How people feel really matters to me because I spent decades not being able to feel or to even identify my own feelings, and I found that to be a horribly lonely and painful way to live.

I lived with abuse and trauma for the first 35 years of my life and I had no idea what either of those labels meant at all until my life as I knew it suddenly and dramatically ended. Everything and everyone I had been using to give me a sense of self vanished, and I felt the shock of it immensely. This forced me to stop and dissolve; to surrender all that I had thought I knew and start my life over.

It was a terrifying and vulnerable time and I almost did not survive it at all. I gave my children up because I believed I was too toxic to be near them. I was turned away from the mental health system many times in those darkest hours and that forced me to look for the answers I needed somewhere else.

I was very fortunate to find a supportive place that provided me with somewhere safe to be during business hours. I lived in my hatchback for months, and then drew on the hospitality of others until I found somewhere to live, 600kms away from my beloved children. That felt like the most torturous part of all to me at the time, and it was horrendous for them too. I was not even able to phone them as I had no income or finances to pay for lifestyle necessities.

Over the next 8 years, I began the arduous journey of “coming back to me”, a place I had never really visited before in safety. This required daily conversations with counsellors and constant supervision for the first 2 years as I had suddenly lost the ability to function at all and I felt like a newborn baby.

As time passed, I was able to ‘graduate’ to weekly counselling and support groups, then psychologist appointments and begin to study again. During all this, I created an entirely new foundation to build my new life on - a foundation of safety, love, joy, gratitude and of being of service in the world.

I can share my own story in many different ways, using most of the popular labels that are used in the world today, but I prefer to not vicariously traumatise others with intimate details of my traumas. We all have something that triggers emotional reactions in us and my trauma is no more or less important, nor does it define who I be.

I have crossed the barren desert and dived into the abyss. I've scaled the highest peaks and plummed the lowest depths of my own existence for my entire life, and I have felt the entire process consciously.

I have been blessed with many guides and teachers throughout my life who have supported me and held space for me with compassion, empathy, wisdom, and authenticity, to find my own answers in safety, and in my own time and way. Now I offer myself to you as a guide while you seek the answers you hold within yourself too, in your own way, your own time, your own brilliance. 

I have spent an entire lifetime learning, and I am committed to continue learning how to be present, to embrace the grace of life as it is right now. I share that learning when it feels relevant and invited, and I hope to bring more love into the world wherever it feels needed. I recognise that I have no answers for anyone else and can only share space as we all learn and share whatever we are here to learn and share with each other. I love that life offers this opportunity and I look forward to the joy of serving in whatever way I can.

May we all rediscover our Innocence Through our InnerSense.

Gabriella-Grace