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My pretending to be someone I was not, my desire to be accepted no matter what were destroying the very essence of me. I slept too much, I gained weight, and quickly became the opposite of what deep inside I yearned to be.
When it couldn’t get any worse I made the difficult and yet ultimate decision to quit what I was doing that was destroying me. I left corporate America, enrolled in a master in Transpersonal Psychology and obtained a Certification in coaching. I desperately wanted to find that passion and enthusiasm that had accompanied me throughout my younger years, when life was a tapestry to be filled out by broad strokes of beautiful colors. I became at once committed to reach my own goal and to help others do the same.
Through education, recovery, and good, old-fashioned experience,I created a completely new reality for myself and found a freedom I’d never before experienced—a revolutionary liberation that allowed me to listen to my intuition and, to borrow a cliché, chart my own course.
That was my initial thought when everything came crushing down on me. After twenty five years working for high tech corporations, trying to be the perfect wife and the perfect mother, losing a son at birth, silencing my intuition and my perception of where I was supposed to be and how I was supposed to behave, getting physically injured (a common way for the body to release tension when no other way is viable), I said NO MORE.
My pretending to be someone I was not, my desire to be accepted no matter what were destroying the very essence of me. I slept too much, I gained weight, and quickly became the opposite of what deep inside I yearned to be.
When it couldn’t get any worse I made the difficult and yet ultimate decision to quit what I was doing that was destroying me. I left corporate America, enrolled in a master in Transpersonal Psychology and obtained a Certification in coaching. I desperately wanted to find that passion and enthusiasm that had accompanied me throughout my younger years, when life was a tapestry to be filled out by broad strokes of beautiful colors. I became at once committed to reach my own goal and to help others do the same.
Through education, recovery, and good, old-fashioned experience,I created a completely new reality for myself and found a freedom I’d never before experienced—a revolutionary liberation that allowed me to listen to my intuition and, to borrow a cliché, chart my own course.
You may be one such woman; you may be a man.
And your story may be radically different from mine, but what connects us beyond—or in spite of—our circumstances is our desire to feel better.
About the decisions we’ve made and the future that lies before us. About our relationships, our careers, our financial situations, our children; that bliss and “life balance” we keep chasing.
Like me, you may want to know the source of your inner critic and cultivate skills to not silence it but learn from it.
Like me—a tad skeptical and a whole lot rebellious—you may have your doubts about hiring a life coach, picturing everything from crystal balls to charlatans who don’t have their own shit together.
And yet you also know that you often surrender to the expertise of others, whether it’s your yoga instructor or your financial adviser.
Life coaching, after all, is less about giving the reins over to a self-described guru of transformation than it is about learning how to hold the reins the right way.
The wisdom I’ve gained has been hard-earned, the successes I’ve found did not come easily, and I claim nothing but imperfection. (As Emily Dickinson once said, we are all hopelessly flawed.)
But I can claim to have helped a number of individuals through life’s most challenging moments so that they could move both forward and upward.
You may be one such woman; you may be a man.
And your story may be radically different from mine, but what connects us beyond—or in spite of—our circumstances is our desire to feel better.
About the decisions we’ve made and the future that lies before us. About our relationships, our careers, our financial situations, our children; that bliss and “life balance” we keep chasing.
Like me, you may want to know the source of your inner critic and cultivate skills to not silence it but learn from it.
Like me—a tad skeptical and a whole lot rebellious—you may have your doubts about hiring a life coach, picturing everything from crystal balls to charlatans who don’t have their own shit together.
And yet you also know that you often surrender to the expertise of others, whether it’s your yoga instructor or your financial adviser.
Life coaching, after all, is less about giving the reins over to a self-described guru of transformation than it is about learning how to hold the reins the right way.
The wisdom I’ve gained has been hard-earned, the successes I’ve found did not come easily, and I claim nothing but imperfection. (As Emily Dickinson once said, we are all hopelessly flawed.)
But I can claim to have helped a number of individuals through life’s most challenging moments so that they could move both forward and upward.
– REV. GABY MICHEL | ASHVILLE, NC
Maybe you wanted kids right away and a career later, a pretty house and financial abundance.
Maybe you wanted to express your unique talents through meaningful work and projects.
Or perhaps you just wanted to travel and find a way to support your adventures.
Life was going to be a bountiful banquet from which to draw upon.
Now that a good chunk of your life has passed, I’m guessing that you never would have thought that you’d be facing some of the deep issues that only come from being a woman who has had to face tough choices and make hard sacrifices.
