We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful duo, Gabrielli LaChiara and Chloë Faith Urban. They are co-directors of the LaChiara Method. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with both of them below.
Hi Gabrielli and Chloë, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
Gabrielli LaChiara:
For a long time, I thought I was doing self-care—I exercised, meditated, ate well—but none of it was actually helping me cope with the level of stress, trauma, and overwhelm I was living in. I was navigating toxic relationships, unrelenting pressure, and later, a cancer diagnosis. The typical advice—bubble baths, deep breathing, journaling—didn’t even come close to addressing what I needed. It wasn’t that those things were useless, but they were surface-level, and I was drowning underneath it all.
The biggest shift came when I realized that self-care wasn’t about checking off a list of healthy habits; it was about deeply understanding my own needs and actually responding to them. I had spent years overriding my limits, convincing myself that if I just tried harder, I could manage. But when I faced cancer, I saw clearly that my approach to life wasn’t sustainable. Self-care, for me, had to become something much deeper—it had to include processing grief, allowing myself to fall apart, and actually acknowledging the depth of what I was carrying.
I also had to confront the fact that as a highly sensitive, empathic person, I was absorbing the emotions, stress, and trauma of everyone around me. I didn’t even realize how much I was carrying that wasn’t mine. That was a huge turning point. I needed to learn how to set energetic boundaries, how to clear my system, and how to source energy in a way that wasn’t draining me.
That realization led to the creation of the LaChiara Method. I knew I wasn’t alone in this—so many people like me were struggling because the usual self-care advice wasn’t built for those of us who feel deeply and take on so much. I developed a trauma-informed, energy-based approach that actually works for sensitive people, combining energy medicine with practical tools for healing and resilience.
The impact has been profound. I no longer live in survival mode. I have tools that allow me to manage stress, stay grounded, and navigate life without being consumed by it. And the most powerful part? I now get to share this work with others, giving them the tools to care for themselves in a way that is actually sustainable.
Chloë Faith Urban:
Everything Gabrielli said was also my experience. I, too, thought I was practicing self-care—I was doing all the “right” things, but I was still overwhelmed, drained, and lost in other people’s emotions. I was stuck in cycles of toxic relationships, carrying an immense weight that I didn’t even realize wasn’t mine. I was praying, meditating, and doing personal growth work, but I wasn’t actually plugged into anything that could shift my energy or truly help me cope.
When I met Gabrielli and was introduced to the LaChiara Method, everything changed. For the first time, I understood that self-care isn’t just about doing things for myself—it’s about knowing how to move energy. I learned that I wasn’t just emotionally exhausted; I was carrying an accumulation of energy that wasn’t mine, and I didn’t know how to release it.
That was the breakthrough: I realized I could move energy. Instead of just feeling stuck in my own trauma, or in the weight of the world around me, I could actually shift, clear, and transform my energy. I could release what wasn’t mine, call back my own energy, and stop unconsciously sourcing from others. That was a revelation—self-care wasn’t just about resting, it was about energetic hygiene, about actively working with my own system to stay clear, resourced, and aligned.
The impact of this has been life-changing. I no longer feel like I’m drowning in emotions that aren’t mine. I have the tools to regulate my energy, to show up fully in my work and relationships without depleting myself, and to stay connected to something bigger than myself. The ability to clear, receive, and manage energy has given me a level of resilience I never knew was possible.
Now, when I talk about self-care, I don’t just mean taking time for myself—I mean knowing how to take care of my energy, my boundaries, and my connection to myself. And that’s what makes this work so powerful. It’s not just about managing stress; it’s about fundamentally changing the way we interact with the world.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
We’re Gabrielli and Chloë, co-directors of The LaChiara Method—which is a revolutionary trauma informed energy medicine approach to coaching and bodywork.
Together, we’re not just colleagues—we’re best friends who live, breathe, eat, and sleep what we teach. We know healing isn’t about perfection—it’s messy, uncomfortable, and sometimes even terrifying. But it’s also deeply joyful, creative, and wildly transformative.
We didn’t come to this work from a place of ease. We both lived through the kind of pain and upheaval that forces you to find a new way forward—or be consumed by it.
GL:
This modality was born out of sheer frustration—frustration with a healing industry full of rigid boxes, a world that didn’t seem to make space for the messy reality of being human, and a system that offered me nothing but impossible expectations.
