Love, Life, Loss and Everything in Between

Sarentha Luther is the founder of NeuroSey, a private psychology and therapy practice based in Seychelles. It offers solutions to individuals and families of individuals on the autism spectrum, people with ADHD and children encountering learning difficulties. In our Women’s Day series of Love, Life, Loss and Everything in Between Sarentha shares her journey to becoming a Clinical Entrepreneur.

From a young age, I was always told and believed that if I worked hard at school I would have a good adult life (subjectively) and good things would happen. Living by that principle I worked hard in school, made it to university and ended up getting a prestigious scholarship for my Master’s degree. At that point, I thought my whole life was headed where I wanted it to. I would get a comfortable job and good pay, buy a house, and a car, have a family etc. I was not ready for how my life would turn out post masters.

As a Chevening scholar and master’s graduate during the pandemic, I found myself scrambling for jobs. Applying everywhere to work in my area of specialty. After applying to no avail I finally got a job. It was not the job I wanted but I needed it. My pay allowed me to afford my rent and some of my bills but was not enough so I did some side hustles and freelance side jobs just so I could make ends meet. That was difficult enough but on top of that, I had to endure unpaid overtime and a narcissistic boss who was constantly putting me down with unattainable expectations. Needless to say, I was miserable and became quite depressed and anxious. After months of applying for better jobs with no responses I knew then and there that I had two choices: I stay where I am and accept that this will be my life for some time or I do something different.

I chose the latter and decided to open my own practice. It was not easy. It took courage. I dared to be a woman under 30 to be a clinical entrepreneur in a field that glorifies age (not exactly experience) as the milestone for success. And yes it was an act of bravery because it was hard to be insulted, put down and constantly be treated like I’m doing something wrong by the very people I looked up to as colleagues or mentors.

However, I still poured myself into it. It’s now been almost two years since I started my clinical practice. I definitely struggle and have ups and downs. Business owners know that your first years in business are hard and owning a business makes it more difficult to get loans and make enough funding to afford a house. I know my timeline will now be longer. But I honestly would choose this a million times over what would have probably been my life if I wasn’t brave enough.

Since launching my business, I’ve had clients and people expressing how my business will help so many people and is a service needed in Seychelles. I am now also representing Seychelles as a laureate of the Women in Africa programme and am so grateful for this opportunity. The Women in Africa programme is a social impact programme aimed at supporting African women entrepreneurs and leaders in their journey to impact the continent’s economy. Over the past 6 years, WIA has developed the first pan-African and international platform bringing together all relevant actors. WIA implements a training and mentoring programme, and WIA communicates extensively on the themes “*Women *Business *Africa”. WIA 54 is a program for Women in Africa where women out of 540 finalists 54 laureates are selected to represent their African country. WIA 54 identifies outstanding African women entrepreneurs who lead businesses with high growth potential in those 54 African countries. They select African entrepreneurs from 8 sectors: Agriculture and Agritech, Alimentaire and Foodtech, Education and Edutech, Fintech, Climate Change & Sustainable Development, Beauty Industry, Creative Industries and Health and Healthtech. I was selected for the Seychelles for the year 2023 for Health & Healthtech.

Once selected as a laureate I had the opportunity to be paired with a great mentor who inspires me
every day. My mentor is another African woman from my sector who has had many successful years in
her business. I also had an opportunity to sign up for business degree programmes through the Honoris
United Universities. The mentoring phase will last six months and will allow me to develop a coherent
business plan and participate in the pitch competition which is a unique opportunity to demonstrate my
business knowledge and convince a panel of the viability of my business so I can raise funds.

Moral of my story: The Phoenix rises from the ashes and so can you. If there are no opportunities available then make them for yourself. You will find that your courage will inspire others to improve their own lives.

Happy Women’s Day

Sarentha

NeuroSey is located at Reliance Complex, Providence. To contact us reach out on our social media pages NeuroSey or NeuroSey Services or call, message and WhatsApp (+248)2501542.