Get to Know Dr. Kate

I am a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist and Certified Teacher,  a Genetic Nutritionist/Wholistic Methylation, and a "DC" doctor of chiropractic.  I have a  practice in Charlemont Massachusetts, and have been in private practice since 1988.  I opened "Divine Structure Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy School" in 2013.  I trained for 10 years to become a certified teacher through the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America. My teacher  training was with  Michael Kern and Cherionna Menzam-Sills.  

I  teach certified trainings under the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America; this awards graduates with a degree in BCST: (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy) ; graduates can then obtain the trademark:  "Registered Craniosacral Therapists/RCST".  

My training is a 700 hour, 2 year certified training.  My teaching is based in seeing many patients over the years and sharing my clinical experience. I teach from experiences biodynamic craniosacral therapy in practice more so than in philosophies and theories. The training is based in my clinical experiences with the Breath of Life and all of its wonder!   Students who graduate will be prepared to practice this incredible  healing art and science of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in a way that fits their own personal interpretation of the work.  In my practice I have always had a knack for helping all kinds of people feel at ease. People knowing in a felt sense that I am here to support them and listen to them. Especially listening to what their body says with an open heart. Learning to deeply trust your body and the language it is speaking supports health and trust in your system.  Words have less meaning than what your body is saying. Your body is your younger, kinder, non-critical, real self. Your body never lies. Learning to be with people and listen from this place is a very different way of being in the world.  Our body is seen as a part of the whole on our planet from earlier times in ancient indigenous cultures. To be quiet, and connect to these larger forces that underpin everything is one of the most powerful ways we can connect with our systems intelligence to heal.   Listening, feeling, and noticing what is happening is a powerful way to heal ones system. Naming  layers of anatomy, emotion, and spiritual connection help us stay grounded and present. Being with yourself, and being with another person's light, their expression of intelligence and health. We can get so scared when we meet people, we look for what is different, or what is wrong, or could be dangerous or threatening. There is a new dawn emerging where we stop believing in fear, competition, and survival mode. We choose to orient to our commonality of our connection to the whole planet, with all of its expressions of the forces that support us all. We all share with  each other a unified field of plants, animals, and humans in our evolution here today. As we begin to look at the "glass bottom boat" per se we begin to realize that there is much more happening that the eye cannot see that organizes us all towards health. We must not forget this, and work to slow down to feel it in our system every day.  

I had my first craniosacral therapy session while in Chiropractic College from an upper class mate. I was super stressed, taking classes from 9-5, then studying late into the night. I did not have much time to do what I usually did to decompress.  After that session at 21 years old,  I got woke. Before I went to grad school, I did not know that craniosacral therapy existed. After the session, I began to understand why I was in Chiropractic College. I was not a patient who got into chiropractic because I had an injury that had helped. I just knew I wanted to use my hands to help people, and I wanted to study a lot of science. I am a hybrid type of person who has the science background, as well as trust in the energetic phenomena of healing. 
Both science and energy healing are helpful in growing and healing. 

I became enamored with craniosacral therapy.  I was in the cranial club in Chiropractic college.    In those days my classmates and I would have two people treat one person giving a craniosacral session. We would  time the tides, and compare what we felt. There was a lot happening in those sessions back then that no one had a vocabulary for until now. It was a powerful experience. In 1986, I attended an Upledger CranioSacral Course with author and teacher Dr. Clyde Ford. He made a strong impression on me, which made me want to pursue my cranial studies even more.

After completing  graduate  school from University of Western States with a DC degree, I practiced a blend of Upledger style Craniosacral Therapy, as well as Chiropractic, and Applied Kinesiology Nutrition.  After practicing for 14 years, in the late 1990's I traveled to London to take a 5 day cranial course with British Cranial Osteopaths. This is where I first met Michael Kern. From there I took his training in Boston and graduated in 2001 as a biodynamic craniosacral therapist. My teachers are British Osteopaths  Michael Kern, and Katherine Ukleja, as well as Scott Zamrut.   It was a 700 hour training that provided the roots of the training I teach now.  My teaching is informed by long term teachers such as the Chitty's, the Mueller's, Franklyn Sills, Katherine Ukleja, Michael Kern, Myrna Martin, and many others. If I lived in Canada or Britain, I would have become an Osteopath. However in the United States Osteopathy education is mostly focused on western medicine. It has lost its focus on the original healing art that its founder Dr Still learned from Native Americans. Dr Still was trained as a medical doctor, and apprenticed under his father a medical doctor. They lived on an Indian reservation as missionaries, and Dr Still ended up learning healing practices from the Native Americans. Much of the practice of Osteopathy's hands on work came from his experiences with these healers. He was also part Lumbee a tribe from the midwest himself.  Sadly he never credited that he coined Osteopathy/hands on work from the Shawnee medicine healers. I learned of this only 2 years ago.  
 
