About me

Faith has been part of my story since very early on, not only as a belief, but as part of my upbringing, my values and the way I learned to look at life. Over the years, it stopped being only something I had received and became a conscious choice, shaped also by the experiences life itself brought me.

And life brought many.

I have known joys, achievements, new beginnings and accomplishments, but I have also known pain that went through me deeply. After an accident, I went through a period in which I used a wheelchair and had to face limitations, dependence and the process of rebuilding my independence.

I also went through the experience of losing a daughter and having to learn to keep walking when what I wanted most could not be changed.

These experiences ran through my life, my faith and the way I understand pain. It was also from this story that my book Quando Deus não cura — No que crer? Encontrando propósito na dor e fé no silêncio was born, in which I share part of this journey and of the questions that arise when faith meets what we cannot explain.

I don’t write about pain only because I have studied it. Some kinds of pain I have known from the inside. That does not place me above those who suffer; it brings me closer to the reality that there are moments when we don’t need ready-made answers — we need presence, truth and room to work through what we are living.

Perhaps that is why, over the course of my journey, I developed such a deep interest in people. My training in Social Work, Clinical Counseling and Christian Psychoanalysis, my studies in human development and my training in Temperaments all came together with this desire to understand the human being in all of their complexity.

I am someone who loves to learn. I keep studying, asking questions, revisiting ideas and looking for new ways to understand the human being. I don’t believe that reaching a certain place means we stop growing.

I also don’t believe in a life divided into parts. For me, there is no professional Cristina on one side and the woman, wife, mother, daughter and pastor on the other. All of this comes together in who I am.

The move to the United States is also part of this story. Coming to Florida involved a process of immigration, adaptation, waiting, uncertainty and rebuilding my life. It was one more experience that taught me about perseverance, new beginnings and the courage it takes to build a new chapter.

Today, I carry with me the experience of someone who has learned to move between different places, cultures, people and seasons of life.

I am a pastor, therapist, mentor and author, but before any title, I am a woman who keeps walking, learning and being transformed by life itself.