“Alsana TC is like a championship sports team. The fifth string is just as talented as the first string. I didn’t understand that there were so many genuinely caring and compassionate people in the world. I am sure that I had encountered many throughout my life but I wasn’t able to recognize them until Alsana taught me to see. I experienced more tender loving care at Alsana than in all the days of my life added together.  The directors and staff have created a sanctuary in the truest sense of the word. It is a safe place where safe people helped me to find myself, to see who I really am, a place where I began to unfold. Alsana not only saved my life they restored me to my life, a life I no longer believed possible, a life I no longer believed I deserved. A life not determined by circumstances or the expectation of others but the life I was born to live. The eating disorder has proven to be gift, a doorway to life. Because of the ED I had the privilege of living in this scared space for 90 days over the winter of 2011-2012. I left with a sense of renewed hope and possibility; I had begun to dream again, it was like being reborn. Unfolding is a process that takes time, patience and the continual presence of appropriate nourishment. Appropriate nourishment was modeled for me at Alsana and it is up to me to supply that for myself I as move forward. I don’t yet know who I am but I learning to know who I am not. I don’t have the words to fully express the gratitude that I hold for this place and these people. The truest expression of this gratitude is to continue the process of growth and discovery, to continue to unfold and to live into my life, the life Alsana helped me to remember and reclaim.” ~LK