My Story
I was raised in a very controlling, critical and isolating household where I wasn’t allowed to have my voice, which literally translated into developing severe stutter that plagued me for years.
To escape that environment, after two years of university I came to America to college, but it didn't end there. Physically running away was only part of the solution. I ended up jumping into a relationship with someone where I got to re-live the same situation. Unsurprisingly, the relationship ended.
However, after all those years of suppression, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I didn’t know who I was or what my strengths were. I didn’t know what my gifts or talents were.
Even though in my early years I was so interested in self-awareness and self-understanding, all those gains were overshadowed by my childhood wounds which were reinforced by my controlling marriage. It stands to show you how powerful our early programming is.
I didn’t reclaim myself until after the divorce. I realized that my life was dictated by outside control and me reacting to it. I wasn’t moving towards something I wanted - I was resisting or ultimately escaping a harmful situation, which makes lot’s of sense because I lost my ability to discern what I wanted.
So later it was the time of an accelerated learning and
self-discovery.
I’ve always had a huge passion for art, psychology, and personal growth. When I was a teen I loved taking personality tests and subjected everyone around me to the same fate, assuring them that “It’s only twenty questions.”
I was always reading books and drawing, mostly portraits and a human figure. And I was fascinated by ancient systems of thought such as astrology, numerology, and Tarot, basically, anything leading to increased self-understanding.
I embarked on a journey of self discovery.
I immersed myself in tests, self-help books, psychotherapy and spiritual search to find out who I was and what I’m here to do. This re-discovery process led me to reigniting my passion for art and psychology. So I threw myself into learning art therapy and positive psychology. It felt like coming home. What I understood during that period is that we repeat our old programming, until we gain some distance from it and master the program we are running. Essentially until we learn the lesson, only then we can move forward. Inevitably a new lesson will pop up because growth is a lifelong process.
It wasn’t until I engaged in expressive image making with the Jungian twist while taking my classes, developing a spiritual practice, and working with the metaphor of inner child that I started noticing some major shifts in my life. Art therapy and expressive art was a gateway to spirituality and offered an immense help and comfort. Then I started building upon it by adding positive psychology practices and rituals.
That’s why I’m such an advocate of working with art and meditative/visual mind. I transformed my inner landscape and it was reflected in my outer world. And I was able to change my whole life around.
Nowadays, I feel inspired to help women who are stuck and trapped in a negative cycle, unable to move forwards with their life in the direction they desire. Because I firmly believe:
“I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”