Exploring Life & Business with K.C. Ledgerwood of unearthed life™

Today we’d like to introduce you to K.C. Ledgerwood.

Hi K.C., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
When I began my counseling career in 2008, I entered the world of community mental health, working with children and families involved with social services. That experience shaped me in important ways—it taught me compassion and gave me a deeper understanding of humanity. Witnessing the effects of generational trauma—particularly its imprint on the body—deepened my love and respect for people and the stories they carry.

In 2011, I transitioned into private practice, carrying with me this new awareness and a desire to explore more holistic healing approaches. During this time, I trained in The Daring Way™ (Brené Brown’s clinical curriculum) and became a Certified Daring Way Facilitator™ (CDWF™). I also became certified as a natural food chef through the Nutrition Therapy Institute and pursued additional training in healing prayer, EMDR, and other somatic-based modalities. Alongside my clinical work, I taught movement and fitness classes, which fueled my curiosity about the body’s integral role in mental and spiritual health.

Over the years, one question kept coming up for me: Where do people go to practice being at home in their body? Or more simply, where do they go to practice being fully alive? Therapy and fitness both offer powerful paths to change, but the actual living out that transformation in everyday life is much more complicated.

When the world paused in 2020, I leaned into that question with greater intention—experimenting with movement patterns, grounding practices, breathwork, scripture, music, poetry, and the many tools I had gathered from my clinical, spiritual, and movement training. Through trial and error, something began to take shape. I didn’t set out to create what is now unearth™—it felt more like it found me. A gift from God, it first served my own healing.

As I embodied this practice more fully, healing that once lived only in my mind and heart began to integrate into my physical experience. Friends noticed and asked for me to teach them. Then their friends asked. Before I knew it, I was teaching in the community. Though I never planned to launch a new movement practice, with the encouragement of loved ones—and a strong conviction that practicing what it means to live in your body like you belong there is vital—I formally founded unearth™ in 2023.

At its core, unearth™ is rooted in the belief that the God who created and loves us is also the one who heals us. It’s built on the idea that the One who made us longs to dwell within our bodies and make a home there. But to experience that indwelling, we must learn to be present and at ease in our bodies—something that is often easier said than done. That’s why we need spaces to practice this way of being. Unearth™ is one of those spaces.

Over time, the practice has expanded into multiple arenas. I now teach weekly classes in the community, as well as sessions for an anti-trafficking organization in Denver. I collaborate with a wide range of organizations, businesses, and trauma-informed spaces to design offerings that meet diverse needs. Last year, I began teaching my first unearth™ classes for children—working with both adolescents and young children alongside their caregivers. This has been an incredible learning journey, reinforcing the truth that we all need help forming a relationship with our bodies—from the inside out.

Today, I continue to offer counseling intensives through my private practice, but most of my time is dedicated to running my business, unearthed life™, and bringing unearth™ into communities where it’s needed most. Watching this work come alive has been the greatest surprise and joy—something I never could have imagined but now can’t imagine not doing. It is a tremendous blessing.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The formation of the practice of unearth™ came together quickly and without many initial obstacles. But once it became clear that the practice held both efficacy and reach, the first real challenge emerged: finding the courage to share it with a broader community.

Bringing something so deeply personal—something that came from my heart and soul—into the public space for others to experience and evaluate was daunting. Because unearth™ is centered around deep healing and integration, I found myself questioning whether I had the right to lead this work. After all, I’m still on my own healing journey—a fellow traveler, not a finished product.

It took a great deal of courage, prayer, and faith to take that first step. Now, several years in, I can see clearly that the vulnerability required of me to offer this work is not just a necessity—it’s a defining feature. It’s what makes unearth™ meaningful. You cannot lead others through a process you haven’t walked yourself. Vulnerability is what builds trust. It’s what allows others to meet themselves fully in the middle of their own messy, complex lives and engage in the “becoming” process. To evolve, we must work with what is—and learn to stay with the discomfort of that reality until love has its way. That’s where the transformation happens. That’s where the magic is.

What I’ve come to understand is that truly innovative work is often met with resistance. I’ve learned to expect it. And I’ve come to trust that when resistance shows up, it often means something deeply good is on the other side.

For example, when hosting the unearth™ launch party, the vision was simple: to create a night of radical, outrageous hospitality. We invited people from many different communities without knowing who—if anyone—would come. It took enormous effort: setting up sensory stations, building charcuterie boards, batching cocktails, preparing giveaway bags, arranging stage and sound, and bringing in the incredible artist and songwriter Taylor Leonhardt to perform. In the end, over 150 people showed up. As I stood before them, preparing to teach them the practice of unearth™, I was reminded again: this work is about showing up with your fishes and loaves, and trusting they will be multiplied.

In contrast, when I first started teaching in the community, there were weeks when no one showed up at all. I’d set up for class, wait in silence, then pack everything back up again. It was humbling. Discouragement crept in. I questioned whether this was really worth pursuing. But I kept showing up. Week after week, I gained clarity on who I was serving, what needs I was meeting, and how to adapt. Small shifts led to steady growth.

Today, the greatest challenge of unearth™ is capacity. There is only one of me. As the owner and sole teacher of unearth™, I find it increasingly difficult to keep pace with the growing interest and opportunities. The tension between honoring healthy growth, maintaining the integrity of the brand and vision, and expanding our reach is the greatest hurdle I face now.

