Every Story Has its Beginning.Â
When Kyra was 12 years old, she knew she wanted to run a dance company. She wasn’t quite sure what that entailed, and something in her knew she was a leader, already leading dance productions at school and talent shows, she was a natural. Â
She also had the calling to help people. From a young age, she was sensitive to the needs of others.
It wasn’t until she was 17, choosing her university program, that her Grandpa, an important role model and secure family member in her life, asked her how she was going to use dance to be of service to others. She believes that this question was what sparked so much of her journey and path to where she has arrived now.Â
The Call to Learn, Learn,
and Learn Some More
In university, Kyra pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance with a minor in Sociology, a great amalgamation of the arts and the systems of our culture. Somatics was introduced to her at 18, and funnily enough, knowing the field she leads in today, she thought it was so boring. Kyra wanted to be jumping, turning, and making movements to become a high-caliber dancer…she didn’t realize her body was in desperate need of somatic healing. While in school, Kyra found herself teaching kids and adults in community centers, hosting movement classes for people with disabilities and the elderly, and eventually traveling to Nepal, where her mother was born, to teach a dance camp for Nepalese children.
It’s funny...Kyra always thought she would end up as part of a dance company, touring the world, performing in shows every weekend, and being a creative vessel for world-renowned choreographers. However, God/Creator had a different path in store.
After university, Kyra was struggling with depression and suicidal ideations from her unresolved trauma and had to return home to Calgary. She was burnt out, feeling hopeless and alone.
In Calgary, with her grandparents, mom, and sister near, she began to build herself back up. She started to serve as a behavioural aid for people with physical and developmental disabilities while teaching dance and taking dance classes in the evening.
And then… 5Rhythms happened.
The Unavoidable Struggle
In 2016, Kyra was collapsing under the belief that her body was betraying her. Struggling with an autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and battling depression the only thing providing resolution was dance and somatic experiencing. She had done 12 years of traditional cognitive behavioural therapy and was not seeing the results she wanted. It was somatics and tending to the nervous system that kick started her healing journey. And because of her own experience with this healing modality, she began her expedition to becoming a somatic practitioner.
At this point, Kyra had her degree, certifications in Inner Journeys Ecstatic Dance, AXIS Dance, DanceAbility (to work with people with disabilities in dance), Equity in the Arts, Rozsa Arts Management Program, and Animal Flow. Her work experience, lived experience, and passion supported her to work as the artistic director of a disability dance company, while running YYC Contemporary Technique - a professional training platform for contemporary dancers - all the while teaching the elderly, kids, and adults dance, and performing in choreographers' dance work.
She was burnt out...as one might imagine.
Her passion for professional dance started to fade. And something was changing inside of her…the grind of being a professional dance artist was losing its sparkle.Â
Her heart was calling for the deeper healing of somatics.
The Deeper
Immersion Began.
Kyra started her journey of becoming certified in Somatic Experiencing, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning Experience, in addition to her certification in Somatic Attachment Therapy.
Kyra knew deep in her bones she was meant to serve others through somatics and started Embodied Woman, her personal brand which she pioneered to serve thousands of people across the world.
Now, she is thrilled to be packaging up everything she has learned and experienced through her upcoming Somatic Healing Arts Practitioner Training, where she will train other people to become somatic healers.
She is thrilled to be launching her first long-term program, The Arts Alive Mastermind, designed to help coaches, healers, and therapists build heart-led businesses that are both sustainable and deeply nourishing. In addition, Kyra and her team are preparing to launch a collective-based membership that will unite somatic leaders from around the globe, offering an accessible, therapeutic space for somatic healing, set to blossom in 2026.
Kyra has always valued authenticity, integrity, innovation, empathy, and loving-kindness. It is her mission to spread somatics near and far so that more people can experience the power of somatic healing. She believes that when we heal as individuals, our communities, cities, and the world at large will heal too.
