My own path has involved a lot of adventure and travel. From voyaging across the world, and exploring different cultures and communities, I have been able to learn different languages, connect with people from diverse backgrounds, and develop more compassion for others. My daughter will be a young woman who holds a love for the world and other countries. She will be inspired by difference and curious about connection. Due to my own love of travel, I have sought better opportunities for myself and my daughter in the U.S. I am naturally brave and feel proud of the way I've attacked any obstacles in my way. When I got married, I quickly discovered that the man I thought I knew was abusive. I fled from that situation and stayed with friends until I was able to get back on my feet. It was after that when I enrolled in the Masters program to study Marriage and Family Therapy as I knew that study would provide me with the means of not being dependent on anyone. I intend to share and teach the importance of education to my daughter. She will see the doors that open when you have invested in your learning. My parents didn't pursue study, nor did any members of my family. I'm from a working class background where further education doesn't seem necessary. Their approach is to finish mandatory school, get a job that pays the bills and survive. However, I wanted more and I want more for my daughter. I want her to be able to pursue happiness, not merely pass through life on a minimum wage. Education is a sacrifice, but it's a worthwhile quest. When she is old enough to understand, I will share with her the struggles of my attempts to attain my degree, but she will see and live the fruits and know that it was worth it for me and it will be worth it for her. I've always cared about helping others around me. Presently, I'm supporting a family of refugees who have just moved to the US. They need assistance setting up accommodation, transportation, schooling, getting employment and getting started with a lawyer. Thus, a value of mine is giving back to others. My daughter, throughout her life, especially as she gets older, will be involved with me as we volunteer to assist people who need a helping hand. She will see for herself how good it feels to be kind and generous to others. I hope kindness will become a part of her that she carries throughout her life. Thank you for considering me for this scholarship.

I grew up internationally in a less-than-ideal setting, so I soon had to employ mental health professionals in order to heal, develop self-esteem, and learn coping strategies.  I care deeply for others and possess empathy, so naturally, I wanted to be in the helping professions. I embarked on teaching middle/high school and while I did enjoy developing relationships with my students, I realized that to really affect change, I would need to work in the field of therapy. When teaching in the British school system, one young girl in my care came from an abusive situation and was placed in foster care. She left her previous school and had filed against a teacher for sexual abuse, yet, they later discovered it was invented. Other teachers were afraid of working with her, but I saw a young girl desperate for adult attention who was emotionally starved. She came into school early every morning so we could sit down, and talk about how she was going to survive the day without getting suspended, expelled, or getting into a fight. She was expelled from most of her classes and sent to me, and I would try to accommodate her in whichever class I was teaching at the time. Sadly, the school environment proved too challenging for a girl struggling with problems with emotional regulation, anger management, and other trauma-related effects. After a particularly gruesome fight where she left another girl injured, she was sent to a pupil referral unit, which is essentially a school for those who are not allowed in the mainstream school system anymore. It was painful to watch a girl I had mentored for years be condemned to a unit where most children would soon enter the prison system. This experience haunted me. Leaving the teaching profession a few years later, my desire to help people continued when I decided to be a marriage and family therapist. I want to work with people who struggle to remain in society and find their place. Trauma caused the student I mentioned to exhibit harmful behaviors and I often wonder how her life could look if she had been given the warm support of a healing therapeutic relationship to help her overcome her past. Indeed, my own story involved abuse and I had to work with therapists for years to process my experiences. I didn’t have good social skills until I was 18 because of the impact of my childhood. Even though I was a late starter, I now feel very competent and confident in my relationships and have a wonderful community around me. I entered my studies to equip others with those same skills and to be the advocate for someone who needed someone to stand with them. I chose Marital and Family Therapy specifically because it will give me the grounding to become a therapist.  The level of public awareness of the effects of trauma, mental health issues, and behavioral and personality disorders is increasing. With that, people are more open to choosing a type of mental and emotional healing to help them achieve a sense of freedom. Therapy is important due to its focus on overcoming behavioral patterns by transforming thought. As a registered yoga teacher, I am passionate about the use of the body to access emotions that are buried in the conscious but are held physically. Unlocking breath and movement can reach a client in a domain that their mind can't access. I would hope to include somatic therapies to cross emotional bridges that words can't cross.

