Pavlina Gogueva
Pavlina has pursued spirituality and conscious self-improvement since she was fourteen-years old. As a young girl, she studied yoga, which was forbidden in Bulgaria, then a communist country. She was an avid student, looking for books that would explain human behavior and soul development. The first of them were typed tomes on graphology, phrenology, palmistry, and yoga. At sixteen despite her family rejection she became vegetarian and stick with it even though it was unheard of and very unusual for a young healthy person growing in a communistic country.
At seventeen years old, a straight-A student with a brilliant future and a searching mind, Pavlina left home and became a disciple at a secret ashram in a small village. Life became very difficult for her in the political climate of that time. Also, her father was an army officer, a World War hero and a member of the Communist Party. After seven years of rugged training, she left the ashram and became the first woman accepted as a violinmaker apprentice in Cremona - the only violin manufacturer in Bulgaria. Her strength helped her overcome intimidation by the famous violin master who taught the classes and she rose to the top of her all-male class. Her excellent and detailed handcrafted work open the door for other women to be considered and hired at the violin manufacturing company. A year later she was invited to work for the American company "Consort BG" in Sophia, the capitol of Bulgaria. Shortly after her picture appeared in the British magazine "String" as a violinmaker in the US Company.
In 1991, the second year the Government allowed women to study religion, Pavlina became a student in it, her only heart's desire. During those five years in Sofia, while working as a violinmaker in the American shop, she studied at the University and got her Master's degree in Theology. Two weeks after defending her diploma paper before the faculty members, she flew to America. In America, she worked as a violinmaker at Brobst Violin Shop in Alexandria, VA. A few years later, in 2000, as her English improved, she became a certified hypnotist through the National Guild of Hypnotists. Pavlina has shared wisdom, insights, inner power, valuable scientific information, and the inspiration that made her who she is today with clients and friends. She has been working professionally for more than eight years privately, providing services as a reader, personal advisor, life coach, emotional healer, and hypnotist. She teaches classes on different topics at various organizations and churches. Pavlina is a very skilled chess player, enjoys mountain hiking, dancing and swimming. She and her son, David, have lived in Virginia since 1997. She loves art and she is very creative with her photography which include portraits, events and landscapes. Most summers she goes to her native country Bulgaria on a quest high in the mountain, where like-minded people gather from all over the world to dance Paneurhythmy and share the beauty and the inspiration of this pure place. Some of the most distinguish people that she has done readings for include Sheila Johnson and the entire Mystics Basketball Team among others.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my students, clients, and colleagues who are my family, friends, teachers and challengers because of
whom I became more compassionate, stronger and wiser"
Pavlina