ABOUT KALLI
KALLI FRISSELL
CO-CREATOR OF ROOM TO RISE
Hello! I'm Kalli -- lover of tiny birds, the outdoors, running, and bad horror films. For the last 2.5 years, my life has centred around obtaining my MSc in Physical Therapy.
I grew up in rural Alberta with my parents, my sister, and our dog, Nikki. Growing up, I had many interests -- math, english, physics, and music each appealed to me in a different way. After some humming and hawing, I decided to pursue a degree in music. I left the nest and flew over to London, Ontario to study music and business at Western University.
This is where my passion for the arts deepened and I developed a curiosity around psychology and emotion. I studied music history, theory, songwriting, composition, and sound engineering. I took courses in film history, psychology, and english. On the business end I studied personal and professional finance, economics, marketing, evidence-based management, operations, and human resources.
My undergraduate degree was in constant flux, oscillating between the concrete and the perceived, the theory and the action, the logical and the emotional. I owe so much of who I am today to this degree, and in particular to professor Joel Faflak of the Western English department.
Fast forward to today - to my life as a new Physiotherapy grad. My specific interests in Physiotherapy at this point are not unrelated to my first degree. Pain - in its prevalence, complexity, and subjectivity - is of particular interest to me. My own experience with persistent pain drove my curiosity and inspired me to apply for a role on the Canadian Physiotherapy Association's (CPA) Pain Science Division (PSD) newsletter committee (I know - it's a mouthful!).
Despite the fact that I have a graduate degree in a particular profession, I never want this to delegitimize my experience and education in the arts. As my dad once told me: education, of any kind, is never a waste. I am so grateful that these past experiences continue to feed into the person I am today.
I want to be the very best version of myself, and Room To Rise provides a space for personal reflections on the continual process of rising. I asked my sister to join me in this site, because she is my definition of rising. :) What's yours? I know that my best self questions her fears, advocates for what she believes, laughs at herself, and empowers others. I'm definitely not always that person, but a shift towards consistency is the goal!
