Interview with Kathryn Landon-Malone, RN
February 13, 2007

Kathryn Landon-Malone, RN, is currently in her second year of doctoral studies in Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology (PPN) at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute.  Kathryn has been a professional in the field of healthcare for the last thirty years as a Pediatric Nurse since 1975 and a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner since 1992, supporting children and families with the whole range of challenging beginnings.  Kathryn currently runs a private practice providing pediatric wellness services at an innovative and integrative medicine center that she helped to develop called True North, located in Portland, Maine.  Kathryn also teaches parenting classes and collaborates with other True North professionals to offer more complete care to their shared patients. 

EG: What brought you to the field of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology?

Kathryn: I was fortunate to spend the first half of my career in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit where I had exposure to many different things, which has given me quite a perspective for what I am seeing now with older children. 

EG: How does what you are seeing in older children reflect on their earlier experiences?

Kathryn: Well, I had a hunch back then in the NICU that the hard stuff that these babies were experiencing would become an integral part of who they are.  They would not simply forget what they were going through such as a baby that had been in the NICU for ten straight days.  That same child at age eight complained of unexplainable migraines, disrupted sleep patterns and persistent anxiety.  I began to notice a pattern that all of the children who had reportable anxiety also had difficult births and/or lengthy stays in the NICU.  I became very interested in pediatric illness and the correlation to early influences particularly related to attachment.

EG: How do you remember knowing that these babies would store their experiences?

Kathryn: The first time I put my hands on a distressed baby I remember hearing these words, “Be careful.  All the channels are wide open.  Touch gently with no intentions to hurt.”  Years later I attended my first APPPAH Congress.  I sat at a table with other professionals like myself who were saying the same things that I had been thinking all of these years.  I said to myself, “Wow! Other people think like me, too.”

EG: What led you to step away from more conventional models of care?

Kathryn: I was disillusioned with what from my perspective was not working well enough. All of the models already in existence were merely offering their patients a quick fix or a detour away from a deeper healing.  I longed to be a part of a non-hierarchial community of healers that were promoting and practicing emotionally intelligent health care.  After many years of working at Mercy Hospital, I called forth a task force of angels, or rather angels masquerading in human form, and we called ourselves a holistic council.  Initially, we imagined both an outpatient as well as an inpatient program would manifest, but alas due to funding we managed to birth the vision of an integrative outpatient medicine center called True North.  It was the realization of our dream- a dramatically different kind of health care based on compassionate relationship, collaboration, and mutual respect.

EG: Can you describe the innovative model for patient care that True North practices?

Kathryn: True North has been nationally recognized as a model of excellence for its holistic practices in which science-based integrative medicine joins the eclectic wisdom of psychiatrists, psychologists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, midwives, family practice doctors, obstetricians, energy medical intuitives, shamanic practitioners, naturopaths and others to offer a wide range of expertise for mutually shared patients.  The Circle Process is perhaps the most unique feature of our Center.  We gather in circle using a case presentation model to support each other with specific patients. We begin each process with a moment of silence to prepare ourselves to call forth the highest sense of a particular patient as an image, idea, or impression, which will be taken back to the patient to help them to decide their direction.
My personal practice is also very collaborative because I have found that groups can affectively amass more power than any single individual or nuclear family, for that matter.  Hence, I collaborate with the prenatal visits of midwives where I will attend 24 week prenatal visits in order to plant the seed that babies do, in fact, have consciousness even in-utero.  I often ask parents the probing question, “What do you know about this baby?”  You would be surprised at how little some parents know about the life growing in their womb. 
            I base my wellness checks on a model of healthcare delivery called CenteringParenting™,  (http://www.centeringpregnancy.com/), that integrates the provision of health assessment, education, and support within a stable group of women, families/ friends, and babies.  This format allows for the development of community and empowerment, leading to proactive, involved consumers and energized providers working together in a partnership that is exciting and fulfilling to all participants. The opportunity to meet together with the same group of new families allows for continued sharing and development of a support network throughout the childrearing period.  Most if not all of my pediatric check-ups are performed in a group of two or more and up to six families to weigh, measure, graph and inform parents about healthy development.  Yes, comparing does happen, but in a healthy and transparent way where parents can disclose their concerns in a safe environment and at the same time have their fears normalized in the context of community support.      

EG: How would you describe how you are currently integrating the wisdom from experience that you have gleaned over the past thirty years?

Kathryn: Santa Barbara Graduate Institute has been very instrumental in helping me to weave the strands together, which feels really good.  I am more able to hold a larger perspective for where my life’s work is going.  I am sure that will become even clearer as I carry the work forward.  I feel infinitely inspired by what I am learning and am so excited to plant the seeds of consciousness about babies with every pregnant family that I see. 

EG: What is your next step?

Kathryn: I am getting quite proficient at following my nose and seeing where it leads.

True North hosts a yearly Mind/Body/Spirit conference for colleagues to gather and share the latest and greatest in their fields.  Find out more about True North by visiting the website http://www.truenorthhealthcenter.org/default.asp.

The Interviewer: Ellen Goldstein, MA, graduated from Santa Barbara Graduate Institute with her Master’s in Clinical Psychology specializing in Pre- and Perinatal Psychology.