<div><em>I'm finally swallowing my pride and creating a Go Fund Me, even though it feels super selfish, because I genuinely believe I'll be able to support my communities as a therapist.</em>
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<div><strong>About me </strong>
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<div>Posey is a welfare worker, performer, and cabaret producer, known for their advocacy around both fat liberation and kink. As their drag persona, Mitzi Fitz, they run Big Fat Cabaret, London's only (and therefore best) fat-centric cabaret, which provides vital fat representation in a scene otherwise starved of it. They also host Subspace, a podcast platforming sub-led conversations around kink and sex+ education, and through their performance art piece, Asking For It, advocate for the legalisation of consensual S&amp;M.
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<div><strong>Why I want to become a psychotherapist:</strong>
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<div>Through my work in fat, queer, and kink spaces, I've spoken with so many folks who've told me about how they either a) don't feel they can safely get therapy/talk about core elements of their identity in therapy, or b) feel they would really benefit from therapy but can't afford it.
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<div>I hope to be able to serve these two demographics as a psychotherapist, and particularly to provide a space where kinksters can speak openly about their experiences without fear of judgement or persecution (therapists can and have reported illegal kink activity to authorities because they've deemed their client to be "at risk" because of it).
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<div>Beyond that, I love the work and feel such a deep sense of honour and privilege that people feel safe bringing their problems to me. I'm aware my English conversation classes are the closest to therapy some of my tutoring clients will ever get (of course, I make it very clear that I'm not a trained mental health professional). Offering mental health support to folks is my favourite part of welfare work, and I now want to learn how to do this properly so I help people more substantially.
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<div><strong>What I'm promising:</strong>
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<div>When I graduate and have become an accredited psychotherapist, I will work to create a supervision-like structure for welfare workers in London's sex+ and kink scene.
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<div>I feel this is vital because welfare workers are offered no mental health support, despite working in quasi-therapeutic roles in challenging conditions. We also typically can't afford therapy because we're low-paid gig workers (often being paid below LLW).
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<div>I go into more detail about the structure of this supervision system in <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DXgqJcqDK5p/?img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">this Instagram post</a> , but the broad jist is that I'd offer a combination of 1:1 and group supervisions, and would seek out other professionals to support this work if the demand exceeds what I individually can provide.
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<div>To be clear, I am pledging to do this for the entireity of my career, and plan to set up a structure that allows others to take over and continue this work once I retire (if I'm ever able to do that lol).
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<div>I'll also be offering a sliding scale pricing structure as a private therapist, which will include as many free or PWYC therapy sessions as I can afford to provide. I have no intention of getting rich off this work. I'm doing this because I want to support my community.
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<div><strong>What I need to raise:</strong>
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<div>With a government loan, the money I need to raise is:
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<li>Year 1: <strong>£4,950</strong>*
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<li>Year 2: £7,750 - £4,402 = <strong>£3348</strong>
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<li>Year 3: £7,750 - £4,402 = <strong>£3348</strong>
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<li>Year 4: £7,750 - £4,402 = <strong>£3348</strong>
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<li>Private therapy = <strong>£80/week</strong>**
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<div>*The first year is structured as an "introductory year" so it's not technically part of the masters and I therefore can't get government funding for it.
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<div>**Psychotherapy students need to be in active therapy for the duration of their studies. This is a fairly conservative estimate based on the cost of my last therapist (though I'm aware she gave me preferential rates).
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<div><strong>Other sources of funds</strong>
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<div>Alongside this GoFundMe, I'm also raising money by seeking sponsorship from sex+ and kink events that hire welfare monitors. So far, two events have pledged £150/year for the full four years, so that's <strong>£300/year</strong> total.
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<div>I'll also be hosting a fundraiser in July (details TBC), which I anticipate raising around <strong>£1,500</strong>.
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<div>Finally, I'll be applying for the UKCP bursary, which is £750 if I get it, but is highly competitive. The rubric on their site is a little unclear, but I think I can apply for consecutive years back so this would be <strong>£750/year </strong>(<em>conditional on me being awarded it</em>).
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<div><strong>Why £4000?</strong>
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<div>I'm only raising money for my first year because I hope I'll be able to afford the subsequent years through a combination of working<em> really hard </em>and doing more fundraiser events (which I feel less icky about because then I'm able to give folks something in return).
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<div>Currently, the only confirmed pots of funding I have in place are the two event sponsors at £150/year each. While I hope I'll raise a good chunk of money through a fundraiser and get the UKCP scholarship (and maybe will get a couple more event sponsors), I also don't want to bank on that because honestly... who knows.
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<div>If I do secure other sources of funding or by some miracle raise over £4000, any money that's left over will go towards my weekly therapy costs or my subsequent years of study. If anything is left after that, it will be donated to a gender-affirming care fundraiser.
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<div><strong>Closing thoughts</strong>
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<div>I'm doing this because I genuinely feel I could do some good as a psychotherapist, and I've run out of other options, but I'm very aware there are so so many more worthy causes to support on this platform. So many of the folks I love are currently raising funds for gender-affirming care, which is so vital given the political landscape in the UK. I also know we're all in the depths of this cozzie living crisis.
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<div>I'm trying very hard not to spend this final section trying to talk you out of contributing to this. If you do choose to contribute, please know I'm so so immensely grateful. If you don't, I understand and respect that entirely.
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Anonymous

Veronika Karsanova

Bryony Goble

Kink Event Sponsor (Anonymous)

Annika Clarke

Al S

Daniel Lanczi-Wilson

Richard Guion

Amelia bramley

Raemund Birchley

Jessica Finn

Nicole Gan Sui Ern

Niamh Else

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