Allen Kester has elevated my life is ways I didn’t even think was fathomable six months ago. I came to Allen emotionally exhausted, and fed up and pissed off at the medical establishment, like a dog in the pound that wants to bite if you even try to pet me. Then slowly, you see the same dog months later after experiencing earnest care and affirming patience, the animal is new again, wanting to go on walks and to play catch. Allen brought me back to life. If our calendar is based off BC, my life is BA. There is Before Allen and After Allen. Before Allen, I had two different therapists with NOCD that left me frustrated and not feeling any significant improvement. Before them I had a different therapist that lasted three times before she told me “I don’t have the skills to help you. Your insomnia is so bad they will study you in textbooks someday. I don’t know how you’re still alive, let alone functioning.” The various medical doctors were zero help either. They only know one thing: take a pill and if the pills don’t work, they said they didn’t have anything else to offer and told me to find a therapist. Doing so was an arduous journey. The problem was how long and difficult the process was to find one, and then when you finally get into one, it felt so sterile and non-personalized, like I was just some number on their chart. You can’t treat people like a product on a factory line giving them all the same process and expect them to be treated. I was about to give up, then I reached out to NOCD own final time and saw Allen’s profile. Reluctantly but desperately, I approached Allen like he was Obi One Kenobi, my only hope. Slowly, Allen nursed me back to health. In time, I felt like Aladdin and Allen was my Genie, granting me superpowers to overcome the darkness that OCD has cast on my life for years. During the week I’d think: what would Allen tell me to do in this moment? And our sessions were something I looked forward to, when all others with past providers I dreaded attending. As a teacher myself, I know how the connection or lack there of between student and professor not only changes the course itself, but can alter the course of the students’ life. For years, I’d start crying out of no where because OCD made me feel perpetually petrified. The agony and terror left me broken and drained. Last month, I cried tears of joy and relief because I realized for the first time in years, I went three weeks and wasn’t afraid anymore. Allen had set me free! I was Kevin in the movie Home Alone towards the end when the heater in the basement and the next-door neighbor no longer feel like monsters. I had been carrying that weight for so long I had forgotten what it felt like to walk without chains. Working with Allen made me feel like Scrooge at the end of A Christmas Carol: jubilant and free, like I was walking on air. This is life After Allen. I’m Nike, I float now thanks to the personalized care, earnest empathy, affirmations, insights, directions, coaching, and kindness Allen gave to me. My prayer is that every person finds their Allen. We all deserve to be freed from the fear of OCD and have that Genie whispering into your ear when OCD decides to return for an occasional visit, that OCD no longer has power here. Give this man a raise and a promotion and have him train others in what leading with love looks like. People aren’t parts on an assembly line, we are clay that with the right amount of water and gentle, skilled hands, can be reshaped and brought back to life. May every person suffering know the rejuvenation of life After Allen.