Invest in Zaira’s Masters & Healing Mission

 

 

 

 

Hi friend. Thank you so much for reading my story. My name is Zaira, I’m 36 years old and I’m currently enrolled in a masters program in Integrative Arts Psychotherapist at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education in London, UK.

 

I am asking for your help with my tuition fees because it takes a huge amount of mental capacity, and emotional strength to complete a masters in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy. I confess that I’m struggling financially, which is hurting me mentally and emotionally too. This work means everything to me and I'll continue with my path because it matters, yet I need your help to breathe a little, and use the grace of breathing deeply to hold the pain, trauma and suffering of another.

 

Why is this work important?

 

My education is a privilege, and I want to use it to serve those who have experienced life’s most unimaginably cruel events: traumatized young people, refugees, and deeply underserved communities. Those who have been through unimaginable horrors are often the ones who are ignored and unsupported in their human right to heal and birthright to be well. I am committed to supporting marginalized people to transform their trauma, pain, shame, and lives of survival into lives that are full of love, belonging, well-being, and hope.

 

There is a HUGE lack of diversity in the UK healthcare system, with 90.4% of clinical psychologists being white (Office of National Statistics, 2018). Therapy is often inaccessible for ethnic minorities for a number of reasons, and representation is one of them. It’s important for people to ‘see’ themselves represented in the healthcare system by people who look like them, understand and are sensitive to the complexities of their race, culture, religion and experiences of oppression.

 

As an integrative arts psychotherapist, I commit to support the healing of the oppressed. I am also the one that doesn’t look like ‘us’, think like ‘us’, speak like ‘us’. I am mixed race (Iranian, Pakistani and Kenyan) and was born in the UK. My grandfather fought in the war on behalf of the British yet the British people that poured acid in my dad’s backpack didn’t care about that. I was constantly called a “Paki” (racist term) by white people. Told that I'm a “coconut” (racist term for being brown on the outside, white on the inside) by brown people. I know what it feels like to be unseen, misunderstood, and carry the weight, pain and shame of oppression and intergenerational trauma.

 

Art therapy image depicting core wounds

What’s my mission?

 

Seven years ago, I was 29 years old, building a career, married and living a life that my family and society decided was successful. It seemed like a dream for the daughter of a refugee, but I was unfulfilled and unwilling to face a dark void of depression within me. I didn't know how, and I carried on with life until my world crumbled; my ex-husband left me and I attempted to take my life. It felt like the only way out. It is this experience, amongst many more that sparked my journey of deep healing and revealed my life’s purpose; to be-with those who are in pain, and to walk with them as they discover their path of a life worth living. I honour the values of love, equity, justice, belonging, community, life-long-learning, and service. These values have shaped my pathway to becoming a care-taker of abused children, a mentor to underserved young people, a frequent volunteer at a refugee camp in Greece, a learning community builder and now a trainee integrative arts psychotherapist. This masters degree allows me to bring together the range of experiences I have had, all that I have learned, and all of who I am, so that I can offer these as gifts of healing to as many people as possible.

The therapist as a vessel of pain and transformation

 

Why do I need your help?

 

Please join me in my mission to be a part of the healing process for those who are most hurting in the world. As many of you know, the cost for higher education has risen dramatically over the years, making these programs difficult for the average person to pursue. I refuse to allow my lack of money to get in the way of my commitment to serving marginalized people.

 

I started year one of a three year masters degree in September 2021, and I work 30 hours a week with a global non-profit that supports underserved children to fulfill their potential. The institute where I study is private, which means that I’m not eligible for a government student loan, and the institute doesn’t offer any bursaries. My salary barely covers my tuition fees and course expenses.

 

I am asking for your support to breathe a little, so I can more healthily engage in this degree that is equipping me with the skills and resources to support people that are suffering.

 

Thank you for reading my story and for considering donating to my masters. If my story resonates with you, please share it with your family, friends, and colleagues.

 

With love,

Zaira