I was in my 30s, a one-breasted cancer patient, diagnosed the day before 9/11, a single mother, trapped in an abusive, alcoholic relationship, and at my absolute wit’s end. I was DONE. Done trying to fit into the healing boxes, the societal boxes, the familial boxes—every damn box under the sun. I was killing myself trying to find the right one, and none of them fit.
I was staring death in the eyes, and something deep inside me whispered: You are missing something.
Because if the trees aren’t wrong, and the birds aren’t wrong, and the river isn’t wrong—then how am I wrong, bad or defective?
So, out of a conviction to make my own miracles, The LaChiara Method was born. Some of it came through me naturally, and some of it I gathered along the way from the brilliant teachers and mentors I was blessed to learn from. But the biggest realization—the one that changed everything—was this:
Energy medicine was the missing link.
It had the power to cut through all the noise and bring me back to my truth. It helped me see through all the external “fixes” and tap into my inner wisdom—the part of me that actually knew what I needed.
And holy wow—a little wisdom goes a LONG way.
One “aha” at a time, I started to find my way to a whole new me.
This method is different because it looks at it all—no part or piece left behind. Healing isn’t about perfection. It’s not about fixing. It’s not about following a rigid protocol. It’s about wholeness. And when we bring everything together—our bodies, our histories, our energy, our nervous systems—healing happens. It’s natural. It’s effective. It’s real. It lasts.
I’ve learned that any one of the many healing techniques I was chasing might actually help—but if I was doing them unconsciously, desperately searching for something outside of myself to save me, I was only running in circles.
I needed a holistic approach, and I learned a lot along the way!
One of the biggest things I learned is that some things—whether it’s life, my body, or circumstances beyond my control—might not change, no matter how hard I try. And healing isn’t about erasing, fixing, or escaping them. Living with a life-threatening illness meant I had to face the reality that I might die. Instead of aiming to “fix” cancer, I had to shift my focus to building strength and resilience—one breath, one decision, one step at a time.
I needed to calm my nervous system, stop my primal brain from going into overdrive, and create real pathways to my inner wise self. Those “aha” moments didn’t always tell me what I wanted to hear, but they always told me what I needed to hear.
And they led me here—to a method that has changed not just my life, but Chloë’s, and thousands of others.
CU:
My journey to healing wasn’t all roses and fairy dust.
It’s been hard—really hard.
I had a rough childhood despite being raised by parents who deeply love me. As it turns out, love doesn’t preclude trauma, and there was plenty of that along the way. I’m a survivor of horrific sexual abuse, alcoholism in the family, and crippling anxiety (that we didn’t have a name for back then). I was trucking along, finding my way until I hit a real breaking point at 19.
Seemingly out of nowhere, my body collapsed.
I was sick—really sick. The kind of sick that no one could explain.
I’m talking next-level exhaustion, the kind that makes it impossible to function. Mysterious, itchy rashes that would last for months. A sore throat that never went away. Digestion issues so intense that I could barely eat anything without being in a lot of pain. And then, just when I thought I had a handle on things, more symptoms would show up out of nowhere—each one more bizarre and debilitating than the last.
I was miserable.
I was desperate.
And the worst part? No one had answers.
For the next seven years, I did everything I could think of to heal. Doctors, specialists, diets, alternative therapies, energy work—you name it, I tried it. Some things helped a little, but nothing truly changed. I was running out of hope.
And then, I met Gabrielli.
I don’t say this lightly: meeting her saved my life.
The LaChiara Method helped me understand what no other healing modality had—how trauma was shaping my body, my energy, and my entire experience of life. And how I was also so incredibly empathic and sensitive, I was drowning in other people’s energy so much of the time. It gave me the tools to actually shift out of survival mode, clear my energy field, and step into real, lasting healing. For the first time, I wasn’t just managing symptoms—I was changing my entire relationship to myself, my past, and my body.
It changed everything.
And it became so clear to me that this was my work in the world, and that’s why I’ve dedicated my life to teaching it and bringing it to my one on one work with people.
Here’s how we bring this work to the world:
✨ From Surviving to Thriving (Level 1) –This 10-week immersive training gives you everything you need to elevate your life and relationships. Through energy medicine, trauma-informed practices, and our unique peer-to-peer coaching model, you’ll learn how to shift overwhelm into clarity, burnout into resilience, and self-doubt into confidence. Our next cohort starts Fall 2025.
✨ Radical Life Coach Certification (Level 2) – A training program for those who want to facilitate this work. This isn’t just another coaching certification—it’s a personal transformation that gives you the skills and confidence to guide others.
