Prior to settling in New Mexico in 1988, Dr. Kilpatrick pursued her work and education in several different places. She grew up in Oklahoma and received her BA in English from Colgate University. She taught high school English and coached for several years in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She then studied as a Matriculated Auditor at the C.G.Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. While completing pre-med studies in Chicago, she became a certified massage therapist. After earning her MD from the University of Illinois, Chicago, Dr. Kilpatrick completed both her residency in psychiatry and her fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. After establishing her private practice in 1993, she received her Diplomate as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G.Jung Institute of Santa Fe. She has been trained and certified by Mary Main and Erik Hesse in the Adult Attachment Interview, and has been trained by Alan Sroufe and Elizabeth Carlson in the Strange Situation. She is certified as a practioner in both Peter Levineʼs Somatic Experiencing and Sharon Stanleyʼs Somatic Transformation.