Kaye Bahr: Learning to Let Go of Attachment through Mind Body Wellness

Kaye Bahr spent 15 years teaching in the Arizona public school system. As an elementary school teacher teaching third to sixth grade, Kaye loved the daily interaction with her students and watching them grow and change throughout the school year. However, like most teachers, Kaye found that there was very little time left for her family or for herself. After experiencing some changes in her career, she began to develop depression and digestive disorders.

When she reached the point that she could no longer stand the situation and her suffering health, she went in search of a counselor. In that search, she found a Mind Body Wellness Practitioner. When she made the call to set up an appointment, Kaye heard the words that she so needed to hear that day: “You will feel so much better when you leave my office.” After her first session, she did feel so much better; the fog began to clear and her physical and emotional self found relief. “When I left her office that day, the experience changed my life,” says Kaye. “It took another few years for me to leave teaching, yet I knew in my soul that I had found my life’s work. I wanted to provide that same healing experience for others.” With this in mind, Kaye sought out SWIHA, enrolling in the Mind Body Wellness Practitioner Diploma program with an emphasis in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching. She graduated in November 2016— the start of a whole new life on a path that she felt she was destined to take.

Kaye loved teaching, yet in SWIHA, she found resonance. In the Mind Body Wellness Program, Kaye’s first love became hypnotherapy. “I was hooked with the very first class I took. I loved seeing the transformation and the healing that this modality brought to clients. I also loved that healing can take place without having to relive all your past hurts, dramas, traumas, and tragedies. Blocks and barriers can be released, and it isn’t necessary to know what they are. You get to reap the benefits by changing your subconscious mind. I love being the vessel in which healing comes through for clients. I love to see the light in their eyes when they have made the connection that all of the answers they seek are already within themselves.”

Often, the first time you go through a class you may be processing your own healing journey. Things can get pretty emotional as you yourself do the work that you will eventually be asking your future clients to do. Kaye explains the true meaning and power of the audit system SWIHA has in place that allows students to retake classes that they have previously finished: “It takes going through the classes to understand the full impact of what an instructor means when they say the first time you take these classes, it is for you; the second time, it is for your clients. All of my life, I had always been what I refer to as ‘tightly wrapped,’ especially during the years that I was a stay-at-home mom. By going through the program and finally dealing with my own ‘demon,’ I was able to release and heal a lot of what was holding me back from my own life. I feel freer today than I have ever been, and I am able to have FUN and enjoy myself and my life for the first time in a long time.”

One of the greatest lessons that Kaye learned while at SWIHA is that you don’t always “need to know” everything and that it is healthy to release attachment to outcomes. Life Coaching instructor Richard Seaman brought this awareness to her with a simple statement that had a profound impact on her. On the first night of the 80-hour Life Coaching class, he asked her a simple question: “How did you like the first 20-hour class?” Her response was, “I didn’t know what to expect at first, yet I liked it.” The next day in class, Richard made the comment that he already knew things about some of the people in the class, including: “I know Kaye ‘needs to know.’”

If you were in a class at SWIHA, this is the point where you might be asked to “sit with that for a moment.” Well, Kaye sat with that moment for several weeks of her life. “I pondered, I became enraged, (How dare he say that?), and then I began to defend it, saying, ‘Well, of course I need to know… What’s wrong with that?’” Once she worked through all of that, she finally realized what Richard was pointing out to her: you don’t always need to know how a class will go, and you don’t always need to know how a particular situation will be remedied. “I learned that it is not always necessary or beneficial to know the outcome before it arrives. I have also learned to become more intuitive and empathetic towards others. I have learned to listen to what Spirit is saying to me now, after years of blocking it out. I have learned to trust myself more, not be so ‘tightly wrapped,’ to have fun, to trust that I know what I am doing, and that I have all of the skills that I need. What that experience taught me was that it is ok to put down your armor and sword and to just be. Be in the moment, be with the ones you love, be who and what spirit is calling you to be in your life.”

After graduating from SWIHA, Kaye wanted to create a life for herself that she could be proud of—a life that would provide fulfillment, a sense of accomplishment, and would allow her to do what she loves, helping others to find their own healing. With that in mind and heart, she has created her own business called Aspect Wellness. Kaye provides Hypnotherapy, Life Coaching, Aromatherapy, Reiki and EFT to make an impact in the lives of others. Regarding her entrepreneurial practices, Kaye comments:

“I just provide the opportunity for change to take place in a safe, comfortable environment. I listen, ask questions, and I provide the opportunity for ‘ah-ha’ moments to be realized. Sometimes those moments come with anger, sometimes with laughter, sometimes with tears, and at times, they are all present at the same time. Either way, a change has occurred. The true impact of what I do occurs when my clients show up in and for their own lives, and when they choose to do the work and take it seriously. They become full participants in the process of realizing that the answers to their ‘problems’ have always been there and that they just had to allow themselves to open up and find them.”

Kaye’s business, Aspect Wellness, is located in Phoenix. She has also recently teamed up with Sonoran Life Solutions, Inc., a counselling center in Peoria. Kaye also recently worked in collaboration with Sun Health to provide a one-hour presentation called “Who or What is Pushing Your Buttons?” in order to help people re-frame the stress in their life. Additionally, she also attended her first HypnoThoughts Live! Conference in Las Vegas in August.

Kaye would like to give the following advice to future SWIHA students: “Be prepared for the ride of your life. Walking through those front doors will change your life in ways you have never dreamed of. Be prepared to be opened up and to be accepted for who you are, warts and all. Be prepared to find a peace and a love that you might not have ever experienced before. Go with the flow, have faith, and don’t compare yourself to others because you are unique with your own gifts and talents. You will discover or rediscover things about yourself that you didn’t know about or hid for years from yourself and others. Remember that the first time you take a class, it is for you to deal with and experience your own “stuff” and what that means. Finally, know that whatever program you choose to be a part of at SWIHA, it will change you for the better.”