Going Sane

Going Sane is the second book in the series by Gabriel Orion Marie depicting in words and images the process of healing from incest through a therapeutic process that included painting her story. In this volume Gabriel shares with the readers some of the most heinous abuses and the resulting insanity that crippled and debilitated her profoundly. The experience of physical, emotional and sexual tortures drove her into a level of insanity and loss of perception of reality that permeated her daily life and required complicated and constantly shifting strategies for survival.

It was precisely because the intricate, graphic, heinous details of the abuse and the resulting insanities continued to imprison and torment me that she needed to purge all these details out. Through painting and writing the details and bringing them into the therapeutic arena, Gabriel was finally healed of them. The shame she carried about needing to reveal the truth, the disturbing details, became the place where she had to exercise the most courage and in this place is where alchemy of her soul and person took root. Shame had be transformed into courage. It is with this same courage that she offers you these volumes along with the hope that they may help you to exercise whatever courage you need to overcome any pain or wounding that oppresses you.

A number of Gabriel's paintings have been used in presentations promoting sexual abuse awareness at the Awakenings Foundation in Chicago, Illinois - a foundation created to help victims of violence who have used art as a path for recovery. She will have an exhibit at the Awakenings Foundation Gallery in October of 2013.

About this Series
There are many themes in the areas of wounding and healing from sexual abuse, incest, and torture, and for my books, I have chosen themes that were most prominent in my journey. I created over 325 paintings and drawings during several years of my therapy and have arranged selections of them by themes for chapters. I tried to choose paintings in each topic that I felt would communicate best what I am trying to share. These themes and paintings are divided into three books, each sharing the subtitle: Recovery From Incest Through Painting My Story:

This White House (Book One)
Chapter 1 A Legacy of Shame: A Brief Autobiography
Chapter 2 First Revelations: Beginning Therapy
Chapter 3 Child Pornography/Child Prostitution
Chapter 4 Multiplicity
Chapter 5 Inner Deaths: Borderline Series
Chapter 6 Obesity and Measurement
Chapter 7 Spirituality and Guilt

Going Sane (Book Two)
Chapter 1 The Therapeutic Relationship
Chapter 2 Establishing My Insanity
Chapter 3 Tortured: Segreto Oscuro (Dark Secret)
Chapter 4 The Penis Question
Chapter 5 The Fiercest Taboo
Chapter 6 Sensations
Chapter 7 Some of My Selves

A Spectacular Dawn (Book Three)
Chapter 1 Choosing Consciousness
Chapter 2 Grieving
Chapter 3 Letting Go
Chapter 4 Forgiveness
Chapter 5 A New Beginning
Chapter 6 The Dawn and I
Chapter 7 Only Now