My experiences with mental health issues has pushed me to pursue a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I want to help families and couples create adaptive practices and have healthier relationships. I want to help families that struggle with mental illnesses understand each other and the disorders present better. I want to open my own practice that focuses on education, interventions, and triage as necessary. I want my practice to do workshops to educate my community about various subjects that are important to having and maintain healthy relationships. It would also be important for me to work with the high school to help students get a better foundation on mental health subjects and relationships. My best friend has Persistent Depressive Disorder. There's been two incidents who he's been suicidal in the past year. I was able to talk him down from it. It's been a constant struggle with him, but he's my best friend. I'll always be there for him. I've learned a lot about depression from him. He tried to help me with my husband's depression, and for me it was beneficial. I can't distance myself from my best friend's struggles, but I have learned to protect myself from his struggles affecting my own mental health. I believe that schools need to teach about mental health and coping methods for when you struggle and when people you know struggle with mental health issues. With effective education on this subject, the stigma associated with mental health issues. Problems can be caught sooner. Interventions can be put in place and have the ability to work before there is a problem. I live in a rural community and have found that there are a lot of problems being perpetuated through generations. There's a lot of stigma if you have any kind of mental health or relationship problem. It would really benefit this community to have educational resources to break the maladaptive cycles. I see my practice using traditional and nontraditional methods to help people. I think having all options available to help people will allow more people to receive the help they need and that is the most beneficial to their situation. New approaches and new ideas are constantly being studied and will be interesting to see in action. The hope is that these new methods will reduce the stigma surrounding therapy and get more people to seek the help they need.

In high school, I was depressed and suicidal. Fortunately, my parents recognized what was going on, and they got me help. I worked with an amazing therapist who helped me work through the problems I was dealing with. This deeply impacted me. I've spent my adult life talking to people about my experience to try and help others and reduce the stigma of mental illness. My experience helped me when my ex husband told me he was depressed and suicidal. I would talk to him about what he was going through and listen to his struggles. I pushed him to get therapy. He is no longer suicidal, but he has started to blame me for his depression and other issues. Unfortunately, in his eyes, our marriage wasn't able to withstand the problems he was dealing with, so he left. He's still in our children's lives, but he still struggles with a lot of issues. It's difficult to see the man he's become, but for my own well-being I've had to distance myself and not get wrapped up in his problems. My best friend has Persistent Depressive Disorder. There's been two incidents who he's been suicidal in the past year. I was able to talk him down from it. It's been a constant struggle with him, but he's my best friend. I'll always be there for him. I've learned a lot about depression from him. He tried to help me with my husband's depression, and for me it was beneficial. I can't distance myself from my best friend's struggles, but I have learned to protect myself from his struggles affecting my own mental health. I believe that schools need to teach about mental health and coping methods for when you struggle and when people you know struggle with mental health issues. With effective education on this subject, the stigma associated with mental health issues. Problems can be caught sooner. Interventions can be put in place and have the ability to work before there is a problem. My experiences with mental health issues has pushed me to pursue a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I want to help families and couples create adaptive practices and have healthier relationships. I want to help families that struggle with mental illnesses understand each other and the disorders present better. I want to open my own practice that focuses on education, interventions, and triage as necessary. I want my practice to do workshops to educate my community about various subjects that are important to having and maintain healthy relationships. It would also be important for me to work with the high school to help students get a better foundation on mental health subjects and relationships. I live in a rural community and have found that there are a lot of problems being perpetuated through generations. There's a lot of stigma if you have any kind of mental health or relationship problem. It would really benefit this community to have educational resources to break the maladaptive cycles.

I went back to school for my children. I wanted to show my daughters that education is important. I want my children to get their education, and I want them to get it done sooner than I did. There were many struggles for me to get my bachelor's degree. I had an infant and a toddler when I went back to school. My time was pulled in a million different ways. I would do homework every nap time. Life was a struggle everyday. As my children got older, my time became easier to manage. My oldest went to school and then my youngest went to school freeing up some of my time. I worked hard to get as much homework as I could finished while they were in school. My youngest has only had a year in her short life where I haven't been in school. She is a diligent student and is always encouraging me with my graduate work now. My oldest has a learning disability and doesn't like school, but she understands it's importance and that her own career aspirations will require her to get an education. I'm so thankful for the support and understanding my children give me now that I'm going to graduate school. It's important for me to finish my degree so I can provide a better life for them. I recently got a divorce, and my economic conditions are not idea for anyone. Even with my bachelor's degree, I haven't been able to get adequate employment to survive. My continuing education and future career will allow me to pull us out of poverty and live a better life. My greatest hope for my children is that they look back on their life and the sacrifices I've made for them with appreciation and understanding. I want them to become lifelong learners.

