For years, Marianna lived with fear she couldn’t name and pain she didn’t know how to release. Growing up, no one in her family talked about feelings. “We weren’t really taught to express our emotions in the best way,” she said. “That trapped me. I learned to keep everything inside.”
“My life before therapy was hectic. I felt like I was consumed by darkness.”
That silence almost broke her. When she was abused by someone she loved and trusted, she searched for every possible way to escape the pain. “I looked for every way out physically on this earth,” she said. “Nothing helped.”
What finally gave her hope was therapy.
Marianna met her Rawhide therapist, Ms. Teresa, during a session at school. “It was awkward at first,” she said. “But over time, she made me feel comfortable.”
That trust changed everything. “Teresa helped me come out of my shell,” Marianna said. “She listens to what I need. She never tells me what to do. She asks what I need from her that day. She’s like the big sister I never had and desperately needed.” Through therapy, Marianna learned to see herself as more than what she had been through. “I’m not afraid anymore,” she said. “I was scared for so long of someone who was supposed to love me. But it was never going to change unless I changed. I had to put my foot down.”
Therapy became her only safe place—the one constant through three years of rebuilding. “It took me a long time to get here,” she said. “There were days I didn’t want to talk to Teresa, but I went anyway. Because at the end of the day, this is where I want to be in life.”
That commitment—the keep showing up, even when consumed by doubt and emotion—is what ultimately saved her. She learned to calm her body when her trauma hit hard, to breathe instead of explode, and to tell the truth about what she feels. “I don’t lash out anymore,” she said. “I don’t get mad. I’m able to see things differently now.”
Now, therapy isn’t just a part of her life—it's reshaped her family’s future. “At first, my family didn’t believe in therapy,” she said. “Now they’re proud of me. I’ve encouraged my dad and brother to start. We all need someone to listen to us and hear what’s going on inside our heads.”
She smiles when she talks about her weekly sessions. "I love therapy. I love going," she said. "It's where I learned to live again."
Marianna also discovered new ways to express herself, especially on difficult days when she feels lost or alone. She turns to writing and art when words are hard to find. “I talk to the younger version of myself and tell her it’s okay,” she said. “I’m bigger than what I went through.”
Her dream is to write a book to help others who have lived through fear and abuse. “If I can get out, they can get out too,” she said. “I would have never gone through these things if God didn’t know I could handle them. I’m stronger because of it.”