My name is Danielle, sometimes better known as Danni. I am 33 years old and work as a psychotherapist at one of the local psychiatric hospitals where I have been working for the past 5 years. I am a single income home.

At the end of March 2026, I made a very hard but important and quite frankly

necessary decision to take a mental health leave from work. There was a lot of hard internal work I had to do to get past the shame and guilt of being a mental health professional who needed her own mental health leave, and feeling like an imposter despite being told by my own mental health providers that I was experiencing trauma symptoms from my work. I did take that leap of taking a leave with the support of loved ones. I even budgeted to be able to afford my month off. But unfortunately, things did not go as anticipated.

On April 11th, I fell at an event venue and wrecked my knee pretty bad. The good news is nothing broke - to my understanding it’s a hyperextension injury with an ACL sprain, partial PCL tear with a possible meniscus tear. Thankfully at this time I do not need surgery (although I may in the future for the meniscus tear) but I do need a pretty decent amount of physical therapy. I’ve attached the MRI impressions and notes from my orthopedic doctor as proof.

I have been told I am not going back to work on 5/4 as planned and instead going back around 2-2.5 weeks later… which is not something I budgeted for, especially with the more frequent medical bills that have been getting added on. (I have amazing health insurance, but multiple $20-$60 copays a week adds up, especially now that I have physical therapy.) I am always embarrassed to ask for financial help, as it makes me feel like I failed but I have finally accepted that in reality I’ve done everything I can -

I’ve sold off a good chunk of my kpop collection. I’ve cut back on expenses in every possible way. But I’m still lacking finances to make it through until I’m back to work.

Any little bit means more to me than you’ll ever know, and I intend to pay it forward when I have the means to do so again. Thank you for your consideration.