Sometimes we chose the sacrifices we made. And sometimes they were chosen for us.
I bet you have quite a few stories about the pain of sacrifice. Do any of these ring true for you in some way?
Working twice as hard as men for a decade to have the same level of success in your company.
A stillborn birth. Putting your hopes and dreams aside to raise your children.
Realizing that all that emotional and/or physical abuse growing up still lingers inside of you, to the point of interfering with your ability to fly alongside your deepest dreams.
Your kids going to college, leaving you with a man who went from “Mr. Right” to “Mr. I Can Barely Stand Any Longer”.
Or maybe you stopped liking each other a while ago, and now you’re left to pick up the pieces and start life anew. Maybe you’ve even done that a few times now.
Now that a good chunk of your life has passed, I’m guessing that you never would have thought that you’d be facing some of the deep issues that only come from being a woman who has had to face tough choices and make hard sacrifices.
Sometimes we chose the sacrifices we made. And sometimes they were chosen for us.
I bet you have quite a few stories about the pain of sacrifice. Do any of these ring true for you in some way?
Working twice as hard as men for a decade to have the same level of success in your company. A stillborn birth. Putting your hopes and dreams aside to raise your children.
Realizing that all that emotional and/or physical abuse growing up still lingers inside of you, to the point of interfering with your ability to fly alongside your deepest dreams.
Your kids going to college, leaving you with a man who went from “Mr. Right” to “Mr. I Can Barely Stand Any Longer”.
Or maybe you stopped liking each other a while ago, and now you’re left to pick up the pieces and start life anew. Maybe you’ve even done that a few times now.
It seems like you have not quite realized your dreams yet, and your life is already half way through.
Where did the time go? How come I am still here doing the same things, at the same job, with the same issues I had twenty years ago? And how come I have not seen the world or made more money?
You feel like you want… no, you feel like you need to make a change while there is still time, but don’t know where to begin.
You feel you want the next position in your company, but self-esteem issues have kept you from trying.
You feel you have the wits to achieve and conquer anything you want, but you feel tired and not quite young enough.
You know that nothing external like money or possessions can help fix these feelings, because that alone didn’t work in the past and it won’t work now.
It was these types of experiences and feelings that led me to return to school later in life for a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies and a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology.
I needed to understand how and why so many women ended up like I did: feeling tired and empty inside, looking for a way to connect to something more profound and meaningful, all the while realizing my dreams and express my full potential once and for all.
You see, my stories of pain and sacrifice started when I was very young.
It seems like you have not quite realized your dreams yet, and your life is already half way through.
Where did the time go? How come I am still here doing the same things, at the same job, with the same issues I had twenty years ago? And how come I have not seen the world or made more money?
You feel like you want… no, you feel like you need to make a change while there is still time, but don’t know where to begin.
You feel you want the next position in your company, but self-esteem issues have kept you from trying.
You feel you have the wits to achieve and conquer anything you want, but you feel tired and not quite young enough.
You know that nothing external like money or possessions can help fix these feelings, because that alone didn’t work in the past and it won’t work now.
It was these types of experiences and feelings that led me to return to school later in life for a Bachelor’s Degree in Women’s Studies and a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology.
I needed to understand how and why so many women ended up like I did:
Feeling tired and empty inside, looking for a way to connect to something more profound and meaningful, all the while realizing my dreams and express my full potential once and for all.
You see, my stories of pain and sacrifice started when I was very young.
I was less than a few hours old when my father abandoned my mother and me in a Northern Italy hospital.
In the years that followed, my eighteen-year-old mother—a war-child and gifted dancer with a penchant for risk—left me in the care of various foster parents, including a Pavian prostitute who often took me along on her assignments.
By the time I was the age she became a mother, I had witnessed her dramatic descent into drugs, alcohol, and depression; finished high school while simultaneously enduring verbal and physical abuse from my volatile, Milan-based father, secured a lucrative job, bought my first home, and braved my first marriage.
If life was going to be rough, I was going to grit my teeth and ride it.
That fortitude persisted when I immigrated to San Francisco in my early 20s and set out to immerse myself in all things American, from mastering English to scoring the house in the hills.
I met the man of my dreams, remarried, and gave birth to a healthy, gorgeous daughter.
I began my career at Xerox—then one of the top companies to work for in the U.S.—before moving on to Apple, where I became one of their leading sales executives, often traveling the world to spread the word about Steve Job’s groundbreaking products.
