~ Kay'aleya Hunnybee ~
I am deeply inspired by the beauty inherent in nature, cultivating fertility (in body and earth), the miracle of conception, the journey of childbearing, learning about women's health, playing and exploring in music and dance, co-creating community-weaving events, and more.
In the Sierra foothills (which is a new home for me), I look forward to sharing my birth & postpartum doula services, offering therapeutic massage and integrative bodywork, co-creating events and teaching classes.
A Little Backstory:
I was born in New York City and lived there and in the adjacent suburbs until I was 18. Growing up, I was most interested in creative pursuits like sculpture, photography, poetry and mixed media artwork. I used to spend free time wandering through galleries and museums and engaging in inspired art-making, always seeking to find the magical in the mundane. I was also always an interested and hard-working student who loved to be outside.
Following my passions, I went to Colorado College with an aspiration to be a poet and perhaps a three-dimensional artist. Soon after beginning school, I recognized my deep interest in learning about diverse cultures, and started to study Anthropology and Religion to more deeply understand how people on this one planet could perceive reality in such divergent ways. In studying different cultures, I learned about birth in various countries. I was stunned to see that normal birth in different countries and cultures was so, well, different.
After graduating with a degree in Anthropology and Religion, I set out to live in a way I could believe in, using my understandings that culture is what we co-create and mutually believe in as a community. I sought out work on organic farms, sustainability education centers, and intentional communities around the country. I was committed to be a participant in a culture that made sense.
During these couple of explorative years, I experienced many ways of living in the world and gained myriad practical skills. I often referred to myself as a "practical nomad," letting myself flow where opportunity arose. It was during this time that I read the book, Spiritual Midwifery, and felt a sense of resonance and truth I had not experienced before. I felt the power of birth, the bridging of the creative and miraculous force of nature with our human perceptions of the experience, and felt a strong sense of purpose arise in me. I also felt a deep resonance with the world of plant medicine around this time.
When I began healing arts school in 2007, I started to ground and get into my body a bit more and learn how to help others get present and more balanced in their bodies. The philosophy of the school was truly integrative, and I was fortunate to be trained in a variety of effective and complementary bodywork modalities that I continue to deeply enjoy sharing with clients. While at school, I had a couple of teachers who were homebirth midwives, and from them I learned pregnancy massage and subtle bodywork for pregnant mamas and babies. It was then, when I felt the soft and gentle beauty of a pregnant mama with babe inside, that I knew I had to go forward with birth work.
After graduating from that school, I started to seek out midwifery programs and learned that an initial recommendation before starting most programs was to become a doula. So, after a move from New Mexico to New England, I trained as a birth doula with always empowering Michelle L'Esperance CPM and started attending births. That was in 2008.
Since then, I have been following my interests and have done both self and formalized study around birth and plants, including attending births and working with women and families postpartum, wild-crafting plants for medicine and growing herbs in my own gardens. I continue to learn and, though I still feel like a beginner in both fields, I also recognize the extent I have learned over the past few years and am humbled by it all. I am deeply connected to and inspired by the magic of nature. I see the journey of birth (and plant medicine) as one deeply entwined in our relationship to nature and our sense of place within it, our cultural perceptions, and ultimately our surrender to the unknown. I am committed to assisting women to feel as connected, healthy, and empowered as possible in their unique journeys into the natural processes of pregnancy, birth and the postpartum experience.
Presently, I am in my first year of school at The Institute of Holistic Midwifery, an amazing online-based program that is helping me to build a strong academic foundation for future clinical midwifery work.
To glance over a much more detailed history of the abundant courses I have taken, schools I have attended, certifications I have received, and amazing places I have been honored to work, see A Chronology of Me.
In the Sierra foothills (which is a new home for me), I look forward to sharing my birth & postpartum doula services, offering therapeutic massage and integrative bodywork, co-creating events and teaching classes.
A Little Backstory:
I was born in New York City and lived there and in the adjacent suburbs until I was 18. Growing up, I was most interested in creative pursuits like sculpture, photography, poetry and mixed media artwork. I used to spend free time wandering through galleries and museums and engaging in inspired art-making, always seeking to find the magical in the mundane. I was also always an interested and hard-working student who loved to be outside.
