“There is reason, after all,
that some people wish to colonize the moon,
and others dance before it as an ancient friend.”
— James Baldwin
Gabes entered the world when a cataclysmic volcano erupted in the Philippines. She carries the history of that day with her, marveling and moving through incandescent questions of what it’s like to be alive in times of great, ceaseless change. She is a mental health practitioner, writer, and community organizer.
Gabes completed a Bachelor’s in Historical Theology & Philosophy at a theological school in Chicago, Illinois. She pursued this field because of her fascination in the birth and growth of the Western church and missionary movements, especially in light of Christian hegemony and colonization in the Philippines.
She earned a Master’s in Theology and Culture at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, focusing on colonialism and its impact on the virtue and practice of hospitality. She later fulfilled a second Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology in the same graduate school. Her clinical practice and research concentrated on racial and migration trauma.
Gabes is a mental health counselor offering support to climate and human rights defenders, attending to climate trauma, activist burnout, and sustainability in social-change movements.
She founded and co-facilitated the Heritage Workshop, a virtual workshop for people of color around the world where they explore ancestral lineages, stories, and medicine.
She writes for Yes! Magazine with a column focusing on mental health and collective action.
Gabes writes poetry and makes songs. She independently produced 3 albums of original music, and her first one was launched when she was 17. She has toured in Southeast Asia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle.
You may find Gabes’ past speaking engagements here.
Photography by Arabella Paner and Laurel Yae
gabes torres 