The Sound Wellness Institute Team
Meet Sharon Carne
Music has always been a big part of my life from an early age starting with singing in church choirs as a youth. When I was 16 years old, I completely fell in love with the classical guitar and its music.
Through a rather circuitous route and many synchronicities, I fell in love with music even more during a university summer course on music history. My soul was on fire to learn more!
It took me two years to just get my entrance requirements to enter the Bachelor of Music program at Queen’s University. But I did it and joined the program as the first classical guitar major at Queen’s
When I completed that degree, there was still more to learn, so I ended up in the graduate program at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and completed a Master of Fine Arts degree.
In 1988, I was honoured to be invited to join the faculty of The Conservatory, Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. Having young children of my own and no one in Calgary, at the time, who taught classical guitar to young children, I pioneered the teaching of classical guitar to children in the city. That led to a very successful career of teaching guitar to many fine young people over the years.
But, sometimes the universe has other plans for you.
When I was in my 30s, my mother told me about a near-death experience I had as a baby. I began to understand why I always felt different from other people. I grew up knowing there was a lot more to people and to life than I was seeing every day. But not knowing why I knew that. I also grew up as a sensitive empath with a finely tuned intuition.
Another result of the near-death experience was a life-long interest in the spiritual and mystical. Even as a youth and young adult, people would often give me a book that they felt I needed to read. These books were always about mystical topics or ancient healing traditions. This gradual learning led me to all kinds of courses in energy healing, holistic healing, shamanism training and more.
Sound healing didn’t enter the story until the early 1990s. My curiosity about the deeper and healing nature of sound was sparked by some innocent exercises in stage fright with some nervous adult students. This led to intense personal research in sound healing and sound therapy and ultimately to study with two of the field’s pioneers, Jonathan Goldman and Tom Kenyon.
As soon as I landed there, I knew I had come home to my true soul work. It is endlessly fascinating how the ‘universe’ conspires with you when you declare or feel in your heart that something is soul work.
In 2008, I received a phone call from ‘out of the blue.’ I was invited to participate as a facilitator in a study on stress reduction sponsored by the Integrative Health Institute at Mount Royal University. I developed a program specifically for the study using a variety of ways sound and music relieves stress. At the conclusion of the program, enthusiasm was so high that the material was expanded, and the Sound Wellness program was created to bring this valuable information to a larger audience.
It’s interesting how life not only tests your resolve and purpose, it also brings many gifts.
In 2007, Ed’s mom had a catastrophic stroke. She eventually ended up in extended care and we became major caregivers for Ed’s Dad, who we drove every day to visit his beloved wife. He had the beginning stages of dementia at the same time. We did that for 2 years, until Mom passed away, then cared for Ed’s Dad for 4 more years until he passed away. While we were major caregivers for Ed’s Dad, we also became a major part of the caregiving team for my sister, who made her transition about a year after Dad.
It was eight years of major family commitment. At the same time we were just beginning to create Sound Wellness. Because family is one of our most important values, Sound Wellness was placed more on the ‘back burner,’ and we focused on giving our programs only in Calgary.
As we took care of our family and focused on Calgary, many seeds were planted and nurtured for the second and third levels of programs we offered.
Not long after my sister passed, we created the Sound Wellness Institute and focused on serving holistic practitioners. To raise the bar on training for holistic practitioners in using sound, we created the first certification at the level of verified competency in Canada. Competency certification provides practitioners with the highest level of credibility for their skills.
We then approached the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada Association for formal, national approval of our programs. Following their review of all our course materials, the Association approved our programs for credit for their members. In addition, practitioners with our Level 2 Sound Wellness Certification were welcomed to apply as members. This is a great opportunity for those practitioners who are looking for the benefits, like insurance, that are provided by these associations.
The Sound Wellness Institute continues to evolve with the introduction of Level 3 programs in 2020/21 and the training of gifted practitioners to teach our programs.
Over the years, I have been deeply grateful for invitations to speak at all kinds of events from Lunch and Learns to National Conferences, and dozens of summits and podcasts.
On my Facebook profile, all summer long, you will see pictures of many of the roses that grace our rose garden. A medicine name given to me many years ago, Mountain Rose, has deepened my connection with this beautiful, high vibration flower. When working in my gardens, with our apple trees or other life on our property, I honour and work with the divine intelligence and nature spirits of the land. As an empath, nature holds a precious place in my heart and life.
Having grown up with a master knitter, crocheter, and sewing wizard – my Mom – I love those same crafts. Especially when I get to create something for our beautiful grandchildren to wear. Every stitch is filled with a hug and reiki energy from Gramma.
