My name is Magda Raczynska. I am a UKCP-registered senior trainee therapist completing an MA in Integrative Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and Counselling at Terapia Centre, a London-based training organisation affiliated with Middlesex University (terapia.co.uk).

2018 marks the last year of my training. I am applying to you for help to cover the £8,000 cost of this fifth and final year of my training and the following process of graduation to become a qualified integrative child and adolescent psychotherapist.

I, too, am guilty of having dumped my own undigested experiences on my child. Things I could not or dared not face myself.

When we do this, our children take it as being their fault or responsibility. And deal with it the best they can. Some of them take it out: Anger. Destructiveness. Pushing all your buttons. Some of them take it in: Nail biting. Cutting. Eating disorders. Or they simply give in, reducing their beautiful, shiny selves to become the good girls or boys they feel we need them to be for us to love them.

To do it – to become a full time therapist and create this space the best way I can – I need to collect enough funds to complete my training.

I paid for my first four years by taking out a bank loan, selling property, and using my day job salary, while cutting my expenses to a bare minimum. But these funds have now reached their limit. I am too old for a student loan, and am not eligible for the Professional and Career Development Loan only because I do not have British citizenship. Finally, I have had to reduce my day job to three days a week to accommodate the rising clinical requirements of my training:

– I offer weekly therapy for four children for free – to get my full UKCP accreditation, necessary to qualify as a therapist, I need to offer 450 hours of psychotherapy, mostly unpaid;


– Twice a month I must attend supervision for my clients and pay for part of it;


– I must attend my own weekly personal therapy and pay for it;


– Once a week I observe a baby and his mother – this obligatory learning through practice is a unique feature of my course and it provides precious insight into a child’s development;


– In 2019 I will need to add 100 hours of psychiatric observation.

Please do ask questions if you want to know more – about how I work, why I feel it matters, and anything else you would like to know to make up your mind.