As you know, we’re big fans of unearthed life™. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
ABOUT UNEARTH™:
I describe unearth™ as an active, contemplative practice that combines dynamic movement, mobility and stability patterns, scripture, poetry, music and breath. Unearth™ exists to open, reveal, and make accessible those matters, great and small, that lie dormant within. The intention of unearth™ is to excavate, offer, and receive. The arc of the practice nurtures honesty, revelation, and physical freedom, inviting the whole person to fully integrate.

The practice is an hour and fifteen minutes, and during that time one can expect to be physically energized, strengthened, and mobilized, brought into better awareness with oneself, and offered spiritual insights to meditate on well beyond the class.

Unearth™ is weighted thoughtfully between vigor and rest, beginning grounded, lifting into vitality and release, and ending opened and still. Each offering is threaded with creative modalities that touch all five senses, intending to activate all neural pathways to receive and encounter something new.

WHAT SETS UNEARTH™ APART:
What sets unearth™ apart from other movement practices is the way it gently calls people home. While most clinical, meditative, or fitness spaces encourage inward focus through introspection or exertion—as a means to catalyze healing—the way of unearth™ is different. It invites individuals to come exactly as they are. To stop striving. To be present. To open themselves to being sifted—and then, to surrender. At its core, unearth™ is rooted in the belief that the One who created us deeply loves us and longs to commune with us—right here, within our living, breathing bodies.

This foundational belief is woven through every aspect of the unearth™ experience. We move without mirrors, fostering a space that centers embodiment over appearance. Classes are offered in spaces that enable the body to downregulate, from the lighting to the art in the room. Our community class pricing follows a pay-what-you-can model, allowing individuals to purchase classes and packages at a price point that aligns with their circumstances.

While unearth™ does offer other offerings at set prices, it felt essential to create an access point where cost would never be a barrier to healing. The work of inner transformation is challenging enough—people shouldn’t also have to struggle to afford it. Each class carries a suggested value, but ultimately, participants decide what they’re able to contribute. Ironically—and beautifully—this approach has revealed the generosity of the human spirit. Far from diminishing the practice, it has deepened the integrity and commitment people bring to it.

THE UNEARTH™ BRAND:
When exploring what to name this practice, I considered many possibilities. But in the end, it became clear that the name had to be a verb—because this is active work. A living, breathing invitation.

The word unearth captured exactly what this practice is about: bringing to light what has been buried or hidden—for the sake of healing, connection, and belonging.I love that the visual brand mark for unearth™ is an artichoke with a human heart at its center. And so, to pair that with the image of an artichoke—a vegetable rooted in the earth, layered, protective, and known for the heart at its core—felt like a serendipitous joy. It’s a perfect metaphor: peeling back the layers to reach what is tender, true, and deeply alive.

The tagline for unearth is “a movement practice tethered to the heart,” a perfect visual statement that connects the intent of the work with the how. And lastly, my sign off in all correspondence with clients is “now is the time for love.” A valediction that encompasses the highest value of unearth™, that love is the true agent of change.

OFFERINGS:
unearth™ offers weekly community classes for adults, with a range of class times available (full schedule and location details can be found on the website).

In 2025, I expanded the offerings to include caregiver/child classes, designed to nurture the parent-child relationship and support co-regulation and a sense of safety. These sessions are offered intermittently and held in a group setting, though private classes are available when appropriate.

Beyond local classes, I partner with organizations, businesses, churches, and trauma-informed spaces—both in Denver and across the country—to bring unearth™ into spaces seeking healing, embodiment, and meaningful connection.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I suppose I’d describe myself as a risk hybrid—someone who fluctuates between being risk-averse and wholeheartedly diving in. It really depends on what kind of risk I’m facing.

For example, I’m still in the contemplation phase of expanding unearth™ into a broader online or digital presence. In many ways, that kind of growth would be easier than some of the things I’ve already done—but it gives me pause. It opens doors that can be hard to close, and with that comes a level of visibility and responsibility I don’t take lightly.

When it comes to creative risk, however—I’m all in. I’ve taught in environments and served communities that require great sensitivity and care. And this year, I took another creative leap by launching the unearth™ caregiver/child class.

I felt deeply compelled to explore this offering, even though there was no existing roadmap to follow. Research strongly supports the power of bodily co-regulation between parent and child—especially in building a child’s felt sense of safety. But what moved me even more was the possibility of creating a space where children could engage their natural ability to remain present and embodied, while inviting their parents to join them in that experience. It offered a non-verbal way to move, connect, and nurture the parent-child bond. That vision was incredibly inspiring to me.

As a mother, I’d already witnessed how the unearth™ practice was impacting my own daughter—simply by being around it. She was absorbing the work just by being near it, even in our home.

Bringing something entirely new into the world—building both its structure and its philosophical foundation, then asking others to take a chance on it—is a deeply vulnerable act. But it’s the kind of risk that always feels worth it. Nothing truly good or beautiful is ever born without some measure of discomfort.

Pricing:

• unearth™ operates on a pay-what-you-can model, with a suggested contribution of $25 per community class. This approach supports accessibility while honoring the value of the work.
• Curated classes and retreats, offered in partnership with organizations, businesses, and community spaces, are priced based on the scope and nature of each collaboration.
• Caregiver/child classes are priced at $65 for new families, which includes additional introductory resources, and $50 for returning pairs who have previously participated.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.unearthedlife.com
• Instagram: @myunearthedlife
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/k-c-ledgerwood-69423930b/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/5RZdXjUTPEqhWSZrbR97aM

Image Credits
Caroline Stremic
Angela Kleinsasser
Marcy Singer
Mckenzie Gibson