Inka’s Journey
It was the beauty of movement that originally sparked my passion in osteopathy. From a young age, I loved creative endeavours and art, as well as well the feel and look of efficient, fluid motion. I sought after movement skills under many disciplines such as yoga, tai chi and dance. I came to osteopathy as a patient first, after an injury at the age of 21.
I was utterly fascinated by the discipline. After one visit to a local osteopath I went to the local library and devoured all the books I could find on osteopathy. At the time I lived in Finland, and it turned out I needed to leave the country to study osteopathy to the level I desired. It seemed impossible for a broke literature and philosophy student to achieve, and felt like the odds were stacked against me. My dream was big enough, my intuition was right, and eventually I found a way to make it happen. I moved to London to study at the British School of Osteopathy. After rigorous academic training and a Master’s thesis in addition to over a 1000 hours of supervised clinical experience I received a Master's degree in Osteopathy with distinction in 2010.
I practiced and lived in London and Yorkshire in the UK. After graduation my first endeavour was to learn as much about functional movement as possible, and incorporating it into my practice. I completed the GIFT mentorship at the Gray Institute in 2011, and multiple workshops with Movement Culture (Ido Portal method) teachers in the years following.
Living in the UK I had really missed access to nature and felt deprived of that connection that had been so essential growing up in Finland. Culturally Finns are so very deeply connected to nature - I grew up foraging and roaming in the woods and swimming in lakes around the year. I felt the longing in my bones. In the beginning of 2012 I moved to Calgary, and found ways to foster that relationship as well as serving the local community .
As I and all my practices have matured, the outward expression of movement has subdued to only one of my interests. I maintain my daily practice, but it ranges from yoga to strength training, hiking, biking, movement drills and energy cultivating work in -exercises. After a lifetime of practice I have a deep awareness of what my body requires, and I have become very flexible with providing the inputs it needs rather than what looks good. Health and vitality have taken more of a center stage, and studies in visceral osteopathy, holistic lifestyle coaching, craniosacral therapy and biogeometry have added new layers to my practice.
I would love to be a companion on your journey.
Experience
2006 - training at the British School of Osteopathy
2010 - osteopathic therapist at the Wadsworth Osteopaths
2011 - mentorship (GIFT) at the Gray Institute
2012 - osteopathic therapist at Intrinsi
2013 - 200H YTT at the Inspired Yoga Institute with Nora Maskey
2015 - started Inka Uppal Osteopathic Therapy
2016 - started training in Barral Visceral Osteopathy - since completed VM1, VM2, VM3, VM4, LT1, NM1
2021 - started training at Chek Institute - since then completed Holistic Lifestyle Coach Levels 1 and 2, Program Design, Holistic Health and Performance for Women
2023 - started training in craniosacral therapy at the Upledger Institute, since then completed CS1 and CS2
2024 - completed Biogeometry Foundation Training and Advanced Training