✨ The Activate Change Podcast – A space where transformation is just a conversation away. Some episodes feature Gabrielli guiding individuals through real-time healing sessions, offering an intimate front-row seat to deep breakthroughs. In others, Chloë hosts powerful, inspiring conversations with thought leaders, healers, and activists, expanding the dialogue on healing, trauma, and true liberation for all.
✨ SoulCare: Spiritual Nourishment for a World on Fire (Monthly Membership) – This isn’t surface-level self-care—it’s deep, nervous-system-resetting, soul-fortifying work designed to keep you steady in unsteady times. In a world that’s in such turmoil, connecting to the divine isn’t just possible—it’s necessary, and SoulCare is where we do it together. Here, we don’t bypass or pretend everything’s fine—we build unshakable resilience, fiercely reclaiming our truth, power, and connection to something greater.
Right now, we’re in a moment of huge expansion—more people than ever are realizing they need spiritual resources, practical tools, and a deeper sense of belonging to navigate this moment. We’re growing our offerings to meet that need, creating spaces that support healers, helpers, and sensitive souls who feel burnt out, overwhelmed, or powerless in a world that is changing faster than we can keep up with. We really do need each other, and that is why we’ve dedicated our lives to this work.
Come find us at lachiaramethod.com where you can get our free gift – The Ultimate Self Care Bundle to Clear Your Energy, Boost Your Vitality & Feed Your Soul. You can also listen to The Activate Change Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
So hard to choose! But if we had to name just three that shaped our journey, they would be as follows. Each of these qualities has fundamentally changed the way we live, the way we do this work, and the way we support others in their own journeys.
1. Living from love—love that’s beyond human love. That divine force that’s greater than any one person.
At the heart of our work is something that goes beyond techniques, beyond knowledge, beyond even healing itself: love. Not love in the way we typically think of it—not conditional love, not transactional love, not love that is earned or proven. But love as a force. Love as an energy that exists whether or not we are aware of it. Love that is ever-present, like the air we breathe.
One of the most powerful things we have learned is that when people experience this kind of love—the kind that sees them fully, that holds them without needing them to change, that recognizes their essence beyond their wounds—it shifts something fundamental inside of them. And that shift is often more powerful than any process, tool, or technique.
So many of us go through life without ever truly feeling this kind of love. And yet, it is natural to us as human beings. It’s already here. It’s not something we create—it’s something we allow, something we return to.
For those early in their journey, our advice is:
Seek out spaces where you feel truly seen and held. Healing doesn’t happen in isolation. Sometimes, we need to borrow someone else’s faith in us before we can find our own.
Notice the difference between human love and the love that simply exists. This kind of love doesn’t come and go. It’s not dependent on who you are or what you do. It just is.
2. The framework we call body and being consciousness, and how that helps free us from our judgmental mind and tap into true awareness.
One of the most profound shifts in our journey was learning to step out of the mind’s judgment and into the body’s awareness, while also integrating a deeper being consciousness that allows us to see beyond the immediate physical experience.
For most of our lives, we are conditioned to trust our thoughts above all else. The mind operates in loops—judgment, self-doubt, fear, and limitation—while the body holds real-time information through sensation, emotion, and instinctive response. However, true awareness comes when we learn to navigate both body and being consciousness together.
And what we mean by body and being consciousness is this:
Body consciousness is our felt experience—the tension in our muscles, the tightness in our chest when we’re anxious, the sense of relaxation after deep breathing. It tells us what’s happening right now but doesn’t always offer the bigger picture.
Being consciousness allows us to step back and observe our experience instead of being consumed by it. It gives us access to intuition, wisdom, and a greater understanding of patterns in our lives.
Many people get stuck in one or the other. Some are hyper-focused on their bodies, deeply attuned to every discomfort but struggling to see beyond it. Others live in a disconnected, bypassed state—intellectually aware but avoiding what’s actually happening in their bodies. The key is learning to integrate both.
For those early in their journey, here’s are a few ideas you might play with to cultivate this balance:
Notice your body’s responses. When judgment arises, pause and ask: What knowing am I refusing with the judgement that I’m choosing? Instead of reacting, simply observe.
Begin to feel into your being consciousness. If you really were a body at the center of an infinite being, who might you be?
Develop the muscle of knowing. Awareness isn’t just about thinking differently—it’s about feeling the difference between a thought and a deep, embodied knowing. We invite you to just scan throughout your day and notice if you can feel the difference.
When we integrate body and being consciousness, we stop getting stuck in emotional loops or bypassing what needs attention. We gain access to a more expansive intelligence—one that allows for healing, deeper insight, and the ability to navigate life with more clarity and presence.
