Thanks. I'm sorry to hear about your own experience. I am trying to remain hopeful. I also contacted another school to find out about an easier program, just an MA to become a therapist in a shorter period. But I can't apply there unless my record is cleared. I simply cannot lie that I didn't attend there. Plus I need letters and they would have to come from there.

I do have to start to let go a little bit, just in case there really isn't an option left to pursue a career as a therapist any longer. I don't know what to do about this. It feels urgent because my husband is 87 so I don't have much time to establish a new career to support myself and survive the future without him.

Jobs where I live are very difficult to find, and I'll have student loans to pay back on top of that, plus paying for my therapist, which isn't cheap. I can't really start considering all of this right now; it's too overwhelming.

What my therapist did say is that I could just become something like "a life coach" which in my little hippie/New Age town is popular and people seek out alternatives to actual therapy. So while I would rather be licensed and for real, this is something I could possibly do.

I could also just drop it all together and go back to school and pursue something else, like marine biology, which the school is really good at and I'm a dedicated ocean activist. So a whole other direction, but something that would be interesting.