Patricia Kay, MA, CCH, CSD

Education, training, experience, lineage of study

I have a B.A. in Anthropology and Spanish (1970, University of Colorado), an M.A. in Education with emphasis on Bilingual/Multicultural Education (1977, University of Northern Colorado). I taught Spanish in my 20’s, then moved to Mexico and helped design an educational program for the Center for Educational Research in Mexico City. However, it was after giving birth that my life was so transformed that I was drawn to study midwifery. We moved back to the US, and I studied at the Midwifery Training Institute (1986, Albuquerque, NM) to become a Certified Professional Midwife. After returning to Mexico in 1987, I helped to found a People’s Clinic in Tepoztlán, Morelos, where I practiced midwifery and helped to train other women in their quest to become midwives.

My training to practice homeopathy was acquired through a 10-year apprenticeship under Dr. Rosa Beléndez, M.D., while I lived in Tepoztlán. After I returned to the U.S., I studied for 2 years with Master Homeopath, Louis Klein, director of Luminos Homeopathy Courses, and received the title of Homeopathic Master Clinician (HMC). I have since been certified (CCH) by the Council for Homeopathic Certification, a national group that sets and upholds the standards for classical homeopaths. I continue to attend conferences given by renowned homeopaths to keep my prescribing current. I am co-founder and current director of the Pacific NorthWest Homeopathy Association (https://pnwha.org).

From 2001 until 2016, I studied another healing modality, Cell Level Meditation, under Dr. Barry Grundland, a psychiatrist who developed this practice and worked with it for over 40 years. It turns out, that Awareness itself is powerful! And I found this tool to be harmonious with the principles of homeopathy. We bring Awareness, Breath and Sensations in the Body together, and in the Cell of the Self, the Temple of Being, a mysterious conversation goes on for healing. We wrote a book to orient people to this practice: Cell Level Meditation: breathing with the wisdom and intelligence of the cell. (www.CellLevelMeditation.com) Within us there are amazing healing potentials, and the basis of my work is founded on this observation. A revision of this book came out in 2021, under the title: Cell Level Meditation; The Healing Power in the Smallest Unit of Life. It is available from Inner Traditions, as well as Amazon.

I have participated in several long-term spiritual groups (Mentor 3 with Dr. Richard Moss; Pathwork with Andrés Leites; Generating Transformational Change with Pacific Integral; Tending the Fire with the sisters at St. Placid’s Benedictine Priory). Other tools/languages/lenses of perception in which I’ve gained fluency include: Western Astrology, the Enneagram, Marshall Rosenberg's Non-Violent Communication, Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, and Otto Scharmer’s Theory U.

To bring these all together, I completed a two-year course in Spiritual Direction (CSD) at St. Placid’s Benedictine Priory in Olympia, WA (2019), since ultimately, I believe my work is about listening into the realm of Spirit, and seeing how this manifests in a person’s life in matter (body), psyche (thoughts and emotions), and spirit (living into the fullness of his/her true Self). While I felt drawn to enter into the Catholic Tradition because of my Western background, I have found that the realm of Spirit makes itself known to and through people in “catholic” or universal ways, and that being in conversation opens us to this realm in ways that move our lives to a fuller expression of the potentials inherent in our nature. I learned to listen deeply to women as their bodies brought forth life, and this was certainly a training to be present with people who labor to move toward a fuller sense of Life in mind, body and spirit, meeting them where they are in their unfolding. As a Spiritual Director, I find that deep reflective listening, meditation and homeopathy work together nicely to help people harmonize the different aspects of their lives. What joy!