3. Deep, Genuine Curiosity
Curiosity is one of the most underrated yet most powerful tools for healing and transformation. It is what allows us to stay open, to expand, to see beyond our current limitations, and to even calm down our trauma brains.
When we are truly curious—not in a frantic I-need-to-know-the-answer way, but in a spacious, open, wondering way—we create a field for change to happen. We let go of control. We make room for something new.
For those early in their journey, here’s how to cultivate true curiosity:
Practice asking questions without needing immediate answers. Here are a couple to play with: If love isn’t what I think it is, what else could it be? What have I been refusing that I could now be choosing?
Be willing to be wrong. The more we let go of needing to be “right,” the more room we create for actual growth.
Let curiosity guide your healing. Instead of resisting difficult emotions, ask: If my body and being were in total harmony, what would I know about this feeling? Instead of avoiding discomfort, ask: If discomfort is wrong or bad, who would I be?
Curiosity is what allows us to turn judgment on its head—to shift from “Why is this happening to me?” to “What else is possible?” It moves us out of limitation and into expansion.
Those are our three! And please know, you don’t have to figure it all out at once. Just start with one small shift. One moment of awareness. One shift of perception. One question that invites something new.
And before you know it, you will be in a completely different relationship with yourself, your healing, and your life.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Our biggest challenge right now is finding a way to share our work with the world in a way that is bold, authentic, and effective—without sacrificing our values. We believe so deeply in what we do. This work is soul-driven for us. It has transformed our own lives and the lives of thousands of others. And yet, when it comes to marketing and expanding our reach, we’ve had to navigate a deep internal struggle.
So much of the coaching, healing, and self-development industry is steeped in manipulative marketing tactics—fear-based messaging, false promises, quick-fix solutions. We see it all the time: “Do this one thing and your problems will disappear.” “Sign up now, or you’ll miss your only chance to change your life.” We’ve seen healing work that is appropriated, colonized, and disconnected from its roots. We’ve seen organizations that use pressure and urgency to push people into programs that may not even be right for them.
We want no part of that.
And at the same time, we recognize that if we don’t market our work, people won’t find it. And that’s a problem too—because we know this work changes lives. We’ve seen it, again and again. We have decades of evidence that these tools work, and that they don’t just offer short-term relief; they create lasting transformation. We believe people should be able to thrive, to build sustainable businesses, to be well-resourced—without compromising integrity.
So the question becomes: How do we expand our reach while staying in full alignment with our values?
This has been a deep learning process for us. We’ve had to challenge our own beliefs about visibility, about money, about what it means to take up space in the world. We’ve sought out education from mentors who are doing this in a way that feels ethical—people like Simone Grace Seol, who models marketing that is built on trust, transparency, and real connection. We’ve learned to speak about our work clearly, without exaggeration or horrendously manipulative sales tactics, but also without downplaying the impact of what we do.
One of the biggest shifts has been allowing ourselves to fully own the truth: What we offer is powerful. It is not for everyone, and we’re okay with that. But for those who resonate, it is life-changing.
We are committed to building a model that is trauma-informed, non-exploitative, and deeply respectful of each person’s autonomy. That means:
No manipulative sales tactics.
No empty promises of instant healing.
No pressure to enroll in something that doesn’t feel like a fit.
A full embrace of consent, personal agency, and the understanding that transformation happens in layers, at each person’s own pace.
At the same time, we are actively working to decolonize the healing space—to name and dismantle the ways in which spiritual work has been used to bypass real trauma, erase history, or perpetuate harm. We hold an ongoing commitment to awareness, accountability, and education around how trauma, oppression, and spiritual disconnect intersect.
So, how are we resolving this challenge?
We are choosing to be fearless in our honesty. We are learning to share our work in ways that feel true, not forced. We are letting go of the idea that we have to fit into the traditional marketing mold in order to be successful. Instead, we are forging a different path—one that allows us to thrive while staying deeply aligned with our ethics and values.
Ultimately, the people who are meant to find this work will find it. And we are committed to making sure that when they do, they can trust that they are entering a space that is built on integrity, not illusion.
This is the work we believe in. And this is the work we will continue to share, with honesty, courage, and an unwavering commitment to doing it in a way that truly honors the people we serve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lachiaramethod.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lachiara_method/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lachiara.method
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lachiara_method
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lachiara_methodhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-activate-change-podcast/id1754872848
Image Credits
Michelle Schapiro
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
