Founder and Teacher, Dr. Deborah Gabriel, has dedicated herself to relieving the physical and emotional pain that can seem a pervasive and inescapable part of life. While earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology, she became aware of the bio-energetic practices that, as a group, are now called the “Energy Psychologies”. Motivated by their effectiveness in relieving traumatic memories, she spent the next few years earning numerous certifications in several different types of these body-based techniques.
In 1993, while completing her doctoral internship, Deborah experienced what she was later informed was a “spontaneous Kundalini awakening”. Three years later, she experienced a second spontaneous event which was eventually described to her as a “Shakti” awakening.
As Deborah had had no previous experience of yoga, and no training or knowledge of these types of powerful spontaneous events, she did what all trained academics do: research. She scoured bookstores, attended metaphysical conferences, and queried every practitioner of energy work she could find…all while working to make sense of what had happened to her and sorting how to manage and use the new gifts and capacities these powerful events had conferred.
When Deborah learned that she had experienced a Kundalini awakening, she began investigating the healing modalities of the East, traveling twice to India and spending more than a decade studying under the guidance of an enlightened spiritual teacher. In time, Deborah began to facilitate healing for others at a fundamental energetic level and teaching them how to do so for themselves.
Dr. Gabriel’s academic training as a scientist motivated her to gather, develop, and teach techniques supported by mainstream western and eastern science, while her unique personal spiritual experiences and training now infuse her teaching with the Grace of the lineage of enlightened spiritual masters she is grateful to call her Teachers.
From 2010 through 2013, Deborah offered workshops, programs, and talks, in various locations in upstate New York. During much of that time, Deborah also served as the Volunteer Coordinator for Compassionate Care, an organization founded in Canandaigua, NY, to provide care and assistance for terminally ill individuals.
In September of 2013, Deborah relocated to the Pacific Northwest and resumed Kinder Life Community activities shortly thereafter, including the establishment of the Kinder Life Community Retreat Center in Woodinville, Washington.