Meet Rachael Marie Shenyo

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachael Marie Shenyo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachael Marie , we are so appreciative of you taking the time to open up about the extremely important, albeit personal, topic of mental health. Can you talk to us about your journey and how you were able to overcome the challenges related to mental issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

My family intergenerational trauma started long before I was born. My grandmother and her sister were orphaned in the 1918 flu pandemic, and sent to an orphanage for several years. The girls were taken in as indentured servants by extended family, where my grandmother got her nursing degree but also rebelled and was frequently beaten. One day, she turned on her foster mother, beating her with the hairbrush being used on her, and left, pretty much with the clothes on her back. She was from Rhode Island, and had a pen pal in Pennsylvania, who she went to stay with. She ended up marrying the pen pal’s cousin a coal miner, and had 13 children in 20 years before he died of black lung. My mother was the youngest. My grandmother remarried, to a child abuser, and my mother left home when she was 17. She had me one year later, with an alcoholic abusive man who tried to kill her. We were taken and hidden for 18 months before we were reunited when she married for the first time. She ended up marrying three times, two of them to extremely abusive men. I was her only child (I just learned this year that I have 3 younger sisters by my biological father).

I suffered emotional incest, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse at home until I left at 17. At 16, I was raped, and ended up needing an abortion. I was diagnosed with major depression at 18, and then with complex PTSD at 27. I have been engaged 6 times but never married. Three of those partners were abusive, two attempted to kill me, one sabotaged my master’s degree, and one I discovered molesting children.

I have spent 21 years in PTSD and trauma recovery. In 2002, I started my life work in international development in Guatemala. I have been a national level program director, and have started 3 businesses. I have written 9 books of poetry related to my various experiences, and I work as a life coach to help others. I run an NGO for climate adaptation research. I was fired by the US government for standing up to the incoming Trump administration. I have spent the last 7 years doing contract work, editing books, writing grants, teaching, doing seminars, helping people publish, being an artist, thesis advisor, etc. I find that my trauma actually make me very resilient to the kind of human rights challenges I work with and live with- it makes me extra sensitive, and helps me set aside emotions to tackle any emergency, then go back and process. I struggle every day with PTSD, COVID induced psychosis, and depression. I find great strength every single time I reach out and help others. I have done a lot of healing, and am now in an informal but serious relationship. I have accepted my sexuality, my vision, my values, etc. I bring empowerment to every activity I perform, both scientific and creative.

Most recently, I helped 8 Guatemalan women publish their stories of sexual abuse in an international anthology, for which I translated their works into English.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I work as a professional editor for Ingenium Books of Canada
I work as an artist under the name Haunted Fox Designs
Under the Haunted Fox name, I also do 1::1 life coaching
I have a non-profit called Alticultura that is located in rural Guatemala
I run a school for leadership, writing, and program development
Under my pen name Marie Anzalone, I have published 8 books (I am on Goodreads) and am publishing my 9th book, “Observations for a World on Fire” dedicated to climate crisis poetry
I write and teach in both English and Spanish

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I learned critical thinking and systemic tools for evaluating very complex programs and systems.
I developed grit, learned to start over when I failed, and also learned valuable life skills
I try to learn something new every day- a a new recipe, a new art or writing technique, a development in the climate change field, a new philosophical way of looking at things, etc.

I encourage all my coaching students to find a life purpose and voice- serve something larger than yourself. Learn your talents and interests, and figure out what formal and informal education you can obtain to make you stand out in your field.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

The biggest challenge I am currently facing is getting paid a liviing wage for my efforts. I have an oppportunity to bring programs to over 500,000 users but need some investment to make that happen. I have an alliance pending in Europe for sustainable livelihood programs for all of Central America, and I have an alliance with our city of 300,000 for bringing cultural events and promotions on a larger scale. I have invested all of my life savings and retirement funds to get to the point I am, but we need about $5000 to get our non profit finalized and apply formally for international funding and scale up the pilot work I have done for 10 years. Roght now, I live on about $500 per month and am struggling to meet my needs. I run a farm, café, animal rescue, school, research program, and volunteer cultural program. We need an nagel donor to help us make up the difference of what I owe, investments to our grounds, and a team of two people to help me formalize our programs. I also am looking for assistance brekaing into the formal publishing word for 3 large projects I have going on- an internatioanl cookbook, a memoir, and a book of essays on what I have learned about climate change inpacts in 15 years of studying the theme.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8393469.Marie_Anzalone
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Alticultura
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-shenyo-934a6a2/
• Other: https://alticulturainfo.wordpress.com/?_gl=1*3dr2sr*_gcl_au*MTkxNDI2NTA5Ni4xNzI4MzUyMDU4
  https://www.facebook.com/rachael.shenyo/

Image Credits

photos are my won work, with the excpetion of my portrait, which was taken by my photogrpahy student Oscar Soto