Following my passions, I went to Colorado College with an aspiration to be a poet and perhaps a three-dimensional artist. Soon after beginning school, I recognized my deep interest in learning about diverse cultures, and started to study Anthropology and Religion to more deeply understand how people on this one planet could perceive reality in such divergent ways. In studying different cultures, I learned about birth in various countries. I was stunned to see that normal birth in different countries and cultures was so, well, different.
After graduating with a degree in Anthropology and Religion, I set out to live in a way I could believe in, using my understandings that culture is what we co-create and mutually believe in as a community. I sought out work on organic farms, sustainability education centers, and intentional communities around the country. I was committed to be a participant in a culture that made sense.
During these couple of explorative years, I experienced many ways of living in the world and gained myriad practical skills. I often referred to myself as a "practical nomad," letting myself flow where opportunity arose. It was during this time that I read the book, Spiritual Midwifery, and felt a sense of resonance and truth I had not experienced before. I felt the power of birth, the bridging of the creative and miraculous force of nature with our human perceptions of the experience, and felt a strong sense of purpose arise in me. I also felt a deep resonance with the world of plant medicine around this time.
When I began healing arts school in 2007, I started to ground and get into my body a bit more and learn how to help others get present and more balanced in their bodies. The philosophy of the school was truly integrative, and I was fortunate to be trained in a variety of effective and complementary bodywork modalities that I continue to deeply enjoy sharing with clients. While at school, I had a couple of teachers who were homebirth midwives, and from them I learned pregnancy massage and subtle bodywork for pregnant mamas and babies. It was then, when I felt the soft and gentle beauty of a pregnant mama with babe inside, that I knew I had to go forward with birth work.
After graduating from that school, I started to seek out midwifery programs and learned that an initial recommendation before starting most programs was to become a doula. So, after a move from New Mexico to New England, I trained as a birth doula with always empowering Michelle L'Esperance CPM and started attending births. That was in 2008.
Since then, I have been following my interests and have done both self and formalized study around birth and plants, including attending births and working with women and families postpartum, wild-crafting plants for medicine and growing herbs in my own gardens. I continue to learn and, though I still feel like a beginner in both fields, I also recognize the extent I have learned over the past few years and am humbled by it all. I am deeply connected to and inspired by the magic of nature. I see the journey of birth (and plant medicine) as one deeply entwined in our relationship to nature and our sense of place within it, our cultural perceptions, and ultimately our surrender to the unknown. I am committed to assisting women to feel as connected, healthy, and empowered as possible in their unique journeys into the natural processes of pregnancy, birth and the postpartum experience.
Presently, I am in my first year of school at The Institute of Holistic Midwifery, an amazing online-based program that is helping me to build a strong academic foundation for future clinical midwifery work.
To glance over a much more detailed history of the abundant courses I have taken, schools I have attended, certifications I have received, and amazing places I have been honored to work, see A Chronology of Me.
Some words about blossoms. :)
_Blossoms are the way that most plants give birth.
Often they interact with another species or element- pollinators- to be fertilized
and then create their seeds and send them in some inspiring way to the earth to grow
from one small potential into the exquisite being they will become.
I see my potential clients or students or colleagues as unique blossoms,
and myself as a pollinator.
I am here to offer myself as an assistant in the process of your unfolding and becoming- whether that is to prepare for and give birth, to nurture a baby in the first weeks or months after birth, to learn about plants as medicine and food or nutrient dense nutrition or vital health or inspired childbirth, or any number of other things that might bring us together.
Often they interact with another species or element- pollinators- to be fertilized
and then create their seeds and send them in some inspiring way to the earth to grow
from one small potential into the exquisite being they will become.
I see my potential clients or students or colleagues as unique blossoms,
and myself as a pollinator.
I am here to offer myself as an assistant in the process of your unfolding and becoming- whether that is to prepare for and give birth, to nurture a baby in the first weeks or months after birth, to learn about plants as medicine and food or nutrient dense nutrition or vital health or inspired childbirth, or any number of other things that might bring us together.