Audrya

Can playing a didgeridoo help to beat depression?

For Audrya, who has suffered from the condition for “a good chunk” of her life, the answer is yes.

A talented performance artist, Audrya graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2004. She immediately started teaching and hosting workshops, but it wasn’t long before she realized her lack of basic business skills might stand in her way of being successful as a self-employed artist.

Then she learned about Women’s Venture Program, a self-employment program for women offered by Momentum, a nonprofit organization based in Calgary.

“The program was wonderful,” she says. “I learned how to market myself and how to think with a business mind.”

Her new skills proved invaluable running in her business, Always Time for Creation, which offers children’s events at schools and workshops for adults. She also appears at corporate events, dancing with flags of weighted colourful fabric, performing poi (a Polynesian form of dance using weighted balls and bean bags hoisted on poles), and playing the didgeridoo, the ancient Australian wind instrument.

The Momentum program helped Audrya to focus on her unique skills as an artist, allowing her to leave depression behind.

“I gained so much confidence,” she says, “It’s a great support system.”

She also learned how to cope with the inevitable challenges of entrepreneurship. “I learned that if things weren’t going 100 per cent, I had the tools to keep my level of confidence high,” she says.

Audrya also learned about money management and participated in a “matched loan” program. Every dollar that she saved for her business was matched by the program with an additional three dollars. At the end of the program, she had the choice to invest the funds in her business, further her education, or even transfer the funds to a homeowner’s program, also offered at Momentum.

Audrya chose to invest in her business—and her future. Over the next year, she plans to temporarily move her business to Australia, where she will offer her own unique brand of performance-based workshops and retreats.