In high school, I was depressed and suicidal. Fortunately, my parents recognized what was going on, and they got me help. I worked with an amazing therapist who helped me work through the problems I was dealing with. This deeply impacted me. I've spent my adult life talking to people about my experience to try and help others and reduce the stigma of mental illness. My experience helped me when my ex husband told me he was depressed and suicidal. I would talk to him about what he was going through and listen to his struggles. I pushed him to get therapy. He is no longer suicidal, but he has started to blame me for his depression and other issues. Unfortunately, in his eyes, our marriage wasn't able to withstand the problems he was dealing with, so he left. He's still in our children's lives, but he still struggles with a lot of issues. It's difficult to see the man he's become, but for my own well-being I've had to distance myself and not get wrapped up in his problems. My best friend has Persistent Depressive Disorder. There's been two incidents where he's been suicidal in the past year. I was able to talk him down from it. It's been a constant struggle with him, but he's my best friend. I'll always be there for him. I've learned a lot about depression from him. He tried to help me with my husband's depression, and for me it was beneficial. I can't distance myself from my best friend's struggles, but I have learned to protect myself from his struggles affecting my own mental health. I believe that schools need to teach about mental health and coping methods for when you struggle and when people you know struggle with mental health issues. With effective education on this subject, the stigma associated with mental health issues. Problems can be caught sooner. Interventions can be put in place and have the ability to work before there is a problem. My experiences with mental health issues has pushed me to pursue a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I want to help families and couples create adaptive practices and have healthier relationships. I want to help families that struggle with mental illnesses understand each other and the disorders present better. I want to open my own practice that focuses on education, interventions, and triage as necessary. I want my practice to do workshops to educate my community about various subjects that are important to having and maintain healthy relationships. It would also be important for me to work with the high school to help students get a better foundation on mental health subjects and relationships. I live in a rural community and have found that there are a lot of problems being perpetuated through generations. There's a lot of stigma if you have any kind of mental health or relationship problem. It would really benefit this community to have educational resources to break the maladaptive cycles.

I've recently become a single mother. I've had to go back to school to provide a better life for my daughters. My daughters are amazing. They encourage me to keep going whenever I feel like giving up. Last weekend, my seven year old promised she would watch a movie with me once I finished my homework. I didn't really want to watch Encanto for the millionth time, but her sweet encouragement and understanding was all the motivation I needed. My ex-husband tried to get me to quit pursuing my education several times. He would use the kids against me and tell me I was neglecting them. He refused to help with childcare if I had classes. I had to get everything done when my kids were in school which was hard because my youngest started full-time school last school year. I finished my bachelor's degree and he would switch back and forth from you need to work and if you get a job you're still responsible for the kids. Finally, I said I was getting a job and he would have to be a parent and he left. Now to pull us out of poverty and be able to be there for my daughters, I need to get my masters degree. I've had to rely on family, friends, and my community to make things work. My daughters have really helped with things around the house so that I keep on top of everything. I often go without things for myself, like most single parents, so I can make sure my kids have the things they need and occasionally something they want. We recently went to the local high school production of Beauty and the Beast. I had saved up change to take them. They had a blast. I was happy I was able to save up for it. I've been having to find ways to make memories with them without destroying my budget. It's been difficult but worth it. We've had more memorable experiences because of this. I'm going to school to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. I want to eventually be able to open my own practice. It'll be a lot of work, but I want to provide educational resources to my community, interventions, and help to families in crisis. I don't want to just work with people in crisis. I want to be able to prevent families from getting to a crisis situation. My community has helped me so much, and I want to be able to repay them. I want to be able to show them that their support was worth it. I also want to be able to support and help single and co-parents in my community. They need the most help and support to make things work. I want to be able to do workshops that educate people on families, parenting, divorce, coping skills, and stress. I have a lot of plans for my future practice. I think therapy needs to be more than just traditional therapy. Something I've learned is that people overestimate what they know about relationships, parenting, and families. Most of the knowledge we have on this subject comes from implicit knowledge. We learn through observing those around us rather than through explicit knowledge. Explicit learning about relationships and parenting can lead to better practices within the family and adds a protective layer to keep the family out of crisis. We don't teach kids life skills when it comes to relationships and parenting. I would love to be able to work with the schools and do workshops there to teach kids.

I graduated high school in 2006. I tried going to college right away but developed depression and quit. I worked retail jobs for awhile and eventually got married. After the birth of my second daughter in 2014, I decided I needed to go back to school so I would be able to better take care of my children if something happened to my husband. I searched for programs we could afford. The ability to be able to take care of my children at the same time was also important to me. I found a program that was mostly online and affordable. My first day of class started almost the same day my youngest was a month old. I worked very hard at my program and maintained a 3.6 GPA throughout the year. I graduated December of 2020. I had no intention of starting graduate school after graduating. My bachelor's degree took me away from my family more than I liked. My children were still pretty young, and I wanted to spend time with them. My education journey taught my children the importance of their education. They don't argue about their homework and enjoy learning new things. A lot of good things came from going back to school. Unfortunately, a lot of bad things came as well. My now ex-husband decided I spent too much time doing school work. He tried to convince me to quit several times, but I felt it was important for me to finish. He became emotionally and financially abusive. He stopped helping with household things and with raising children. I eventually found out that he was having an affair and had been taking sexual explicit pictures of me while I was sleeping. We tried therapy but after a couple of months he left. I've been working so hard to co-parent and try to be civil with him. He keeps doing things that makes it difficult. This information is important because it's my motivation for graduate school. I live in a rural community with little resources for counseling and families in crisis. I started graduate school in October of 2021. I'm pursuing a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I plan to open up my own practice that will focus on helping families and marriage in crisis as well as educational interventions for the community. I want to be able to help my community because they've helped me a lot with food and emotional support. My oldest daughter needs counseling and my community is helping me pay for it. I just need to get through my masters program, and I'll be able to pull myself out of poverty and give back what I've been given.