Help to access Psychadelic Assisted Therapy (PAT)

My name is Alana, and I’ve lived many lives in one.

I’ve endured deep abuse and trauma that many people don’t make it out of. But I have.

I’ve kept going, for the version of myself I’ve always hoped to meet on the other side of healing.

And now, I need help to take the next step in that journey.

I’ve been accepted into a psychedelic-assisted therapy program specifically designed to treat complex trauma. This was recommended by multiple members of my treating team. After years of trying every other approach, I’ve been resistant to conventional treatments, not because I didn’t want them to work, but because the trauma runs so deep that it keeps showing up in my body, my mind, and my relationships.

This therapy is legal, professional, and backed by evidence. It could finally help me break free from survival mode and step into a life of peace, connection, and meaning.

But the cost is $30,000! and as a full-time student on a single-parent pension, earning $20,000 a year, it’s simply out of reach. I’ve depleted my savings to fund my studies and support myself and my children during placements, while navigating my daughter’s disability and the challenges of the NDIS.

My story is one of resilience, but it’s also one of exhaustion.

I experienced homelessness from the age of 12. I’ve escaped multiple abusive relationships and, against the odds, became a qualified enrolled nurse. Nursing is my passion, I’ve worked in mental health, bringing both professional and lived experience to the people I support. I’ve tried to be the person I needed when I was younger. I’ve raised my children with as much love, structure, and safety as I can, even while navigating a very difficult co-parenting situation. I’ve always shown up, even when I was breaking inside. I'm currently upskilling in my last year of the Bachelor to become a registered nurse. The journey has almost broken me with experiences of institutional abuse that required ombudsman involvment. The journey should have taken two years and I'm going onto my fifth year of study and successfully passed 4 years of full time study load with high marks. Life isn't just sometimes and I've experienced more than my fair share of barriers to my success. In the face of all this complex adversity I've continued to thrive somehow, but become more broken along the way.

My health journey has been long and relentless:

- I’m in remission from stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cancer) when I was 21 years old.

- Just last year, I survived sepsis, and returned home alone to resume life, making school lunches days later, without a strong support network.

- In 2023, I had seven hours of surgery to remove a deep parotid tumor. Four days later, I was back to parenting, pushing through stress with no rest.

- I’ve been diagnosed with many things but some of the more debilitating have been functional neurological disorder, ME/Chronic fatigue syndrome, and adenomyosis, conditions that mirror the trauma held in my body and nervous system.

Through it all, I’ve continued to give, to my kids, to my patients, to those around me. I offer connection and care to others in ways I’ve rarely received myself. But now, I need to do something I’ve never done: ask for help for me.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy isn’t a trend. It’s not a shortcut. It’s a carefully guided, evidence-based approach to healing the kind of trauma that can’t be reached through words alone. It offers the possibility of genuine transformation, not just coping.

For me, it’s a chance to:

- Reconnect with joy.

- Be more present and emotionally attuned with my children.

- Stop dissociating and fearing intimacy.

- Calm a nervous system that’s been on high alert my whole life.

- Reclaim the life I’ve worked so hard to build.

This fundraiser is about more than therapy. It’s about hope, healing, and coming home to myself.

Your donation, no matter the amount, tells me that I’m not alone. That people care. That a life like mine is still worth healing.

If you’ve ever believed in someone who keeps fighting against the odds, please, believe in me.

With all my heart,

Alana