Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Humphrey
Hi Kim, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a senior in high school, after a series of neck injuries, medical procedures, and nerve ablations to try to manage my pain, I was told I wasn’t allowed to do any movement with impact. When I begged for some way to move my body, my doctor said, ‘You can try yoga.’
That was the beginning of my journey to heal, and for the next 16 years I practiced yoga, following teachers who could hold space for the emotions that would come up when I discovered numbness in different parts of my neck and back during practice. I found that Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Buddhist meditation, and Atma Buti® sound therapies with Himalayan Singing bowls had the most profound effect on my physical and emotional wellbeing. I would come out of these practices with the felt experience of a different vibration, a feeling of wholeness that was so foreign to me in my own body at that time, and in my experience with western medicine.
During this time, I also became a speech therapist, studying the science of speech and vibration, and I practiced speech therapy in many different settings.
In 2015 I was starting a private practice for speech and feeding therapy, when it became clear that what I really wanted to share were the yoga and sound healing practices that so profoundly helped me. So I started getting the certifications I needed to share yoga, meditation, and sound therapies with the Himalayan singing bowls. What we do in the world sends out a ripple into the collective, and this is the ripple of peace, healing, and wholeness I wanted to send out.
Now I get to share these practices in various settings around Austin, through my personal Vibrational Body® trainings, workshops, and classes, and as a teacher for the Atma Buti® Sound and Vibrational School based in Boulder, CO.
I’m so grateful I made the choice to shift my career 10 years ago, and I continue to watch in awe and gratitude as the ripple of peace from these practices grows in my life and my community!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When I look at the big picture, it’s been a pretty smooth road. My early pain and medical trauma led me to yoga, and I had a lot of time to embody my own yoga practice before I decided to teach. It’s amazing to look back and see how my speech therapy career informs the work I do now, bringing together a western, scientific understanding of sound and vibration with meditation and Himalayan sound therapies. I’m also grateful to notice how my teaching skills as a therapist translate to how I show up to teach individuals and groups
And, what led me to seek out all of these practices was a lot of pain. I had had medical procedures to try to get rid of pain, and they left me with medical trauma of having nerves burned off under conscious sedation, and in one procedure, flat-lining on the table under conscious sedation.
All of these feelings, emotions, and beliefs were held in the pain. Then after the procedures, they were still held under the numbness in my neck and back. Plus, now I had this whole other issue of the numbness and medical trauma to heal. In order to feel that vibration of wholeness, I had to feel the feelings hidden in that numbness. I had to feel the pain and the numbness, meet the beliefs and emotions in the feelings, and then, miraculously it seemed, these practices helped all of it integrate into this feeling of ok-ness, of wholeness.
I had to do the practices to get the benefits, though. And honestly, that has been the greatest obstacle, the parts of me that just didn’t want to do it, that were too afraid, or too lazy, or thought it would be too painful.
I learned the path to healing isn’t the path of getting rid of something we’re feeling (though it may change along the way), it is really the path of including everything. And that is such a challenge because we are often taught to get rid of, or move past our pain. We all hold our unique pain and trauma, and we need practices and safe spaces where we can allow it to come to the surface to become part of the whole.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In my classes and private sessions, I’m known for putting together Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra meditation, and Himalayan Sound Therapies, to guide people into deep states of rest where they have access to their inner experience from a deeply regulated nervous system state.
I’m also known for teaching teachers the history and depth of Yoga Nidra and Atma Buti® sound therapies. I’m really proud to be doing my best to pass on these practices I was so blessed to receive with the integrity of the traditions behind them.
Because of my background in sound science, I’m also known for being able to explain the ‘why’ behind what’s happening with our human system in Yoga Nidra and ‘sound healing.’ I’m excited to share more about this topic in the future to empower teachers and students to understand their own experiences, and confidently navigate the marketplace of Yoga Nidra and sound healing offerings.
What does success mean to you?
Success for me is getting to share this work in the world.
Success is seeing a shift into relaxation in someone’s body and the peace or joy on their face after a practice. It’s hearing that someone still listens to one of my Yoga Nidra recordings, that I sent them years ago. It’s seeing a student inspired to become a teacher, see them learning, and to see this ripple of peace going further and reaching more people.
Success is getting a chance each morning to make a positive shift towards peace in myself, in my community, and seeing that grow.
Pricing:
- Session Pricing is on my website
- Current trainings and workshops including pricing are on my website
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vibrationalbody.com
- Instagram: @vibrational.body
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vibrational.body
