shana’s story

Shana is a 21 year old college student, who came to us at the encouragement of family members who were concerned about her depression and struggles in school. She had been a historically strong student, but was having a hard time academically after ending a relationship with her partner. Her family knew that her partner had been verbally abusive and that we were a good fit to help her process the impact of that. At the time that she started coming here, she was taking some time off from school because she felt she couldn’t function well enough to pass her classes.

As Shana became more comfortable in counseling, she shared more about her relationship, including many details her family didn’t know about. Eventually, she was able to talk about the incident that led to her leaving the relationship - her partner sexually assaulting her in the aftermath of an argument. She never told her family, as it was too painful to talk about and she didn’t want to upset her parents. She had held on to this information for months, becoming more and more depressed and anxious, and less and less able to face each day.

Counseling allowed Shana to verbalize those feelings, and begin to talk about the pain of the abuse and sexual assault. Over several months, Shana and her counselor worked on techniques to cope with the depression and anxiety and created a self-care plan. She was able to stop blaming herself for the assault, and came to understand that the responsibility for abuse lies squarely with the abuser. This allowed her to let go of the self-blame and start working towards rebuilding self-esteem.

The next semester, Shana re-enrolled at school, taking two classes and working part time. This semester she is back at school full time and she has changed her major to reflect what she is most passionate about - art. Through a degree in graphic design, she is hoping to use her artistic skills to create materials that will raise awareness about sexual assault, reaching others who might be struggling with these issues.