
About Kara-Leah
Kara-Leah is a dedicated Tantrika and yoga teacher, guiding practitioners and teachers in awakening & embodied liberation through Śakta-Upāya.
Kara-Leah is a dedicated Tantrika, yoga teacher, and mentor, guiding practitioners and teachers in awakening and embodied liberation through Śakta-Upāya. With over 30 years on the path and nearly two decades of teaching, she has worked with thousands of students worldwide.
A prolific communicator, she studied journalism in the mid-90s and spent years as a journalist, editor, and speechwriter before turning her full attention to teaching, mentoring, and writing. She has authored three books, thousands of articles, and hundreds of videos, and was the founder of The Yoga Lunchbox, New Zealand’s largest yoga website at the time.
Since 2015, Kara-Leah has led 40+ retreats and trainings, including the Direct Realization Training, which guided 100+ students through Śakta-Upāya and was the foundation for her new Embodied Liberation YTT—a radically different teacher training where awakening becomes the foundation of teaching.
For yoga teachers and dedicated practitioners seeking ongoing, direct mentorship, she offers Access: A Yogi’s Apprenticeship, a small-group, real-time container for deep transformation.
Kara-Leah’s approach is rooted in direct experience, radical insight, and unwavering presence. She successfully integrated Kundalini Awakening and now mentors others in navigating their own path. She completed a 1000-day Ucchāra practice in 2021 and continues to deepen her embodiment of Trika Shaivism.
After two decades away, Kara-Leah recently returned to Canada and now lives in Squamish with her teenage son, establishing a new chapter in her life and teaching.






Kara-Leah honours her teachers for their ongoing support on this journey, via their teachings, practice and lived example: Harshada, Shiva Rea, Christopher Tompkins, Christopher Wallis, Artemis and Bhairav.
Mentoring with Kara-Leah
Kara-Leah has worked with hundreds of clients and students as a mentor. She helps people identify and dissolve their conditioning, reprogramme their operating systems (psyches), and step into their desired experience of life. You can book a 1:1 Session with Kara-Leah or explore committing to a container than includes weekly 1:1 Sessions, wrap-around support via WhatsApp or Telegram and access to The Toolbox which includes 100s of classes, talks, guided audio practices, and more.
