Dr. Deb Kern
Peace and blessings, Radiant Soul…
I’m Deb Kern—mother, movement mystic, priestess of possibility, and founder of PranaShakti™ Dance and the Shakti Sisterhood.
But I wasn’t always this free.
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I was born the eldest daughter of a proper German Lutheran Texan family. A straight-A student, good girl, rule-follower, and gold-star achiever—I made it my mission to please everyone, especially those in authority. But beneath the polished surface was a wildly sensitive, spiritual girl who hadn’t yet been given permission to feel what she felt… or move how she was made to move.
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I started out in nursing school, drawn to the healing arts, but quickly realized my sensitive nature wasn’t suited to the hospital. So I pivoted, majoring in Spanish and French, living and learning in Spain and France, then earning an MBA. By day, I was a businesswoman. By night, one of the original 80s aerobics queens—step bench, headband, leg warmers and all.
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On the outside, I was living the dream: head of a department at a hospital in Washington D.C., married to my best friend from business school, attending the “right” church, with a sculpted body and a promising pregnancy with twins.
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But within three months, my life shattered.
My husband left. I miscarried my babies.
Grief swallowed me whole. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t function, and moved into the basement of a friend’s house.
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One day, while driving home on the Beltway, I seriously considered ending it all. And then, like thunder inside a whisper, a Voice said:
“Yes, it would be easy to take you out of this life. So aren’t you curious why you’re still here?”
That question changed everything.
It pierced my despair and awakened my curiosity.
“Why AM I still here?”
And so began my spiral path—a path not of linear success, but of sacred becoming...
I followed the whisper of wisdom wherever it led me…
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To a Ph.D. in Health Sciences, where I explored the deep connections between movement, emotion, and healing.
To Costa Rica, where I studied herbal medicine with indigenous women in the jungle.
To the Satchidananda Ashram, where I immersed myself in Hatha Yoga and silent mornings.
To the wild initiations of re-marriage, motherhood, divorce and heartbreak.
To the edge of death—where illness cracked open a psychic doorway and Spirit began speaking through dreams.
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One by one, the visions came.
A Benedictine nun—devoted to yoga and the Divine Feminine—welcomed me under her wings and became one of my most unexpected teachers.
A Tantric Master called me to the jungles of Bali.
A KayaKalpa physician summoned me to a sacred yurt in California.
An Ayurvedic Vaidya beckoned me to the mountaintops of Southern India.
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Each time, I said yes.
Each time, I came home to myself.
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Eventually, the wisdom that had been dancing in my cells all my life emerged in full force…
PranaShakti™ Dance was born—my sacred synthesis of yoga, Ayurveda, breathwork, healing, and prayer through movement.
And then came the Shakti Sisterhood—a global circle of women awakening to the Divine Feminine within through dance, story, and sacred remembering…
In addition to the wisdom gathered through lived experience, I’ve written two books—Everyday Wellness for Women and Create the Body Your Soul Desires—and hold a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Texas Woman’s University, along with a BA and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin. I’ve trained in a wide range of healing and movement modalities, including Nia, Integral Hatha Yoga, Mindful Coaching, Reiki, Healing Touch, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, and SOMA Breathwork.
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Every certification, every lesson, and every lived experience has shaped the medicine I now share.
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Because if I’ve learned anything, it’s this:
Your breakdown holds the key to your breakthrough.
Your longing is holy.
And your body already knows the way.
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Welcome to my world, dear one.
You belong here.
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