Who I am and how I got here
Meet Kylie
My journey into wellness didn’t start with credentials or certifications.
It started with curiosity. I walked into a herbalist store at 16 years old and instantly became passionate on alternative wellness. THIS was it I thought. This is what I wanted to learn and understand. I didn’t know where to learn it though. What was this even called? Chinese Medicine? Sho Tai? Naturopathy? I didn’t know where to go. Kinesiology was the closest degree I could find, and of course couldn’t be further than what this work is.
A couple years before that, I was drinking case after case of pop at 12 years old, eating junk food. I was an overweight kid. My family couldn’t afford to put me in sports. I was oblivious too. I knew I wasn’t healthy, but I had a loving home- we just ate really, really bad. I woke up one day and was just sick of being fat. None of my friends were overweight, it was just me. I couldn’t wear clothes they were wearing. I hated it and knew it was up to me to change that.
My “thing” was reading. The library was free, so that’s where I lived. By the time I was fifteen, I had read every book on health, nutrition, and fitness at the local library. I wanted to learn everything about becoming a “healthy” person. Herbalism, yoga, movement, meal prepping, nutrition- all of it. I didn’t just read it ALL, I became it.
That early self-study became a lifestyle. Over time, I became someone in my school community who people turned to because I lived what I was learning. I embodied it. The wellness industry was at it’s beginning- I didn’t know that though. I was just living it. I wanted my own yoga studio as an adult- my own holistic practice, where I could educate people on everything I was learning and understanding.
My Path to Functional Work
I had become incredibly passionate in alternative health. I kind of became obsessive as an older teenager. I was so determined to never fall back to being overweight and unhealthy. I even helped create a course at school called Healthy Lifestyles. This became my life. Becoming an entrepreneur and educating myself as much as I could. Then everything kind of came to a head when I became a mother. My youngest daughter developed severe allergies that no doctor could fully explain, let alone resolve. The inflammation from allergies led doctors to believe she was suffering from Juvenile Arthritis, which she absolutely was not. Her immune system was distressed, her digestive system was inflamed. Her joints became inflamed. THIS was the disconnect in connecting systems that infuriated me. How could practitioners not see the disconnect?? How is the ONLY health system available to us one that only treats symptoms and not the cause?? This is when I really starting researching pathology and the limitations of conventional medicine.
That experience sent me deeper into functional nutrition, environmental health, immune response, and nervous system regulation.
Because of my daughter, I felt that I needed to actually learn and understand holistic health. The most aligned teachings I could find in Canada was Holistic Nutrition. In 2016, I graduated from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. My daughter was 5 years old. I also had a 7 year old- it was tough juggling it all, but without my daughters I honestly don’t know if I would have become the practitioner that I am today.
While that designation gave me the foundation, the years of self-study, real-life application, and relentless curiosity are what shaped my work into something far more integrative and grounded.
I started in pediatric nutrition, quickly realizing that there were A LOT of children with the same experience as my daughter. Eczema, inflammation, allergies…they made up my entire client base. Why? Mis-education on first foods were absolutely number one. Stress in the home, in pregnancy- important factors that were ALWAYS overlooked. How can your children be healthy if you’re not?
Over time, my focus started being towards women’s hormonal health…another space that remains dramatically under-researched, dismissed, and misunderstood. Just like pediatric holistic nutrition was when I first started.
The Role of Yoga
Around the same time that I started understanding nutrition and wellness, I was introduced to yoga. I knew not one person who practiced yoga. Definitely not in northern Manitoba. It was something I could learn on my own that didn’t require paying for anything. I had a library card and I borrowed every yoga book there was and practiced at home. Like most people when they start, yoga was purely a physical practice. I mean, how else can it be understood that it’s deeper than that if you haven’t tried it?
I started learning meditation from it, the science behind it (Ayurveda) the philosophy and spirituality of it (the moral codes and ethics). Yoga was absolutely everything to me.
