The Painting That Became a Book: My Own Journey Out of the Basement of Shame

Creativity was always a big part of my life — long before I understood why. I later learned I came from a family of musicians, artists, and sculptors. I was adopted, and that creativity lived in me quietly for years, even as my adoptive parents shut it down again and again. Finding my freedom to create was a long, hard road.

When creativity found its way back

Everything began to shift when I first came to Christ — when I became a follower of Yeshua HaMashiach. He started to unravel the creativity in me. It was a long journey, and it was often painful. But it was also so healing, so freeing, that I would say yes to it again every single time.

My lifelong dream of becoming a writer eventually came true — not because I chased it, but because God healed the parts of me that had kept it locked away.

A canvas in Denmark

Some years ago, I spent three months alone with Jesus in a small town in Denmark — no tourists, almost no one around. There, I started to paint my life story. My pain about adoption. The false identities other people had laid on me over the years — the ones that said, "Look in the mirror, that's you," when I always knew, somewhere deeper, that it wasn't.

The painting took about six weeks to finish. I used natural materials, layered meaning into every piece of it. During that time, I received words of encouragement from people I deeply respected — including someone connected to the world of The Shack — that all pointed to the same thing: coming out of boxes. God is a God of freedom, and He sets us on a field of freedom (Job 36:16). That became my own cry: set me on the field of freedom.

The decision to write

While I painted, I was part of an online writing group. People kept telling me my gifting was clearly in painting, not writing. But the leader of that group stopped them and said something different: that my gifting was in writing.

That moment became a real decision point for me. Are you ready for the world to read your words? Are you ready to let strangers into your story? Something in me shifted — and in four days, I wrote the story behind that painting. Two years later, that story became my first book: an artistic account of coming out of adoption trauma.

Asking God the question that changed everything

During the painting and writing, I kept praying the same question: God, can I work in this kind of space? Can I help other people find their voices again — get out of their trauma, and find their voice through painting and writing?

From that moment, God set me on a path I couldn't have designed myself. I was led into a Christian psychotherapy training program in Denmark, where I later earned my diploma. Around the same time, I trained as an art therapist through a program in Germany, and as a writing facilitator and group leader in Austria.

I still remember my final exam at the psychotherapy school in Denmark — the moment I experienced my own speaking voice fully for the first time. God had answered the prayer I hadn't even fully put into words: He gave me back my painting voice, my writing voice, and my speaking voice, all at once. Fifteen years on the road, in different countries, with different people — these are tools nobody can take from me.

Helping others find their voice

That's what Unbound Within and Healing Beyond Borders are built on. Some people lose one voice. Some lose all of them — because they are sitting in a basement of shame, in abuse, in family pain that never made the headlines but shaped everything.

Since that time in Denmark, I've written two more books. My second is closer to an autobiography — fourteen years of walking with God, and what healing and freedom actually looked like along the way. My most recent, published this past January, is a true story told as a novel — about narcissistic abuse, and about the way out of it, and the way to stay out of it.

Where this brings me today

I use every gift I've gathered over these fifteen years to help others — women and men — find their voice back. Not the voice other people boxed them into—the real one.

And recently, I received a testimony from a client I worked with — not only online, but in person, intensely, every day for a month. Reading her words reminded me exactly why I do this work.

"I cannot recommend this experience enough. Working with Gabriela for just one month has been one of the most life-changing investments I've ever made. Having a Christ-centered therapist walking beside me through every step of the process made all the difference.

For the first time, I didn't just talk about my pain; I learned how to truly process it. Through a beautiful combination of counseling, somatic work, art therapy, prayer, Scripture, walks, creative exercises, and other therapeutic approaches, I was finally able to access, feel, name, and heal emotions I had carried for almost 30 years.

We explored every area of my life: past, present, and future, allowing the process to go as deep as it needed to. I always felt completely safe, seen, understood, and gently guided. Gabriela has a remarkable ability to know exactly when to ask the deeper question, when to simply listen, when my body needed something different, and when to introduce another therapeutic tool. Every session felt intentional and deeply led by the Holy Spirit. The transformation has been profound.

Before therapy, I struggled with poor sleep, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, avoidance, numbness, and a constant need to distract myself or run from difficult emotions. Today, I sleep better, experience a deep sense of peace, and can sit quietly with both myself and God without fear. Even more importantly, I left therapy equipped with practical tools that continue to support my healing every single day.

One of the greatest gifts was that this wasn't just a month of intensive therapy; it was preparation for a lifelong journey. Gabriela carefully prepared me for what I can only describe as "heart surgery," walked faithfully with me through it, and continues to support me in the healing that follows.

The people closest to me have all noticed the difference. The change has reached far beyond my thoughts; it is visible emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.

If you're looking for a therapist who combines deep professional wisdom with genuine compassion and unwavering Christian faith, I wholeheartedly recommend Gabriela. This has truly been one of the greatest gifts I have ever given myself, and I will carry the fruit of this work for the rest of my life.

Beyond grateful. Beyond blessed."

(A note: my client's words above are her own, and I've left them exactly as she wrote them, out of respect for how she experienced our time together. For clarity: I am not a licensed therapist, and Unbound Within is not a clinical therapy practice — my work is offered as trauma-informed creative accompaniment and pastoral support.)

This is what I see, over and over: people coming out of their basements of shame, and stepping onto the field of freedom. That's the whole story, really — mine, and now theirs too.

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