Finally ME is a graphic memoir about what happens when healing finally goes deep enough to change a life.
For most of his adult life, Frank Sala felt like a stranger in his own body-disconnected, depressed, and convinced that happiness was meant for other people. Years of talk therapy and self-help brought insight, but never relief. Something essential still felt missing.
Everything shifted when Frank began working with Valerie Devi Carpenter, a shamanic counselor, who introduced him to the practice of shamanic journeying. What unfolded was not a quick fix or belief system, but an embodied process of healing that brought Frank into direct relationship with his inner world, his body, and unseen sources of guidance.
Through vivid illustrations and deeply personal storytelling, Finally ME invites readers into the Sacred Garden-an inner symbolic landscape where spirit allies appear, lost soul parts return, and long-buried aspects of the self are met with compassion. Rendered through original artwork, this symbolic world becomes the ground for trauma recovery, soul retrieval, and emotional integration.
The memoir traces Frank's reconciliation with his wounded inner child and with "Frankie," the young musician whose creative expression was suppressed by shame and despair. Their healing marks a turning point, restoring self-worth, emotional stability, and creative life.
Blending psychology, spirituality, visual storytelling, and shamanic wisdom, Finally ME will resonate with readers interested in graphic memoir, trauma recovery, inner-child healing, soul retrieval, and embodied spiritual practice.
Through intimate narrative and striking illustration, Finally ME offers a grounded, deeply human account of transformation-and a reminder that the path home to oneself is always available.
Frank's journey reminds us that no matter how fractured we become, the path home is always available, and our spirit allies, soul parts, and inner wisdom are waiting just beyond the veil for us to say "yes."
If you've ever felt broken, unseen, or disconnected from your true self, this graphic memoir will meet you where you are-and gently guide you toward the possibility of becoming whole.
A moving testament to resilience. A celebration of the unseen world. A roadmap for anyone seeking deep, lasting healing.
This is the story of becoming finally-and fully-yourself.
Carpenter, Valerie Devi: - Valerie Devi Carpenter is a transformational coach, visionary sound healer, and shamanic counselor who helps clients relieve pain, stress, anxiety, and overwhelm and come home to their calm, steady center. Using pioneering protocols for stress and pain relief, spiritual awakening, and trauma recovery, she guides individuals toward the confidence that allows them to be truly seen and heard. Valerie's mission is to help people find happiness in their work and relationships, while replenishing the vital energy they need to work, play, sleep, and love.Valerie's forty-year career in the performing arts inspired her to create a signature program that has helped hundreds of clients free their powerful voice for self-healing, spiritual growth, and to speak up for what they want-and get it!She is the founder of Valerie Devi Sound Living [www.sound-living.com] in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds professional certifications in sound healing, integrative medicine, and neuro-psychoacoustics from the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Acutonics Institute of Integrative Medicine, Integrated Listening Systems, Advanced Brain Technologies, the Vox Mundi School of the Voice, and The Awakened School. Valerie is co-author of Free Your Voice: Awaken to Life Through Singing and her upcoming memoir, The Sound of Self.
Sala, Frank: - Frank Sala is the founder of Cat Gate Graphics [www.catgategraphics.com]. He lives in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, where he devotes his time to his three main passions-graphic design, gardening, and caring for the cats and kittens at the Second Chance Animal Center in Arlington.After surviving both a heart attack and stroke, Frank found himself embarking on a journey to heal the early trauma underlying both of those conditions. With his verbal communication temporarily impaired, his expression burst forth in the flowing images of fantasy, emotion, pain, horror, and deliverance that eventually become Finally ME. Frank has two graphic novels in the works. Emily Has a Beautiful Garden explores the plight of a woman facing devastating loss who discovers boundless joy from very unexpected sources, while The Sound Healer recounts the life of a man who could not stop singing to himself as a child, and explores the healing power of sound, and the sometimes tragically errant nature of memory. His latest, The Porcupine and the Balloon, is a children's story about seeking for and finding love.