I bought a house not in the hills but in the lovely enclave of Mill Valley.
I was surrounded by fascinating friends, involved in hobbies that intrigued and fulfilled me, and made it my mission to provide for my daughter in ways my parents were unable to.
In short, I was happy.
That fortitude persisted when I immigrated to San Francisco in my early 20s and set out to immerse myself in all things American, from mastering English to scoring the house in the hills.
I met the man of my dreams, remarried, and gave birth to a healthy, gorgeous daughter.
I began my career at Xerox—then one of the top companies to work for in the U.S.—before moving on to Apple, where I became one of their leading sales executives, often traveling the world to spread the word about Steve Job’s groundbreaking products.
I bought a house not in the hills but in the lovely enclave of Mill Valley.
I was surrounded by fascinating friends, involved in hobbies that intrigued and fulfilled me, and made it my mission to provide for my daughter in ways my parents were unable to.
In short, I was happy.
I was forty-two years old.
I had given up my career to become a mother; my husband had become a stranger.
And the anguish created by my harrowing childhood—agonies I had kept buried for the better part of three decades—emerged with startling intensity.
I began to question the roles I had devoted myself so completely to—that of a wife, a professional, a mother. I was on the precipice of something excruciating and beautiful—and I needed to figure out what it was.
After a brief stint of staggering around in my sorrows and eating my feelings rather than encountering them, I set out on an entirely different journey: An exploration of the traumas I’d survived as a child and an examination of the life I genuinely wanted to live.
I went back to school, first for a BA in Women’s Studies and then for a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology.
Along the way, I read avidly and researched furiously, ultimately gaining the confidence and knowledge I needed to realize that we are all our own ambassadors of change.
I was forty-two years old.
I had given up my career to become a mother; my husband had become a stranger.
And the anguish created by my harrowing childhood—agonies I had kept buried for the better part of three decades—emerged with startling intensity.
I began to question the roles I had devoted myself so completely to—that of a wife, a professional, a mother.
I was on the precipice of something excruciating and beautiful—and I needed to figure out what it was.
After a brief stint of staggering around in my sorrows and eating my feelings rather than encountering them, I set out on an entirely different journey:
An exploration of the traumas I’d survived as a child and an examination of the life I genuinely wanted to live.
I went back to school, first for a BA in Women’s Studies and then for a Master’s in Transpersonal Psychology.
Along the way, I read avidly and researched furiously, ultimately gaining the confidence and knowledge I needed to realize that we are all our own ambassadors of change.
I’ve since separated from my husband and returned to Italy, where I split my time between contributing to a number of publications (including Elephant Journal, Scary Mommy, Literary Mama, The Shriver Report, Brevity, Blog Her, Tiny Buddha, and more) and assisting women in the midst of both major and minor transitions.
I’ve since separated from my husband and returned to Italy, where I split my time between contributing to a number of publications (including Elephant Journal, Scary Mommy, Literary Mama, The Shriver Report, Brevity, Blog Her, Tiny Buddha, and more) and assisting women in the midst of both major and minor transitions.
You may be one such woman; you may be a man.
And your story may be radically different from mine, but what connects us beyond—or in spite of—our circumstances is our desire to feel better.
About the decisions we’ve made and the future that lies before us. About our relationships, our careers, our financial situations, our children; that bliss and “life balance” we keep chasing.
Like me, you may want to know the source of your inner critic and cultivate skills to not silence it but learn from it.
Like me—a tad skeptical and a whole lot rebellious—you may have your doubts about hiring a life coach, picturing everything from crystal balls to charlatans who don’t have their own shit together.
And yet you also know that you often surrender to the expertise of others, whether it’s your yoga instructor or your financial adviser.
Life coaching, after all, is less about giving the reins over to a self-described guru of transformation than it is about learning how to hold the reins the right way.
The wisdom I’ve gained has been hard-earned, the successes I’ve found did not come easily, and I claim nothing but imperfection. (As Emily Dickinson once said, we are all hopelessly flawed.)
But I can claim to have helped a number of women through life’s most challenging moments so that they could move both forward and upward.
Wherever you may be in life, I can help you find and utilize the skills you have within you so that you can make the most of your own “wild and precious life.”
Has a recent change happened to you, leaving you depleted of passion and energy?
Or, are you just not feeling right day to day and know deep down that something has to change?
If so, I’d love to hear from you and help you move past these difficult times. Know that there is hope and a way forward.
Please fill out the form below for a free consultation. I’ll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.
Here’s to your better, beautiful future,
