank you for visiting. I look forward to inviting you to the crone’s sacred space, in the heart of that wise and wild forest.
Your friendly and feisty shapeshifting crone,
Lee Frost
Sources and Notes
1. The Book of the Cailleach: Stories of the Wise Woman Healer, Gearóid Ó Crualaoich. Cork University Press, 2003.
2. Note to healthcare conference organizers: please read Dr. Rageshri Dhairyawan’s Unheard: The Practice of Medical Silencing. It’s an amazing resource that can help you prepare a good experience for patients who are invited to share their experiences!
3. The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Sounds True, 2010 (audiobook)