Connecticut Veteran Overcomes Trauma, Studies Psychology to Help Others

A veteran is giving learning a second chance, going back to school at the University of Hartford.

Cynthia Puerta says she chose to study psychology because she wants to help other veterans like herself who are healing from trauma.

The new student at the University of Hartford goes everywhere with her service dog, Gypsy.

Psychology is a subject close to Puerta’s heart, after experiencing trauma. She was a Marine for eight years and deployed in Kuwait. The retired Sergeant found a lot of camaraderie while serving, but also encountered difficult situations.

“Deployments, that anxiety of just seeing what I saw, what I experienced, what I heard, it was so traumatic that now like, if it's a sound, I like jump or I have anxiety,” Puerta said.

She has faced major setbacks in her personal life, too. Born and raised in Peru, Puerta says she experienced abuse.

“I went through a violent home, and I had a violent upbringing,” she said.

Violence was also a part of her adult life during an abusive relationship. As well as the tragedy of becoming pregnant with triplets, but losing them at birth.

“That was another traumatic event, not only just for me this time, but also my son,” Puerta said. “So I had to, I use my military knowledge of, I have to push this to the side, right now, for now, and keep moving forward.”

After ending her military career, Puerta started using social media to connect with women healing from trauma like herself. It is what made her want to study psychology.

“After all the traumas that I have went through I was like, I think I'm able to help others, help them heal and help them understand their own feelings,” she said.

However, for the 31-year-old who now lives in West Hartford, taking class is no easy feat.

In Kuwait, she sustained a traumatic brain injury. Puerta had to spend three years re-learning how to read.

“To read even like half a page, it was hard for me to comprehend. Writing, I will flip the words,” she said. “The doctors told me that I will not be able to go to school.”

Through that challenge, her son, now 11, was by her side.

“We were watching two, three-year-old kids shows, and so to help me more with the pronunciations and so on, and he will come next to me and we will read a kids’ book and he will read it to me,” Puerta said.

She still struggles.

“Students could just read and just, ‘Oh, I understand.’ For me, I read, and I have to re-read again,” Puerta said.

Yet she has been hitting the books, finishing off the first semester with a report card of all As. It is a success she hopes will ultimately help her make an impact in the lives of other women and veterans.

“I want to be able to help them see the beauty within themselves, be more aware of who they are,” she said. “If I overcame everything, I know what you can overcome.”

Puerta’s dog, Gypsy, also has an incredible story of overcoming adversity.

She was found as a stray, and living with her puppies. Puerta says she was skin-and-bones because she was feeding her pups before herself.

Once Gypsy was rescued and came to Connecticut, she worked with a military service dog group, so that she could be paired up with a veteran, Puerta, and make a difference on her life.