How I got here
Hi, I am Gaby, short for Gabriela.
Born and raised in Mexico City. Curious by nature. Someone who has more questions than answers.
The question
Finding an answer to that question
My PhD and a realization.
Coming back to myself.
Why the Inner Experiment exists
I found an answer to that question in 2013, during an internship at the Human Ecology program at UNAM. There I learned about meditation and body-mind practices that changed my career's direction. I spent years teaching secular mindfulness and designing socioemotional skills workshops in Mexico, and I loved it!
That curiosity is what led me to a text by Michel Foucault, on gnōthi seauton, (know yourself), and epimeleia heautou, (care for yourself). That kept me thinking how do you actually do that in practice?
In 2018, I moved to the Netherlands chasing a research career, which led to a PhD in student wellbeing at VU Amsterdam. I built something I'm proud of, as the first woman and first PhD in my family. But somewhere in those years I'd stopped being fully myself. Stopped teaching what I love. What I missed was the people, the facilitating, being in the room with someone as they worked through something.
After my PhD I gave myself a year to reconnect with myself. I realized how much of what I'd been chasing was about external recognition and fitting in, not what actually resonated with me anymore. Thich Nhat Hanh has a phrase I keep coming back to since more than 13 years ago: the way out is in. So that's what I did.
As an international, I know I'm far from the only one who's felt this. Finding a safe space to talk about the struggles, and to actually explore what might help, is exactly what I was missing when I first moved here.
I created The Inner Experiment to honour that path. So other people don't have to walk it alone, the way I did: a place to become more yourself, build your wellbeing, and choose the life that resonates with you, not the one your family, your culture or your surroundings expect of you. It's also a gift to myself, to keep doing what I love.
What drives me
To guide people know themselves, take care of themselves and be okay with who they are, so they can flourish wherever they are.
What I bring into the room
My Expertise
I bring a background in educational and behavioural sciences and a PhD on socioemotional skills development for student wellbeing. For more than ten years I've designed and led socioemotional skills programs with thousands of students and adults in Mexico and the Netherlands. I watched closely what helped, and rebuilt what didn't. My PhD tested one of those programs, and its results helped shape the redesign of a bachelor's curriculum at a Dutch university.
Common humanity
I also bring a deep sense of common humanity: struggling, doubting and starting over are part of being human, never a sign that something is wrong with you. And a sensitivity for accompanying people, being with someone while they find their own way, without rushing them or telling them who to be.
Walking alongside you
Sensitivity for accompanying people, being with someone while they find their own way, without rushing them or telling them who to be. A contemplative practice has kept that sensitivity alive since the start of my career.