For Keli DeMascola, discovering the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts was about more than learning new healing modalities. It was an opportunity to reconnect with herself, explore her intuition, and begin creating a life that felt authentic to who she truly was.
Today, Keli is completing her studies in SWIHA’s Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, where she has explored modalities including Yoga Nidra, meditation, energy and chakra work, intuitive practices, and Toe Reading. She is also building her own healing arts business, Untamed & Grounded, LLC, where she hopes to help others reconnect with themselves and find greater peace and balance.
Finding Her Way Back to Herself
Before SWIHA, Keli describes feeling like she was going through the motions of life rather than truly living it.
Much of her life had been focused on taking care of others, navigating difficult experiences, and doing what she believed she was supposed to do. Somewhere along the way, she felt that she had lost pieces of herself.
She knew she wanted something different.
She wanted peace, purpose, and a deeper connection to who she was.
Keli had always felt intuitive and drawn to spirituality, healing, and helping others, yet she wasn't always sure how to turn those natural gifts into something meaningful. Finding SWIHA gave her permission to explore that part of herself.
Through the Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, she discovered practices that helped her see healing from a new perspective.
“I have experienced how powerful it can be to reconnect the mind, body, and spirit,” Keli shares.
For her, healing became less about becoming someone new and more about coming home to the person she had always been underneath everything she had experienced.
When Learning Became Personal
One of Keli's defining moments at SWIHA came when she realized she wasn't simply learning healing modalities for a future career.
She was experiencing them for herself.
As she moved through practices such as Yoga Nidra, meditation, energy work, and self-reflection, Keli began recognizing parts of herself that she had spent years overlooking. She started to understand the difference between simply surviving life and being fully present for it.
The more grounded she became, the more certain she felt that she was on the right path.
She also realized that her life experiences, intuition, and desire to help others didn't have to exist separately. They could come together with purpose.
“I didn't have to change who I was to become a healer,” she says. “I could be spiritual, strong, imperfect, grounded, and still a little wild.”
That realization became part of the foundation for Untamed & Grounded.
Discovering the Healing Modalities That Speak to Her
During her time at SWIHA, Keli has explored a variety of modalities and found particular inspiration in Yoga Nidra, Toe Reading, Energy Medicine and Chakra work, meditation, and intuitive development.
One of her most impactful teachers was Lori, whose guidance during Keli's Yoga Nidra training helped her understand the practice on a deeper level.
For Keli, her favorite classes weren't simply about learning techniques.
They encouraged her to understand herself more deeply, trust her intuition, and consider how she wants to show up for the people she hopes to serve.
That personal experience has become an important part of how she envisions her own work.
Turning Personal Transformation Into Purpose
Keli says her life has changed significantly since beginning her journey at SWIHA.
Rather than viewing healing as a way to erase the difficult parts of her story, she has learned to understand her patterns, become more aware of herself, learn ways to ground and regulate, and make intentional choices about how she wants to move forward.
One of the biggest shifts has been seeing purpose in experiences she once viewed only as struggles.
Today, she is building Untamed & Grounded, LLC and turning her passion for healing into work that can support others.
“I am still growing and healing, yet I no longer feel like I am waiting for my life to begin. I am creating it.”
Creating Untamed & Grounded
Inspired by her own healing journey, Keli created Untamed & Grounded to offer the kind of supportive space she once needed herself.
Her practice combines intuitive coaching with modalities such as Yoga Nidra, meditation, energy and chakra work, Toe Reading, and other intuitive practices.
Her goal is to help clients slow down, reconnect with themselves, trust their intuition, and discover tools that support greater peace and balance.
Her SWIHA education has given her more than a collection of modalities. Keli says it has also taught her how to hold space for others with compassion, boundaries, ethics, and respect for each person's individual journey.
At the heart of Untamed & Grounded is the belief that people can become grounded in who they are while still feeling free to be authentically themselves.
You Can Be a Work in Progress and Still Make a Difference
One of Keli's greatest lessons from SWIHA is that healing isn't about becoming someone different.
It is about reconnecting with who you truly are.
She has learned to trust her intuition, honor her boundaries, slow down, and recognize that caring for herself is just as important as caring for others.
She has also learned that she doesn't need to have everything figured out before she can make a difference.
“You can be both a work in progress and a source of light for someone else.”
That lesson reflects the heart of Keli's journey: continuing to grow while also allowing herself to step forward and share what she has learned.
A Journey That Is Still Unfolding
Keli's story isn't finished—and she doesn't believe it needs to be.
She describes her journey as something that continues to unfold, and she has learned through SWIHA to embrace that process.
She came to SWIHA wanting to learn how to help others. Along the way, she discovered that she was also learning how to come home to herself.
Now, through Untamed & Grounded, she hopes to remind others that healing doesn't require losing the parts of themselves that make them unique.
“You can find peace without shrinking yourself, trust your intuition, and create a life that feels authentically yours.”
For Keli, the path forward is about lived experience, continued growth, and creating meaningful spaces where others can reconnect with themselves.
Find Your Own Path at SWIHA
Keli's experience is one example of how an education in the healing arts can become both a professional journey and a deeply personal one.
If you feel called to explore holistic wellness, intuitive practices, coaching, meditation, Yoga Nidra, energy work, or other healing modalities, SWIHA's Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program offers an opportunity to explore where your interests and purpose may lead.
You don't have to have your entire future figured out before taking the first step.
Sometimes, the journey begins by giving yourself permission to explore what has been calling to you all along.
