I am 41 and almost finished with my master’s degree in Counseling, but because it has taken me longer than the program allows, I cannot use anymore financial aid to complete the program. I actually only have about $9k left in my lifetime aid anyway, so I still need about $27,000 to finish my degree.
I struggled throughout my entire life due to being raised in a sexist and highly abusive cult, and as an adult I have struggled with PTSD, panic disorder, agoraphobia, sleep disorders, and PMDD. COVID just amplified all of these things.
Still, I’ve maintained my creativity and worked as a ghostwriter and editor in the spirituality, self-help, and memoir niches. I am writing a magical realism memoir series about my life, a non-fiction series about the cycles of time, and a few other books from the perspective of a spiritual guide. I am highly intuitive and empathic. I am dedicated and driven, I just had such a horrific upbringing that I was ejected into the “real world” outside of the cult community with zero real-life awareness or skills.
As a result, I destroyed my credit and lived on student loans. Growing up I was told as a woman I didn’t need an education because my job was to marry and have as many babies as possible and to be a housewife. I was never taught common sense or how to budget in the world, because my parents assumed I would never leave the cult. They were wrong. I started having doubts at age five, began to hate the cult at age twelve, and full-on rebelled at fifteen. I was only legally able to leave at eighteen, or they would have tracked me down and then sent me to a cult brainwashing “recovery” center.
Luckily I am emotionally intelligent and highly creative, and I received a bachelor’s degree in General Studies with an emphasis on Creative Writing and Philosophy. I have a very curious appetite for knowledge, and I score high in less popular forms of intelligence such as linguistic, musical, intrapersonal, emotional, existential, and creative.
Because of the mind control and ritual abuse practiced by this particular cult, my left brain was destroyed, so my logical brain struggled for many years in the way of numbers, directions, measurements, and common-sense-type things in general. I began to teach myself these things in my late 20s and feel now that I’m much better off than I was then. However, the financial mistakes I made have put serious limits on my life now. I’ve completely cut off from my entire family and my past (I even legally changed my name), so I have NO ONE to help me if I fall.
I would also love to get a car so that I can seek out more healing. I have mostly repressed my childhood and teenage years because of the disturbing things that happened. I have recently found a therapist who uses exposure therapy to help with traumatic memories, and of course, medicaid doesn’t cover it, and it’s not cheap. I would love to have some financial support to do as much healing as possible, so that I can a) be the best counselor I can be, b) author my own books in a way that can transform readers, and c) attempt to create and maintain healthy intimate relationships without fear of betrayal, abuse, or abandonment.
I have studied divination and astrology for over twenty years, I would happily try to create some kind of energetic equilibrium by providing readings for anyone who is open to donating to my cause (and essentially, the success and direction of my life). Thank you for listening.