Today we’d like to introduce you to Kallie Guimond.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I began my career in policy work and ultimately found my specialty in advocacy for Integrative Medicine and Ancillary Health Care Practitioners through a circuitous route. I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 33. This led me to leave policy work to heal. I found the most success in treatment with acupuncture and Chinese herbs after doctors told me that if I didn’t do chemotherapy, I would die. At the time, my children were 5 and 9, and I knew that I could just as easily die from chemo, but I also would not have any quality of life if I chose the standard option for Stage 3 cancer: chemo and surgery. I agonized over this decision but my doctor introduced me to Chinese herbs and acupuncture. I’m now a 21 year survivor, while the doctor who saved my life performed all seven of my surgeries and continued to coach me through options for integrative medicine (he did not believe in poisoning the whole system if the surgeries could be successful. He learned the hard way that there is a punishment for going up against big pharma and lost his hospital priveleges….he runs a wellness clinic now and serves as my first real inspiration for going into medicine.) Acupuncture was the only therapy I could tangibly put my hands on that made me feel better. Everything else (including the herbs at the time,) made me feel terrible and I often could not get out of bed to be with my dhildren. In 2011, I found a school close to me and wasted no time registering for classes. I started out in Wellness Coaching while I waited for acupuncture classes to begin. I met my greatest mentors at the Maryland University of Integrative Health: Robert Duggan and Diane Connelly. As I worked my way through a Masters in Acupuncture, I ran another track to learn Chinese herbal medicine. In September of 2014, I graduated from MUIH with two masters: A Masters in Acupuncture andd a Masters in Oriental Medicine. Just befoe I finished my Masters programs, my mother was nearly murdered by my schizophrenic brother. The acupuncure industry needed a lobbyist, so I joined the board of the American Society of Acupuncturists and began to hold integrative health fairs and Congressional fly-ins for the industry. While I grew my practice as a licensed acupuncturist in both Maryland and Washington, DC, I realized it was imperative to do both the policy work, which I consider myself to be at expert level, as it was to have a private practice. Chinese Medicine is something you can study all of your life, and never know it all. My husband was running the Health Policy Advocacy Institute where we would teach other industries how to have “sustainable influence” campaigns to meet their very competitive needs met on Capitol Hill. In 2018, my husband died of a massive heart attack at the age of 51. All of the sudden, I was a widow at the age of 46. One of the chiropractors who handled the practitioners in my health fairs, invited me to join her practice in Beaufort South Carolina. I came down to visit for a weekend and fell in love with the area. I didn’t get the chance to join her practice because as soon as I arrived, I became deathly ill and started facing the possibility of amputations. Fortunately, I got to keep my left foot in the first surgery, but they took a third of my foot to the bone. The second surgery was done on my right foot, where they amputated a toe…turns out 10 toes was one too many for me. Policy work was my best way to support myself at the time. In 2020, I walked away from policy work for good (or hobbled.) I opened Acupuncture On Call, knowing that most people, especially the most vulnerable, struggled to get out and see their doctors if they had to leave their homes. I began lecturing on integrative health modalities at local health clubs and eventually decided to change my practice name to Divinitude Spirit Medicine, where my practice focused on impacting people at the deepest levels. I believe that medicine is anything that works. I specialize in complex and chronic health issues, where my coaching is one of the most important aspects of what I do. With many people finding their medications too expensive to keep up with, especially if under-insured or having no insurance at all, I deepened my herbal practice to offer patent Chinese herbal medicine and custom formularies. Chinese herbal medicine is polypharmic, and many people found themselves reducing many of their pharmaceuticals down to one personal custom-made formulas that could address all of their needs. Over time, understanding that many people view acupuncture and needles as something they’d rather avoid, I began to look for non-invasive ways to treat them. I’m a certified Reiki master, where I can move energy without ever putting my hands on them, and became a certified Sound Healer where I use tuning forks over acupuncture points to move the energy. Today, I offer a variety of integrative modalities to treat people’s energy. I offer wellness coaching still (word as needle,) reiki, offer sound baths and targeted sound healing over acupuncture points, chakral cleansing, Chinese dietary advice and nutritional counseling, tui na massage (similar to Westernized Reflexology with a focus on hands and feet,) shiatsu massage (most people envision a practitioner using their feet, but it actually involves a deep version of massage using an anchoring hand and a working hand very deeply and specifically to pull toxins from the organs of the body,) and fire-cupping to treat my patients for any need they might have. While I don’t work with insurance companies, I keep my pricing affordable and offer any and all modalities during a session. My goal is still teaching people that they can play the largest role in healing themselves by keeping their spirits high and believing in themselves. I view myself as a somatic healer and pracitioner of energy medicine. I found my rhythm in this area by being an active listener and teacher of health and wellness practices.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Port Royal and most of Beaufort County caters to a very touristy crowd. For safety purposes, I required people to have a local address. The difficulty here if you choose not to accept walk-in traffic is building a practice in a place where many are transient or not here full=time. But, this lends itself to being creative and making sure that my interactions are meaningful enough to get them to call the number on the card. I don’t feel limited at all, and often find myself passing out cards to locals on the beaches in Beaufort County. I still see clientele from the Maryland area mainly because once people connect with a practitione who truly cares for them, they don’t like to give up that relationship.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Divinitude Spirit Medicine.?
I’m so thankful for the chance to discuss what I specialize in: Besides chronic and complex health conditions, I also specialize in wound care, ptsd for combat veterans, anxiety and depression, chronic pain, kidney and liver conditions, pediatrics, and weight loss.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I’ve learned that most people never feel heard or seen, much less treated. I want everyone to know they are heard and seen.
Pricing:
- $150 for two hour intakes
- $100 per session: all modalities offered
- $50/auricular session 30 minutes, no intake required
- FREE: wellness Coaching in every session at no additional charge
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.divinitude.net
