KATE KENNEDY PT

For over 30 years, I have used CranioSacral Therapy as the basis of my approach, trusting that each body knows what it needs and will communicate that in its own way. My treatments aim to clarify the root causes of problems and are very efficient because of the deep interconnection of all the systems in the body.

I am also trained in Brain Technique, Visceral and Viscero-Vascular Manipulation, Lymphatic Drainage and a long list of other physical and energetic therapies. I combine my experience of Chinese, Ayurvedic and Shamanic medical approaches with a deep and current understanding of anatomy. This allows me to offer my clients many avenues to understanding their bodies as a part of their whole selves.

I don’t remember the details of how I ended up in a class on CranioSacral Therapy (CST) in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1993. At the time, I was recently returned from 2 years in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer, which was a crash course for me in letting go of everything I thought was true…about pretty much everything. I was finishing up a travelling Physical Therapist assignment in Seattle and I had plans to move to the UK to join my boyfriend in a few weeks. I heard of CST from a colleague and I clearly remember thinking ‘that sounds ridiculous’. I found myself on that class by following the same vague but insistent instructions from somewhere inside that had sent me to the Peace Corps office in 1989, a few months after my father died, asking to be sent to Africa.

I worked my way through the CST curriculum as I built a new life in England. In each class, we were introduced to the therapy through lecture and demonstration and then we partnered with other students, trading places as therapist and client. This was the beginning of my journey of learning to listen to my body after a lifetime of using food, alcohol, sex, running as an athlete, lying, sarcasm, contempt, risk-taking of all kinds and just plain running away, to avoid having to do just that. What my body had to tell me was, at first, almost unbearable to hear but, as I stuck with it, it got easier and made so much sense. It was such a relief to stop running away from myself.

From there, I learned to listen to my brain and to coordinate respectful conversations between it and my body. As I sought out more trainings in other manual therapies such as Brain Technique, Visceral and Vascular Manipulation, it became clear to me that my body was an Ecosystem and there was wisdom in every part. As I embraced the deep interconnectedness of all the physical parts of me, I became aware of how I was also connected to all the layers of my electromagnetic field and to what I, as a very lapsed Catholic, know as my spirit. I also embraced what I now call my Historical Ecosystem, the connection between who I am now and all the people I have been.

Working with all of this eventually brought me to an endless well of compassion because I could know and feel with absolute certainty that, at every moment in my life, I had been doing the very best I could with what I had and what I knew at the time. This informed all of my relationships and inspired me to do the hard work of reconnecting with my family of origin. Now I and my sons are part of a much larger family which is transforming into something softer and more beautiful as we navigate a whole range of challenging experiences with a grace that I never knew we possessed.