Kathryn Wilking is a certified Feng Shui practitioner who approaches her work like a detective, seeking practical solutions to bring balance and harmony to her clients’ lives. Her journey with Feng Shui began in 1998, driven by the need to create a cohesive environment for her blended family. With a background in home design and a certification from the BTB School, Kathryn has helped many individuals and businesses transform their spaces. She aims to create well-balanced, functional environments and uses both in-person consultations and virtual sessions to enhance her clients’ living and working spaces, proving that Feng Shui is a logical and effective tool for positive change.Kathryn, your journey with Feng Shui began out of personal necessity. MysticMag finds out more.
Can you share more about that initial experience and how it influenced your approach to helping others with Feng Shui?
Back in 1998, I was recently remarried and trying to sort out the puzzle of how to blend two families together. My new husband, Stephen was a Widower. His first family had lived in India for two years on a dam engineering assignment. They had brought back many items including full sized rugs, mats, silks, clothing, brass pots, paintings and more. His first wife died shortly thereafter and left him as a single dad with a little boy named Halley.
We met Stephen and his son about 2 years later, when Halley was eight years old. My son, Jeremy, was 4 years older. We each had a boy and a cat; a match made in heaven. The boys got along great, we went on a lot of family dates and our relationship developed very easily.
The confusion started when we bought a new house and all moved in together; Stephen and Halley’s history and memorabilia were not mine and I couldn’t relate to many things they brought into the house.
As a Decorator, I was miffed for a number of reasons. I can understand that many of these items were being ‘saved’ for Halley’s benefit, however, I could not figure out what to do with so many of them. I had no idea where to put all the middle-eastern-style rugs. But it was more than just that; for example, Stephen’s first wife was a concert pianist. Therefore, her piano came into our home for Halley to take piano lessons…
So I hired a Feng Shui Consultant to help me set up our home. When she came to the house, I was a bit surprised – she looked very much like me today: female, Caucasian and middle aged. She explained to me about the Nine Areas of Life and how Feng Shui works. It is much about energy shifts in people and the environment. I learned that energy changes with everyday and every ‘thing’; and this energy can influence my life! She helped me sort out the common areas where we can be together and form new memories for us all. As well, she believed that once we sort out the common areas, the private areas will take care of themselves! I wondered, “How did she learn this knowledge?” I was hooked, and eager to learn more!
What she introduced to me has influenced my whole life’s journey since that day! I studied Feng Shui for about ten years, reading every book I could find, before I took all the requisite classes to become certified. This is not a profession that can be mastered in one course or reading a book; although everything and every perspective is helpful.
Embracing feng shui has been a perfect fit for me to blend solutions that suit both my decorating and business clients.
You’ve had a diverse career, from working in the wallpaper industry to home staging and now as a certified Feng Shui Practitioner. How have these experiences shaped your unique approach to Feng Shui?
I LOVE COLOR! Colour adds such a vibration to any environment whether it be with wallpaper, paint, flowers, clothing, bedding, or dishes. Home Staging was an easy transition; it’s all about creating easily visualized function and flow for a home. Home Staging is for resell, it’s not necessarily realistic for day-to-day living.
A Feng Shui home incorporates both an environment for your personal needs and easy function and flow, cultivating supports to help you thrive and live in harmony. Each person can choose the environment needed to support themselves and decode those cryptic messages they receive each day; blocking out what isn’t working anymore!
The interesting difference about working with decorating clients and Feng Shui clients is that I can leave my ego at the door, and go with the flow. I do not counsel people to choose the latest trends in their space. Rather, I help people make sense of their existing space on a much deeper level, healing spaces and people who inhabit them. What do they wish to change in life? How do they wish to live on their journey? Home? Relationships? Lifestyle?
Moving across the country with your husband, you’ve mentioned that you’ve left each home better than when you arrived. Can you share some specific examples of how Feng Shui made a significant impact on your living spaces?
This is a GREAT Question! Yes, unbelievable success can happen when you live, breathe and embrace Feng Shui as a lifestyle.
