Writer/Actress/Coach/Sleep Activist/Reiki Master/Candidate, MS Narrative Medicine Program, Columbia University

KATHLEEN FRAZIER is an author, actress, sleep activist, and Reiki master. She is a candidate in Columbia University's MS Narrative Medicine Program. Kathleen defines being a sleep activist as advocating for healthy sleep as a basic human right. She raises awareness of the inextricable link between trauma and disordered sleep, as well as holistic recovery towards healthy sleep. She writes a sleep health blog for Psychology Today (to view blog click here). Her memoir, SLEEPWALKER: The Mysterious Makings and Recovery of a Somnambulist (Skyhorse Press) won the 2017 Independent Publisher's Book  Award (IPPY) for Best First Book Nonfiction. 

Kathleen is a speaker with This Is My Brave's (TIMB) Speaker Bureau(to book her view here). TIMB is a mental health advocacy and storytelling nonprofit that produces national shows comprised of local artists and writers who have either lived with mental health issues and/or loved someone who has lived with mental health issues.

Kathleen is a member of The Actors Studio and a Norman Mailer Fellow as well as being a member of Irish American Writers and Artists, the International Women's Writing Guild, and Artists Without Walls. She is vested in SAG/AFTRA and an AEA member. She is a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Kathleen practices ceremony and dream/vision work with indigenous people globally, striving towards an ever-deepening consciousness of the interconnectivity of all sentient beings and of our waking/dreaming worlds. 

Kathleen’s first foray into writing grew from sense memory exercises at the Actors Studio where she explored her chronic and often dangerous sleepwalking, from which she is completely recovered. Episodes began during adolescence when her brother first attempted suicide (a sort of nighttime mirroring of his waking pain) and haunted her for twenty years. The exhausting illness affected all of her relationships and every area of her life. Her personal essay on the subject appeared in Psychology Today (to view article click HERE), which led to her book deal. Her IPPY award led to her Psychology Today sleep health blog and she is grateful for such synchronicity. Kathleen lives and sleeps well with her husband in New York City.