The document is a personal statement written by Debora Ferrier for a psychology program. It details her lifelong interest in helping people, which began in childhood. Though she initially planned to pursue psychology in college, life interfered. Now with grandchildren in her custody, she has the opportunity to return to school. Her goal is to earn a doctorate in family counseling with a focus on the psychosocial effects on siblings of chronically ill children, based on her own family's experiences. She has extensive work experience in caring for others and hopes to research these topics.

1. Personal Statement<br />Debora Ferrier<br />Psychology 492<br />Advanced General Psychology<br />Argosy University<br />Personal Statement<br />As a child I dreamed of earning a college degree in a field which would allow me to help people. Back then I did not know about Psychology and the possible careers in the field. As a high school student I was introduced to the subject through a college level psychology class. I knew then what I wanted to pursue when I went to college. Then life interfered with my plans. I have a good friend who says that life happens while we are busy making plans. He is so right. Life threw me a curveball and I was in the position of rethinking my plans. <br />Over the years I have experienced much heart ache and many events that have made me a strong individual. Recently I gained custody of two of my grandchildren. My son, their dad, is bipolar just like his father. He and their mother are incapable of caring for the little ones. My husband and I adopted them and we made the decision that I would retire from real estate and stay home and care for them. With this decision I realized I now had the opportunity to return to school and fulfill my childhood dream. That is to earn a college degree, preferably a doctorate in family counseling with an emphasis on children. <br />I am very interested in the psychosocial effects upon the well siblings of a chronically ill child. Do older children have a more difficult time dealing with the issues than the younger children? I ask these questions because I have a daughter born with a life threatening illness. She has older and younger siblings. I have often wondered how her health issues and the toll her illness has taken on our family affected her siblings. I hope to be able to research this and many other questions as I worked towards a doctorate in child and adolescent psychology. <br />Over the years, I have worked and volunteered in many different capacities. Some of my work has been caring for the disabled and elderly. I have worked as a hospice provider, and I have counseled parents of seriously ill children, helping them make sense of the doctor’s terms. Most recently, I started a group for grandparents raising their grandchildren. I help them negotiate the emotional roller coaster they have involuntarily or voluntarily climbed on. I have found that when emotions are high it is difficult to think things through and it is a comfort to have someone you trust with you as you make sense of what the attorneys and other family service providers say to you.<br />As a full time mother, grandmother, foster mother and working part time, I do not have a lot of spare time to volunteer. Over the years I have taught Sunday school to the children and youth of our church. I have had pastoral counseling training through our church and seminary classes, and I volunteer for our Disaster relief team. I have been involved in a lot of parent training through our grandchildren’s school and have been on the school council. I have been a foster parent and have had many a young people come through our home that have had emotional issues which we lived with and helped them find ways of coping. <br />