As mentioned, Stephen travels a lot for work in the Dam Industry. Many times, he’s back home in a few days or perhaps few weeks. He is able to choose job postings in different places.
Much of our moving around is for his career challenges both of us! We’ve moved six times in 26 years. I think we are done!
We’ve been very lucky with our purchases as we both can ‘see through’ issues when choosing a property; we know how to fix or change something. It’s team work. I can figure out how to balance a space, and accessorize, while my husband does much of the grunt work.
Each home we’ve been in, we’ve gutted and rearranged a new kitchen. Often, a functional working kitchen is a key asset when people are deciding to purchase. Also helpful, is to scale with smaller-sized furniture (or, choose less furniture and end tables) to present the illusion of a larger space. You asked for more specific examples:
- The entrance of your home should be viewed as an en-trance. The bungalow we had in the Niagara Area had a weird support post right at the front door; It was in-the-way to the front door. We finally figured out how to move the weight onto a new horizontal support beam and removed the offending post. As soon as the guys pulled out the under-portion of the facia, I saw an opportunity: tongue-and-groove cedar would replace the plywood when it all went back into place! Voila! A new, impressive entrance to the home helped to raise the perceived value of our property about 30%.
- Working with shapes can make a difference. When we lived in the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, the homes were very tight with not a lot of yard space; our two-bedroom home was three stories high. I took a solid look at our space and the neighborhood: tall squares, more tall squares, sidewalk squares and more. I said to my husband, “We need a round patio.” He looked at me sideways. “Okay, I understand.” (He’s a good husband!) I sourced out a precut, patio brick design ready to go so we could get started! Then, when it was done, I requested a curved fence to shape the walkway to the side door. Adding to that, we installed a glass pergola over the sliding doors looking out onto the patio. In the end, the small patio was about 20’ around, but very impressive. We resided here about 10 years in total; our longest stay. This property, along with inflation resulted in 100% increase in value over that time.
You offer various workshops and presentations, such as ‘Changing Your Path with Feng Shui’ and ‘Self Care with Colors.’ What key takeaways do you hope participants gain from these sessions?
Change is inevitable along everyone’s life journey. It is fascinating how energy can morph and change things over time. I like to tell people that, “You can adapt with the changing times.”
Before covid came to town, I was able to visit clients at their property or office. I taught Home Staging at the Continuing Education classes and gave talks to smaller groups. During covid, we all had to find ways to present and educate people with our services through the internetI found many clients were anxious, a bit fearful of people coming to visit and really questioning the future. I developed a number of workshops held online. Through these courses and workshops, I was able to show people how to Take Charge of their lives; beginning with self care.
If I can help people begin their day with ‘some sense of order’, they can be more confident making sound decisions and sleep better. Feng shui works in many areas of life and never goes out of style!
I have other talks, online and in person:
- What’s On Your Walls? I show many realist examples regarding the cryptic messages we see or send ourselves through colour, shapes and images each day. As well, learning how to choose more positive supports that can influence the ability to thrive.
- The Fantastic Five Elements for Success This talk is about the Five Elements in Chinese Medicine that have multiple uses and dimensions to explore. I’ve taken these Five Elements and created a Personal Element Profile (PEP Quiz). This is a way to help people identify with these elements in order to make sense in the workplace. This talk focuses on harmony for Entrepreneurs and Managers for hiring, delegating and building successful teams.
Your work also includes developing dynamic communication and people skills for productivity and stress-free environments. How do you integrate Feng Shui principles with these business strategies to help your clients achieve success?
Information about creating successful workplaces is expanding into my Second Edition of my book, Practical Feng Shui for the Office; Creating Harmony for Success.
The first edition was published in 2013. This new edition was enhanced and includes more information about working at home and finding the work-life balance. It also expands the Personal Element Profile, PEP QUIZ, mentioned above, into real life situations.
I explain in practical, real-life situations how to set up your desk, how to sit in the Power Position to stay in charge, who to delegate to and why this works! You’ll find multiple tips and case studies that will keep you on track for success.
If you would like to find out more about Kathryn Wilking, please visit https://www.kathrynwilking.com/
