We were lucky to catch up with Kiara Lee-Benton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kiara, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
I started Healing with Kiara in 2020 when the world changed for all of us. I was working in crisis intervention, on call 24/7, and leading a team through major changes in how we did our work. It was taking a toll on my mind, body, and spirit but due to my history in crisis work, I was used to pushing through long hours and feeling stretched. One day, my partner shared that they were noticing I had little patience and wasn’t showing up in the kindest way to our family. It stopped me in my tracks and made me realize the impact of my work on those around me. In that moment, everything became clear and I knew that the job was no longer sustainable. I took the leap of resigning from my job and deciding to put my energy into healing from the burn out and supporting others to do the same. I learned that no job is ever worth my health, my ability to be present with my family, or my peace. And that I can use what I have learned to support others in taking care of themselves as they navigate challenging work environments.
Kiara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a holistic trauma healing coach known for holding powerful individual and community healing spaces; blending heart-centered support with pragmatic efforts to effect meaningful change.
I have worked with survivors of trauma for over thirteen years in community, higher education, and corporate settings. From a young age, I was a helper and caretaker so it felt very natural for me to pursue counseling and social work as a career path. As life happened for me I answered my bodies call to heal from traumas I experienced in childhood and my young adulthood. As I was in my personal healing process, I found myself also supporting others with finding their healing. I was able to impart some of the tools and ahas that helped me to those who were searching for guidance in their journeys. In these shared spaces, we were healing together. The ripples I witness this collective healing have on the lives of so many others is profound and something that I know the world truly needs right now. Through the years, I have (re)connected to traditional healing modalities, reaching the deep wisdom of my ancestors, elders, and Mother nature. And these modalities are what I lean on to continue holding spaces for healing for individuals and communities.
I work with clients to transcend their understanding of who they are after trauma by finding ways to reconnect to their bodies and to stand in their personal power. I use mindfulness, movement, plant medicine, and more to help balance and heal the mind, body, spirit, and emotions.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
When I started my business, I quickly noticed how prone I was to creating chaos for myself. I guess it was the way my nervous system had wired itself from the many years of crisis work. I would constantly create unrealistic and unnecessary deadlines for myself, pack my schedule with frivolous meetings from saying yes to things I really wasn’t interested in. I wondered more than a few times if I should just have stayed at a job. But then I realized, I am the boss here. I can make decisions to not work this way. And I can still be successful. I decided to prioritize rest and my wellbeing and the work really begun to unfold from there. I learned quickly not to recreate the systems that did not work in the jobs I had, in my own business.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
It has been consistently offering thoughtful and intentional care and support to my clients and being transparent, real, and vulnerable to build those authentic connections. My clients and I are doing deep work together and I want to build genuine trust so we can heal together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.healingwithkiara.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingwithkiara
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reprioritizingselfseries
- Other: Interested in working with Kiara? https://www.healingwithkiara.com/booking-kiara