The News This Week Is Hard. You Are Not Alone — and Help Is Available.

By Lunden Abelson, MA, BC-DMT, LPC | Seeds of Potential

If you've been following the news out of Cornell University this week, you may be overwhelmed with feelings.

The details are disturbing. The alleged cover-up is enraging. And the way institutions so often protect themselves over the people they have harmed is, for many survivors, devastatingly familiar.

If this news cycle is landing hard in your body — if you feel activated, anxious, numb, full of rage, or like you need to close every browser tab and lie down — that is not weakness. That is a nervous system that has been here before.

This story is not just about one university, one fraternity, or one young woman. It is about a pattern that survivors have been naming for decades, and that our institutions have been slow — or unwilling — to take seriously. How sad that this story is not new.

To Survivors Reading This

You don't need to explain why this week feels like too much.

You don't need to justify why you didn't report, why you couldn't report, or what your own story looks like. The research is consistent: most survivors never come forward. Delayed disclosure is the norm, not the exception. The reasons are complex, and none of them are failures.

What you deserve — what you have always deserved — is support. And in Pennsylvania, there is money set aside specifically to help you get it.

Pennsylvania Has Funding Available for Sexual Assault Survivors — No Police Report Required

If you experienced sexual assault in Pennsylvania, you may be eligible for state funding to cover the cost of trauma therapy. This is true whether or not you ever reported it to the police.

Pennsylvania's Victims Compensation Assistance Program (VCAP) includes a dedicated sexual assault counseling fund. Here is what you need to know:

Who is eligible: Anyone who experienced sexual assault in Pennsylvania — including rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, trafficking, sexual servitude, incest, or attempts to commit any of these crimes. The assault does not have to have been recent.

How much is available:

• Adults (18+) at the time of the assault: up to $5,000 for counseling

• Survivors whose abuse occurred before age 18: up to $10,000

Key facts:

• No police report is required — this is explicit in the law and in the program guidelines

• The program is confidential

• The money goes directly to your treatment provider, not to you — so you don't have to manage reimbursement

• Processing typically takes 7 weeks from a completed claim

• Counseling must be provided by or under the supervision of a licensed mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed professional counselor, or licensed social worker)

WHYY, Philadelphia's public media station, reported on this fund when it was created, noting that it was designed specifically to reach survivors who had never come forward — because the state recognized that most people don't report, and that shouldn't mean going without care. The program has no statute of limitations for the sexual assault counseling benefit.

To apply or learn more:

• 🔗 Apply for VCAP: pa.gov/services/pcv/apply-for-victims-compensation

• 🔗 VCAP Program Information: Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency – VCAP

• 🔗 WHYY Article: New fund helps Pa. abuse survivors pay for counseling without involving police

• 📞 VCAP by phone: 1-800-233-2339

These funds can be used with a wide range of licensed counselors and therapists across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. If you have questions about whether a specific provider accepts VCAP, reach out to the provider directly or call the VCAP line.

These Funds Can Be Used to work with me, Lunden Abelson, at Seeds of Potential

Seeds of Potential is a registered VCAP provider. That means if you are eligible for VCAP funding, it can be applied toward working with me. If the VCAP funds don't apply to you and you want to work with me I hope you will reach out and we will discuss options.

My work is a little different from traditional weekly therapy. Rather than opening and closing your story one hour at a time, I offer Individual Immersive Therapy Retreats — 3 to 5 days of deep, sustained healing work just for you, held in a healing yurt nestled in a nature preserve on a rural homestead in Burlington County, New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia.

Six hours of therapy per day, shaped entirely around you, weaving together:

• Somatic therapy and nervous system regulation

• Dance/Movement Therapy

• Creative arts and expressive therapies

• Breath work and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

• Authentic movement and bilateral work

• Nature therapies, aromatherapy, and herbalism

• Parts work and mind/body mapping

This work is for you if you have talked about your trauma — maybe for years — and still feel it living in your body. If you feel stuck. If you long to live fully and freely in your skin. If you want a whole-person approach that doesn't leave your body out.

The retreat takes place on beautiful land with walking trails, a flowing river, and wildlife in every direction. It is quiet. It is held. And it is designed to give your nervous system what a fifty-minute session simply cannot.

Solo Immersive Retreats are $1,350/day. VCAP funding may significantly offset this cost for qualifying survivors of sexual trauma in Pennsylvania. Please reach out to explore what is possible for your situation.

You Don't Have to Keep Carrying This Alone

The Cornell story, and every story like it, is a reminder of how pervasive sexual violence is — and how rarely our institutions rise to meet it. But institutional failure is not the end of the story for survivors. You are not waiting on a grand jury or a university review board to begin your healing.

Healing is available now. Support is available now. And in Pennsylvania, there is money specifically set aside to help you access it.

The seeds of your potential have always been there — even when what happened to you tried to bury them. I am here to help them grow.

📞 267.571.9037 ✉️ lunden@seedsofpotential.com 🌐 seedsofpotential.com

Schedule a free consultation: seedsofpotential.com/trauma-therapy-services

Seeds of Potential is located in Burlington County, NJ — easily accessible from Philadelphia, Trenton, and the greater Delaware Valley.