Dear Community, 

We need help raising funds for our beloved Money McEachern while she endures health challenges and big life transitions. 

If you have had the chance to cross paths with Money, you most likely have experienced her generosity; whether it was at an event she planned, a pep talk she has given you, in session, a workshop, or the endless wisdom in her podcast QueerWOC. Money's commitment to her community, mentorship, and consistent care towards us is unwavering. As chosen family, we now want to help tend to her as she recovers from months of medical negligence and surgery, resulting in physical pain, limited mobility, and mental distress. Money is currently preparing to undergo a secondary spontaneous surgery, taking place in July. It is imperative to Money's health and future that she does not work after her surgery and limits her focus on recuperation.

While enduring serious and frightening medical challenges, Money has simultaneously juggled housing crises which led to having to pack up her home, move, and find alternative living accommodations in just a few days. As her landlord ignored multiple complaints of a possible animal infestation for over 6 months. In May, several squirrels moved from the walls into the living quarters of her home causing Money to leave and stay in Airbnb's while attempting to get a hold of her rental company. Her landlord ignored phone calls, texts, and emails, and provided little support to address the root of the problem, resulting in severe damage to Money's belongings and the need for a quick evacuation from her home. Money's compounding health and shelter concerns have exacerbated burnout and left her without capacity to continue her role as a therapist. She is now preparing to transition out of direct therapeutic work and begin a career change. 

We are hoping to initially raise $6,000 (& up the goal if we meet it) to help pay for accrued debt from medical bills and housing crises. Alongside financial support for Money to have several weeks to solely focus on healing from surgery before working towards a new job. 

The funds raised will go to;

• 2 Airbnb stays over two weeks while being displaced from her home 
• Movers and Uhaul needed to evacuate her house in less than 4 days 
• Funds to support Money's recovery after 2 Major surgeries 
• Medical bills from two surgeries and several ER visits 
• Groceries and necessary supplies 
• Moving costs for a new place (first/last month/deposit)
• Financial support while she changes career fields 

In the spirit of the personal is political;

As a fellow therapist, it is my responsibility to name the systems of oppression which impact my dear friend retiring from therapy and needing a career change. Let's name it what it really is; Money leaving the therapy world is a direct example of how Misogynoir and Ableism push Black Women out of clinical work. In the therapy world, just like our greater society, the labor of fighting against the harms of White Supremacy and Oppression falls onto therapists who are most harmed and micro-aggressed against. Those who do not have any choice in challenging power; they must say and do something. What usually happens then is Black Women Clinicians fight for all of our liberations while constantly being let down and hurt by us Non-Black POC and White Therapists. Essentially we ask Black Women Clinicians, through implicit and explicit behavior to cauterize an ever-bleeding wound of neglect, oppression, and a history of failing social supports/services. What happens when you are nonconsensually assigned an impossible task is you the individual become burnt out and removed rather than institutional harm going into remission.

Therapy is a job that requires deep presence and active listening in order to support those who sit across from us weekly. This means having a well-developed skill to compartmentalize, and put our own life happenings and struggles into a mental cubby to make space to support our clients. Even with a talent for compartmentalization, there is a limit to putting our own life happenings to the side when tending to illness, injury, extreme stress, and loss of ability. Therapy requires a level of being able-bodied to practice. The reliance on ability mixed with the requirement to participate in capitalist gain for financial security, can be challenging and unsustainable for those of us who grapple with the ethics of doing care work for profit. When I go to a training or conference and look around me, I rarely see Black and Brown elder therapists. When I hear a therapist telling a story about their 30-year career, they are often White, Cis, and mostly straight. When I do see Black and Brown therapists with careers longer than 10 years, they are usually people who can play the game of capitalism for monetary gain and career longevity. Leaving many of us Queer and Trans, Black and Brown, liberationist and left-leaning therapists directionless in a sea of institutional and societal contradictions. We hold everyone's mourning and grief alongside our own, we speak out against how therapy culture individualizes systemic violence and failures. No modality or years in session changes the reality of the planet burning, our people's lives lost under crumbling buildings, and Anti-Black racism murdering young and old Black loved ones in streets, hospitals, and at front doors. So, as I continue to see my mentors, supervisors, and peers leave the field. As I notice the blaring pattern of many of them being Black Women. I am reminded that words are empty without action, and therapy cannot be uncoupled from movements for social change. Sourcing material support for a therapist like Money is not an act of kindness, it is a sliver of the reparations she deserves.

Thank you so much for reading, donating, and sharing!

With love,

Nat and Dana