Mark D. Kline, MD
50 years of Experience in Psychiatry & Mental Health
In 1970, while serving as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, Dr. Kline trained and worked as a psychiatric technician at Agnews State Hospital (now closed) outside San Jose, California, before attending Stanford University, where he graduated with distinction in Religious Studies in 1975.
Dr. Kline attended medical school at the University of California, Davis, where he graduated with the Central California Psychiatric Society Award in Psychiatry in 1979. He completed his internship in medicine, neurology, and psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where he completed psychiatric residency training in 1983. In 1981 he was one of 20 psychiatric residents chosen nationally to serve as a Ginsburg Fellow of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.
Following completion of his psychiatric training, Dr. Kline entered private practice and served as Clinical Assistant and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate and Adjunct Faculty in Bioengineeering at Syracuse University. With Dr. Gilbert Ross, then Chairman of Neurology at Upstate, Dr. Kline established and directed a laboratory for the computer analysis of scalp recorded brain electrical activity, conducting pilot studies in clinical groups, in musicians and non-musicians, and in meditators and non-meditators. He also became active in clinical trials in psychopharmacology. In 1994 Dr. Kline joined the faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Director for Psychiatric Services at University Hospital in Indianapolis. At IU he was active as a teacher for medical students and residents and was a principal investigator in clinical trials and conducted psychophysiologic research. His clinical work and research at that time was focused on mood disorders.
In 1998 Dr. Kline left Indiana for a position as Medical Director for Behavioral Health at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyoming, where he subsequently started a private practice (Medicine Bow Psychiatry). In Wyoming he served as President of the Wyoming Psychiatric Society, and as President of a local interdisciplinary group for mental health professionals in Laramie. He also served as Chairman of the Continuing Education Committee of the Wyoming Medical Society. By this time he had accumulated 15 years of experience working with young adults as psychiatric consultant to university student health services in Syracuse, Indianapolis, and Laramie. During these years, Dr. Kline was very active as an organizer and teacher of continuing education programs for physicians and mental health professionals.
In 2003 Dr. Kline undertook a two year Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which he completed in 2005.
In 2004, Dr. Kline returned to California, where he established a part time private practice in Mendocino and subsequently joined the Mendocino Coast Clinic in Fort Bragg, California as staff psychiatrist and later was Clinical Director for Behavioral Health Programs. At the Coast Clinic, Dr. Kline established innovative behavioral health services embedded in rural primary care, including grant supported, coordinated medical and mental health care and housing advocacy for homeless people suffering from drug addiction and serious mental illness, therapeutic yoga, and a ‘breath coaching’ class which taught breathing exercises helpful for anxiety and stress.
From 2013 to 2017, Dr. Kline took leave of medical practice for a period of ethical reflection and personal development. During this time he participated in meditation retreats at Buddhist monasteries and meditation centers, and received training as a teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at programs affiliated with the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachussetts. In 2018, Dr. Kline returned to practice and served as staff psychiatrist at the Fairfax Behavioral Health acute inpatient unit for older adults in Monroe, Washington.
In 2020, Dr. Kline has come out of retirement to private practice in hopes of being of service during this challenging historical moment. His clinical work incorporates his long experience applying perspectives from neuroscience, psychology, and religious traditions to the task of understanding and responding to mental health challenges.