Writing My Way to Wholeness
- Dec 1, 2025
- 3 min read
By Teri Katzenberger
Writing saved me.
Not in a pretty or poetic kind of way — but in a gut-wrenching, truth-spilling, tear-stained, Holy Spirit kind of way.
When I sat down to write my first chapter, I honestly thought I was going to write something “nice.” Something encouraging. Something that would make people smile or nod along. I thought I was going to write about my life long journey in health and wellness to save my own life.
But that’s not what happened. That’s not what came out of me.
Four hours later, I had written almost 3,000 words that I didn’t even know were still living inside me — buried pain, generational junk, family secrets that were never supposed to be spoken out loud. The kind of truth that makes your stomach turn when you realize it’s about to be printed in black and white.
I remember sitting there afterward, staring at the screen, trembling. My first thought wasn’t what will readers think? — it was what will my family say?
They’ve never been my biggest fans. I’ve always been “too much” — too loud, too honest, too emotional, too driven, too real. And now, here I was… about to tell the world what really went on behind closed doors.
The fear was paralyzing. I got physically sick. Panic attacks. Sleepless nights. I felt exposed — like I had ripped the bandage off every old wound and dared to let it bleed in public.
But deep down, I knew this wasn’t rebellion — it was obedience.
It was God.
It was the Holy Spirit saying, Tell it. All of it.
That night, a voice woke me up, “You have nothing to lose”. I opened my eyes, smiling as the voice says again, “You have nothing to lose”. I knew it was my dad. He’s in heaven. You see, the truth I was revealing was not only my truth, it was the truth of my dad and my twin brother. My twin passed away in December 2020. I was doing this for them. Little did I know.
The next sleepless-restless night, the voice woke me again saying, “You have nothing to prove.” I now know, even as I write this very sentence….That voice was my Twin brother.
So I did. And I submitted my work. It never had to be edited. It was a one time write. And when that first chapter was published, something broke loose inside of me.
I didn’t just share my story — I set it free.
And in doing so, I set myself free.
That one act of obedience — of writing my truth and allowing it to be seen — became the turning point of my life. What started as one terrifying step turned into a journey of healing, restoration, and redemption I could have never imagined.
God took what was meant to destroy me and turned it into my divine assignment.
Since then, I’ve gone on to become a #1 National and International Best-Selling Author, and even received the International IMPACT Book Award Winner title — but those awards aren’t the real story. The real victory came when I was invited to be part of The Wounded Women Series — Betrayed, Broken, and Burned.
Those three books didn’t just tell my story — they finished it.
They broke generational curses.
They exposed the lies.
They ended the silence.
And they gave me my voice back.
Writing became my therapy. My prayer. My war cry.
Every word I wrote peeled away another layer of fear and shame. Every page I finished loosened another chain. I began to see that my voice wasn’t the problem — it was the weapon.
The same family that tried to silence me? They were no longer my focus.
The people who judged me? No longer my prison guards.
I finally realized that my story wasn’t written for them — it was written through me, for the ones still trapped in their own pain and pretending they’re fine.
Writing became my way to wholeness — my conversation with God on paper. It’s where I found my strength, my peace, and my purpose.
It’s also where I learned that healing doesn’t come from hiding.
Freedom doesn’t come from silence.
And truth doesn’t destroy — it delivers.
My books are my real, raw, unfiltered truth.
They are Up Close and Personal with Teri.
And if sharing them helps even one woman realize she’s not alone — if it gives her courage to speak, to heal, to rise — then every panic attack, every sleepless night, every family fallout was worth it.
Because that’s what writing did for me.
It gave me me back. Unapologetically Me!
Connect With Teri
Comments