I practiced in New York City for 5 years.  This was a wonderful opportunity  to connect with many dancers, and Pilates Instructors in a practice setting. I have a strong affinity for dancers and movement oriented people as I am an athlete from early on in my life. I was the class athlete in high school, and a state champion basketball player, and a softball fast pitcher.

My Nutrition  course work recently includes: Dr. J Dunn's genetic nutritional wholistic methylation, and  Dr Hedberg's functional nutrition certification.

Other courses since graduating include Sacro-occipital Technique,  Gonstead Technique, Nasal Specifics Course with Dr. Stober, D.C., N.D., Whiplash and Spinal Trauma, Rosalyn Bruyere Healing Intensive trainings, Multiple Nutritional Kinesiology and herbal seminars with: Dr. Anderson, Dr. Versendaal, Dr. Brimhall, Dr. Haywood, and Dr. Bone.

I assisted post graduate biodynamic craniosacral therapy courses with, Michael Kern, and Katherine Ukleja. I assisted part of Brigit Viksnins Alchemical Alignment training, as well as taken the Alchemical Alignment training. I have taken many of Myrna Martin's Birth Process Workshops and intro classes, as well as post graduate classes with Franklyn Sills, and Mike Boxhall.

I presented  on healthcare for The Visiting Nurses Association, Smith College Ada Comstock students, and School of Shiatsu in Vermont. Recently I lectured at the Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North American Conferences in 2016, and 2018. At the  2016 conference at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico she presented a lecture on the Gut-Brain connection. In 2018 I presented  at the conference  in Maryland on Concussions.

Imprints for my life work.
I have spent most of my life in the Amherst/Northampton area since moving from New Delhi India where my dad was a headmaster at the American International School in 1972. In India, I was highly influenced by East Indian culture.

​Over the years I have  began to understand that I am a highly sensitive person that has a knack for knowing what is happening with other people. I am not wired in a common way. Luckily I chose a profession that suits my natural way of being. I have used these skills to innately know what is happening and listen to others systems on many levels to help patients and students. I also like to investigate and study; that is where my interest in teaching and studying nutrition are fulfilled. My work is to share what I have learned on my own personal growth journey and also from helping others. 
 
My mother was the valedictorian of her class in high school. My mom was 40 years old when she  suddenly become widowed with 6 kids aged 18-8 years old.   Mom began and completed her doctoral studies in education at University of Massachusetts, and  eventually became a grant writer and dean at community colleges, raising millions  to help students pull themselves out of difficult circumstances in life.

Both of my parents were educators, my father received his PhD in education from Harvard. My parents met at Tufts University. Two of my siblings are teachers. Teaching is in my blood...

Healthcare is in my lineage. My grandfather was the first Portuguese to graduate from Gloucester High School, who then went on to Tufts Dental School. My grandmother Elizabeth Carroll/Courant was a public health nurse in Gloucester and an amazing baker and mother. My grandfather Reggie Courant used to drive across the border to New Hampshire to see a Chiropractor since the profession was illegal in Massachusetts until 1969. My uncle Paul was a Harvard graduate Dentist for 35 years.

My father Don Klemer was considered a radical educator in the 1960's trying to introduce racial desegregation in public school systems, before moving to India to become the headmaster at the American International School.

​My great grandmother that I was named after came off the boat from Ireland at 16 years old. She landed in Portland Maine.   

​I live with my wife Debby, and our "fur-child" dogs Mushie and Sadie in  the paradise  city  of Northampton. I like to walk the pups daily on long nature walks, make artistic boxes, and bike, as well as study esoteric science, biochemistry, neurology,  quantum physics, and anatomy. 

My life experience, genetics,  and  practice have informed me about the healing potential in us all. My calling is to teach, care for patients,  and be of service to others.