She is a prolific communicator and content creator, with a background in journalism and public service. In the last few decades she has published three books, written thousands of articles, produced hundreds of videos, and taught hundreds of retreats, trainings, workshops, classes and programmes.

That journey has been intimately intertwined with yoga since her first class in 1996. She began teaching ten years later, in 2006, and trained with Shiva Rea starting in 2008. Kara-Leah’s yoga teaching has evolved over the years to use a multitude of yogic teachings and practices with work directly with the energetic, mental/emotional and physical bodies of students.

Kara-Leah took a vow of truth and unconditional love in 2010, on her way back from 200 HR Yoga Teacher Training with Shiva Rea. That orientation to truth and love has led to penetrating insight into the human condition, delivered with compassion and understanding.

She’s worked with hundreds of client and students in the last ten years, supporting people to identify and uninstall limiting beliefs, and to fully heal and dissolve deep childhood wounds and trauma.

Along the way, she has presented at scores of festivals, summits and conferences, both online and offline. Kara-Leah continues to evolve and expand as a Tantrik Yoga teacher. She completed a 1000 Day Practice of Ucchāra as taught by Christopher Tompkins in 2021, and is currently mentoring with Artmeis and Bhairav of Anuttara Ashram, in the Shivoham lineage.

The power of communication is one of her passions – Kara-Leah studied journalism at AUT in the mid-90s before heading off on her big OE.

That adventure lasted eight years, and included freelance journalism, working as a community reporter and becoming entertainment editor of a community paper. She wrote an award-winning screenplay, and a handful of short stories, some of which won competitions.

Her overseas experience was interrupted with an awakening into non-dual reality which tipped over into psychosis and led to a stint in Lion’s Gate Hospital’s Acute Psych Ward.

On Kara-Leah’s return to New Zealand, she dove head first into understanding the human psyche from a yogic perspective, dedicating herself to yoga and mediation. Despite being told by doctors that she was ‘bi-polar’ and would need medication for the rest of her life, Kara-Leah used the tools of insight, inquiry, yoga, mediation, and right lifestyle to heal the patterns of the psyche which had led to the psychosis.

The healing process included blogging about her experience on a blog in 2006 – 2007 called Be Conscious Now. She started teaching yoga, moved to Wellington, and landed a job as a speechwriter for the Ministry of Social Development.

She wrote for Labour’s Ruth Dyson, and National’s Paula Bennett, amongst others. By 2008 she had started an online yoga magazine called The Yoga Lunchbox which went on to become the biggest yoga website in New Zealand for a period of time.

After resigning as a speechwriter in 2009 due to the immanent birth of her son, Kara-Leah dedicated herself full-time to writing, teaching yoga, and supporting people to transform their lives, while parenting solo.

At her 2010 yoga teacher training, Kara-Leah was introduced to the teachings of Traditional Tantra for the first time, and Ucchāra practice. In 2015 she committed to 1000 days in a row of this practice, which she completed in July of 2021.

Kara-Leah loves working with people who are ready to liberate themselves from the suffering of the human mind. Kara-Leah leads trainings, retreats, workshops, classes and programmes on everything from Direct Realization Tantrik Yoga to kundalini awakening, money mastery, relationships, parenting, and business.

She also works with a select number of businesses as a strategic communications consultant doing work she believes in. in 2024, at the urging of her teenage son, Kara-Leah moved back to the Sea-to-Sky corridor where she now lives with her son in Squamish. After two decades away from Canada, it’s felt like coming home, and she’s looking forward to establishing a new life there.

She honours her teachers for their on-going support on this journey, via their teachings, practice and lived example: Harshada, Shiva Rea, Christopher Tompkins, Christopher Wallis, Artemis and Bhairav.