I grew up internationally in a less-than-ideal setting, so I soon had to employ mental health professionals in order to heal, develop self-esteem, and learn coping strategies.  I care deeply for others and possess empathy, so naturally, I wanted to be in the helping professions. I embarked on teaching middle/high school and while I did enjoy developing relationships with my students, I realized that to really affect change, I would need to work in the field of therapy. When teaching in the British school system, one young girl in my care came from an abusive situation and was placed in foster care. She left her previous school and had filed against a teacher for sexual abuse, yet, they later discovered it was invented. Other teachers were afraid of working with her, but I saw a young girl desperate for adult attention who was emotionally starved. She came into school early every morning so we could sit down, and talk about how she was going to survive the day without getting suspended, expelled, or getting into a fight. She was expelled from most of her classes and sent to me, and I would try to accommodate her in whichever class I was teaching at the time. Sadly, the school environment proved too challenging for a girl struggling with problems with emotional regulation, anger management, and other trauma-related effects. After a particularly gruesome fight where she left another girl injured, she was sent to a pupil referral unit, which is essentially a school for those who are not allowed in the mainstream school system anymore. It was painful to watch a girl I had mentored for years be condemned to a unit where most children would soon enter the prison system. This experience haunted me. Leaving the teaching profession a few years later, my desire to help people continued when I decided to be a marriage and family therapist. I want to work with people who struggle to remain in society and find their place. Trauma caused the student I mentioned to exhibit harmful behaviors and I often wonder how her life could look if she had been given the warm support of a healing therapeutic relationship to help her overcome her past. Indeed, my own story involved abuse and I had to work with therapists for years to process my experiences. I didn’t have good social skills until I was 18 because of the impact of my childhood. Even though I was a late starter, I now feel very competent and confident in my relationships and have a wonderful community around me. I entered my studies to equip others with those same skills and to be the advocate for someone who needed someone to stand with them. I chose Marital and Family Therapy specifically because it will give me the grounding to become a therapist.  The level of public awareness of the effects of trauma, mental health issues, and behavioral and personality disorders is increasing. With that, people are more open to choosing a type of mental and emotional healing to help them achieve a sense of freedom. Therapy is important due to its focus on overcoming behavioral patterns by transforming thought. I am especially interested in specializing in treating young people and young adults. Following advice from a therapist friend, I would initially choose to work in a hospital or center where I am exposed to multiple conditions and traumas; the severity of these cases would give me a solid background and an ability to deal with multiple challenges. Eventually, I would hope to employ techniques I learn to be able to help a patient become more self-actualized and give them techniques and the confidence to execute their lives in a way that makes them feel successful. Of additional interest, is learning about addictions and how they impact populations within the judicial system and women. Having attended a healing retreat for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I encountered several women who had fought past long exhausting battles of addiction and incarceration. I was so interested in their stories, and how they overcame what looked like impossible hurdles. A friend oversees the mental health care in Utah Prisons and her role as a therapist seems fascinating. I would love to work with people from all walks of life and see them heal and grow on their journey. It is difficult to ascertain my exact specialty at this early stage in my education, but I can state that I have multiple fields of prospective interest! Some influencing factors for study are my diverse experiences. Having attended a healing retreat for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I encountered several women who had fought past long exhausting battles of addiction and incarceration. I was so interested in their stories and how they overcame impossible hurdles. I want to be a therapist who provokes remarkable change in others. I chose to be in a program that acknowledges the individuality of all and helps me learn how to stand with individuals who have different values from me. For example, I have a Haredi Jewish friend, so learning about her community was integral for knowing why she didn’t feel accomplished with various degrees and the offer of a position on faculty at Harvard, while her ultimate value and self-worth were attached to community values of marriage and motherhood. To be a culturally competent therapist, I would not impose my values on her, instead, I would need to learn about her world and how to advocate for the minority groups she stands in. She told me about her needs in therapy and how she struggled to find a counselor who understood her and respected her. This conversation was so stirring that I was pressed with a desire to not just be an educated and experienced therapist, but to be one who explores other cultures, aware of diversity, and is prepared to help from a stance of equality and advocacy. Culture impacts the value system of a person, thus how can I provide personalized mental health care without knowing what they want, long, and aspire for? To date, I have completed two semesters at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and am in the process of completing my third. I am thoroughly enjoying learning about family systems and how someone can be influenced by patterns and actions from their background. The idea of working with the family suggests that there is always hope. Pathological perceptions of mental illness can be effective and I am an advocate for medication as and where needed, however, shifting a family's homeostasis from a negative to a positive setting can provide a lot of change and lasting support that the individual needs to overcome their struggle. Too often, clients attend therapy assuming that they alone are the problem, but psychoeducational can instill hope in someone as they learn that their behavioral paths are likely to be influenced by their family system. As a trilingual person (French, Spanish, and English), I am hopeful that I can use these languages to widen the pool of people whom I can treat. Providing equal opportunities to all is very important to me as I am a first-generation immigrant in the U.S. I left Europe to better my life and live in a country with greater business options. I last lived in Spain and the economy there wasn't going to provide a good future for my children, even though the setting was stunning. However, in this country, I do experience boundaries due to the fact that I am awaiting my green card. It took me four years to be granted my social security number, meaning I couldn't legally work. My possibilities were dog-sitting and cleaning, which I did to try to support myself. Health insurance is more complicated to attain, as is a driving license and a loan. I know what it's like to have to adapt to a new culture and fight for survival. Thus, working with immigrants is also a passion of mine. I want to support people who've been through situations similar to mine, where barriers appear in the way and an advocate is needed. To summarize, I have worked hard in my life to overcome my own struggles and have always felt a desire to help those around me. I want to continue my studies to complete my Masters degree to become a therapist and support those in communities of need. I hope to work from a family systems orientation with the belief that I can partner with my clients to help them heal from personal and collective wounds, so they can self actualize and live the lives they choose. I hope you can consider me for this scholarship and am grateful for the opportunity to apply.