Gavriela Powers

Gavriela Powers is a millennial who was born in 1989 in Memphis, Tennessee. She grew up in an area where having light skin made you part of the minority, which enhanced the uniqueness of her cultural experiences at a young age. By the time she was in sixth grade she had moved around to nine different schools; this can paint a picture for you of the instability in which she lived in her developmental years, which were littered with drug abuse and violence, drive-by shootings and unanswered questions about life and love.

Gavriela spent the majority of her young adult years going through what would be the tail end of a twenty-four-year-long bout with domestic violence from both her father and her ex-husband, who had been her high-school-sweetheart of eleven years by the time she divorced him due to chronic drug abuse, lies, and infidelity. Alone and facing the challenges of being a single mother to an autistic son, her prayers were answered when a young man entered her life, swept her off her feet, and began helping her and her son through the healing process of being diagnosed with Complex PTSD at the age of twenty-nine.

The pains of her life and her desire to spare her own children from the same kind of pain are what inspired her to become a certified Substance Abuse Counselor, Family Life Counselor, and Relationship Coach. With her seven-year-old, non-verbal, autistic son and the love of her life, her husband, Tyler, she now endeavors to meet the emotional and mental needs of those who come from a similar background as she; her passions include teaching abused and battered women and children emotional intelligence, self-respect, and the process of healing in order to live successful, emotionally stable lives and have long-lasting, healthy relationships.

She started the “Healthy Relationships Matter” movement to help raise awareness of how important the health of our relationships is in terms of the overall success and fulfillment of our purpose of life here on earth. Her motto is, “Where there is no love, there is no life”, and her desire is to use her experiences, training, and spiritual wisdom to add value to the lives of others who feel they are at the end of their rope through personal coaching, counseling, and sharing the gift of her writing abilities.

Being raised in a dysfunctional family where violence erupted continually drove into her a passion to learn how to retrain her brain, receive healing, and raise children who, as adults, won’t look back on their childhood as something from which they need healing. Although she only has one son from her previous marriage, she and Tyler have hopes of having more children of their own, settling down on a farm, and living a simple, joy-filled, love-centered life that adds value to all those who know their family.