All I wanted was to learn more- about everything, so that I could help other people. This has and to this day, is the reason behind everything I do. I learn it, then get into spaces to teach what I’ve taught. Sure I get credentials from it, but it was never the goal. In 2012 I started teaching yoga to my children. They were 1 and 3, and I had finished my studies as Montessori educator. (I know, another timeline jump LOL). I wanted to write a Montessori curriculum for them that included a deeper understand of yoga for young children. I went to Victoria BC (with babies in tow) and got certified in kid’s yoga. I brought that back to Northern Manitoba and created a preschool program for mine and other children.
The point of me telling that story, is that when I started advertising that I was offering kids yoga, there was a huge demand for adult yoga. Strapped for time with two young children, a full time preschool program- I really didn’t know how to train to become a certified 200H teacher. How? I lived 800km away from the nearest training center. I found my teacher Dallas Kruszelnicki in Saskatoon Saskatchewan who seemed to be the only teacher (he trained all over the world,) to be offering weekend trainings to make up the entire program. So on the weekends, we’d load up the kids and drive to Saskatoon for my weekend intensives, I’d come home and study at night and then came back for the final week long intensive. (You can do these things when you’re young :) because I would be wiped right out if I did that now LOL. But I did it. I graduated as a 200H yoga teacher and brought adult yoga to Northern Manitoba.
Over time, I used vacation time to study across Canada, learning as many different styles and approaches that I could- all while breastfeeding a baby and having another little one with me. My classes started outgrowing the space that I had, and I wanted people to experience a yoga studio like I had all this time in trainings. In 2013 we built Northern Manitoba’s first ever purpose built hot yoga studio< Mo Tus Nua Wellness. It was a space for me to practice and offer all of my offerings. Hot yoga, kids yoga, nutrition and it even had a smoothie bar. Things appeared great on the outside, but the truth of the matter is, I was in a very abusive relationship and marriage. Teaching yoga is what saved me. Living by nature in the trees- helped me to learn on what mattered. I left the relationship and left the north- with my children. It was isolating and terrifying and I missed my yoga studio. I’m not sure how I got through that time in my life, but I know yoga and trees had a huge part
Fast forward almost a decade later, what I teach now is not based on power or agility. (Although starting with that were some of the best times of my life)! I see yoga for what it was to me now- a deeply somatic and spiritual practice, a way to come back into relationship with your body, your breath, and your source. A way to really work the issues out of your tissues. I have first hand experience with not being ok on the inside even though I appeared to be absolutely thriving on the outside. I know a lot of people live like this, and I know that the lived experience I have can help them walk into a life that is more aligned, healthier and one that is more than just surviving, but thriving.
My teachings are grounded in:
Learning to be in tune with your own body
Mindful movement rooted in presence
The power of the breath to release and recalibrate
And using the practice to quite literally flush the issues out of our tissues.
It’s been a long journey. A journey of adventure, love, loss, grief and discovery. We are all healing, and I think it’s the ones that have been through so much darkness, that have the ability to be that lighthouse for so many people. So when people ask me, what did I do or where did I go to learn all of the things I know to teach other people- I often don’t know what to say. No degree will ever amount to the lived experience I gathered. At the time, I would not wish on anyone. The jumbled trainings, certifications, diplomas, events- they stumbled in front of me when I felt I needed to serve based off what the people in front of me needed. Empathy and compassion is the heart of what I do. Science is the vehicle, and my love for serving those who need me is the driving force. This is my story. I hope to meet you someday and if I can help you in some way, rest assured I will do everything I can to do just that. xx
The Work I Do Now
Today, my focus is on women’s functional nutrition and hormone health.
I support women who feel inflamed, exhausted, dismissed, or disconnected from their own bodies, women who’ve been told their labs are normal, yet they know something is off.
I help them uncover what’s really happening.
And I give them the structure, tools, and support to reset it with clarity, not more stress and overwhelm.
I talk a lot about the type of work I do here. There is so much confusion on Holistic Health, and education is important to me, so I hope you find value in how I explain what holistic care even is.
I hope working with me you see that this is a safe space, that I will support you and advocate for the best healthcare available to you.