AbunDance Healing Arts - Kim Calhoun

MAY ALL YOUNG PEOPLE remember how smart, powerful, divine, beautiful, good, loveable, and connected they are.

My Background

Teen DIVAS relaxing at AHA Sanctuary Like many youth, I was not fully conscious of my own worth and goodness, and did not have adequate internal or external resources to navigate the trauma and turbulence of my adolescent years. Knowing what a difference it would have made for me in my adolescence, I am delighted to share with youth the empowerment and self-care skills that I have collected on my personal healing journey. I have a gift for creating a safe space in which young people of diverse cultural backgrounds, ages, body sizes and life experiences feel welcomed and affirmed.

Since 1991, I have had the honor and delight of sharing, learning, and growing with youth across the country and abroad in various capacities: camp counselor, teacher, mentor, tutor, and all-around ally.

Youth Wellness Programs & Benefits

Plant walk at carrington middle school I offer a wide variety of youth programs, including Teen Nature DIVAS retreats, after-school yoga classes, and customized youth enrichment programs for local schools, home school groups, and community organizations. Programs can be customized depending on your group’s size, needs, interests, and available time. My youth programs focus on empowering activities, including:

Building strength, flexibility and peace through yoga
Preparing healthy food and making conscious eating choices
Developing healthy boundaries and sharing healthy touch through guided massage
Connecting with nature through plant walks and herbal medicine making
Promoting self-care, self-awareness and unconditional love of self
Expressing creativity through crafts and dance
Practicing non-violent communication skills
Celebrating life passages

During these activities, young people often feel: respected, listened to, encouraged to stretch their minds and bodies, affirmed, inspired, safe, and empowered to make healthy life choices.

Benefits of the activities include: deep relaxation, an ability to better listen to their body’s wisdom, building courage to state needs including saying “no,” physical nourishment from healthy food and movement, self-care skills that can be used in any situation and location, hearing other youths’ stories, struggles, and successes, and feeling connected to one another and their community.

Examples of Partnerships & Programs

Teen DIVAS All of my youth wellness educational activities incorporate my broad knowledge of healing arts modalities and self-care tools in a way that supports the needs of your school group, community organization, non-profit, or family. Whether you’re interested in resources for stress reduction, increased self-awareness, connecting with nature, or anything else you’ve seen on my website, I can create a customized workshop with a combination of activities to meet the unique needs of your group of young people.

Youth organizations I’ve been honored to partner and share with recently in the NC Piedmont: Woods Charter School, Clapping Hands Farm Camps, Chatham County Together!, Raleigh Progressive School, Carolina Friends School, Auldern Academy, Carrington Middle School, Anathoth Community Garden’s Manos Abiertos Youth Program.

Current On-going Programs

Woods Charter After-School Yoga classes for high school young women
Teen Nature DIVAS Day Camps

Past Programs

Taught evening yoga classes for young women at Auldern Academy
Led yoga for co-ed high school classes as guest P.E. teacher
Hosted young women from Chatham County Together! for an afternoon Teen Nature D.I.V.A.S. wellness retreat at Abundance Healing Arts Sanctuary. We practiced an invigorating and relaxing yoga flow, gathered and learned about herbs from the garden, made an herbal salt glow hand scrub which we used for exchanging guided hand massages by the goldfish pond, and prepared and enjoyed “peace balls” (a healthy herbal snack).
Led a group of 6th grade students at Carolina Friends School on a medicinal and edible plant walk around the school grounds. We respectfully gathered herbs and prepared our own herbal tea (while singing). Students then enjoyed a relaxing tea time where I served each of them their own mug of fresh homemade healing tea while they wrote and drew in their journals about their experience. I also facilitated a clothes-on partner massage exchange, complete with healthy touch communication exercises.
Shared a medicinal and edible plant walk with the 8th grade all-girls book club at Carrington Middle School based on the young adult novel “The Hunger Games.” We met and gathered herbs from the nearby woods and made a tea together.
Hosted the youth garden group “Manos Abiertos” from Anathoth Community Garden for a guided tour of the abundant cultivated and wild herbs at AbunDance Healing Arts Sanctuary. We enjoyed a yummy fresh herbal yarden tea as they learned about the benefits of medicinal plants.

Teen Nature DIVAS Scholarship Fund

Empowered and affirmed young women change the world! Contribute to a program that promotes self-love, self-care, self-awareness and self-expression for the young women of our community. Your donation will help a diverse group of young women participate in Teen Nature DIVAS programs through partial scholarships.

Massage & Bodywork

Young people and teens experience stress and hold it in their bodies in ways that can unconsciously create life-long patterns of dis-comfort and dis-ease. Receiving safe healthy touch supports body awareness and provides a foundation for healthy life patterns.

Professional massage is helpful for youth, whether navigating everyday relationships and stresses, or experiencing significant family and life transitions (divorce, graduation, exams, etc.). And what a difference it can make for young people to have a chance to practice listening to their bodies, stating their needs, and making requests starting at an early age.

Anathoth Community Garden youth Individual massage & bodywork sessions are available for youth ages 12 and up with parent’s written and verbal consent. I always practice consensual touch communication skills prior to any table work, having the young client practice saying “Kim, that doesn’t feel good” and giving specific feedback about what needs to be different. Consultations can include time for alignment exercises for healthy seated and walking postures.

It is possible for a young client to receive a relaxing therapeutic session fully clothed. Parents are welcome to wait in the waiting room during the session. I only see young people who want to come (i.e. they have an active role in the decision…not just the parents’ wishes).

I offer 60-minute sessions for youth for $60. When scheduling an appointment for a youth client, I’m available for a 5-minute conversation with their parent via phone. If extra time is necessary to update client information, I charge $1 for each additional minute of phone time

Testimonials

“A group of girls from Chatham County Together! attended a Teen Nature Divas Workshop at AbunDance Healing Arts Sanctuary facilitated by Kim. They arrived quiet and unsure of what it was all about. Three hours later when I returned, they were excited and proud to tell me all about their experience--they wanted to come back and spend a whole weekend!” ~Kim Caraganis, Executive Director, Chatham County Together!

From parents, youth allies, & administrators

“If I had known Kim Calhoun when I was a teenager, life would be very different. Kim's loving, accepting, affirmative attitude is TRANSFORMATIVE...if you are a teenaged woman, or if you have one in your family, please consider Kim's Teen Nature DIVAS programs!” ~Jaime Powell, Yoga Teacher, Life Coach

"I recently took a group of 7 teenagers from our youth gardening program out to Kim's AbunDance Healing Arts Sanctuary. Kim was able to relate to all of them and pique their interest in medicinal plants regardless of their backgrounds. She shared her knowledge in a warm, fun and accessible way, encouraging participation and questions. The kids, although very knowledgeable about growing vegetables, had their eyes opened to the possibilities that plants can also heal us in ways that they did not imagine."
~Kate Forer, Director, Anathoth Community Garden

“I have great admiration for Kim Calhoun. She is a wonderful person and a skilled teacher. I can heartily recommend her Teen Nature DIVAS programs.”
~Louise Omoto Kessel, Clapping Hands Farm Camp

"Thanks for the inspirational plant walk! It really made an impression on the boys. They are ready to grow a medicinal plant garden! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!" ~Ginny Patterson

"Kim, my daughter has certainly enjoyed your after-school yoga class. It has increased her awareness of her body posture and helped her with her dance class. My only suggestion: I want to take yoga too! "
~ Marilyn, parent of Woods Charter School 9th grader

"After doing yoga with Kim, our teenage students were calm, relaxed and more at ease with themselves. She taught them valuable techniques for reducing anxiety in stressful day to day situations, leading them to feel more in control of their lives as they were able to make healthier decisions.” ~ Jane Samuel, Head of School, Auldern Academy

Youth Testimonials

“I look forward to this (yoga) class every week. It is so refreshing and has truly helped me become more aware of my body and my surroundings.”

“I liked how much you tried to get us to feel comfortable with each other.”

"Our Manos Abiertas Youth Gardening Program went to see Kim to learn about the uses of medicinal plants. We walked around the garden and learned how to make teas, tinctures and oils from herbs that we tasted, such as lemon balm, holy basil, and St. John's wort. We learned how to respect the plants for their medicinal values such as relieving stress, strengthening our immune system, lowering body temperature and curing common colds and viruses. Overall, Kim's calm environment made everyone relaxed and interested in what we were learning about." ~youth participants from Anathoth Community Garden

“It’s nice to know I have one day during the week when I’m guaranteed to feel good when I go home.” ~after-school yoga class participant

“The three most helpful tools I’ve learned in yoga class are how to relax my body, how to awaken my body, and how to focus on breathing.”

My Blessing for Young Women

I wrote this piece to my 14-year old self who still needed compassion, love, and celebration. Entitled “My Belated Welcome to Young Womanhood,” I imagined receiving this welcome from a caring community that could lovingly hold and support all its youth. I now offer it as a blessing for all young women. Read the Blessing...