Kat Allen, M.A. , Certified Yoga Therapist, has dedicated her adult life to helping others understand, heal and
transform themselves and their relationships through an integrated application
of Insight-oriented psychotherapy, movement, energy practices, yoga and mindfulness. She is the Founder-Director of the Four Aims Center, and offers sessions for individuals, couples and groups with an integrative approach to body-mind-psyche and spirit. As of March 1, 2010, Kat's status as a Licensed Mental Health Pracitioner in the State of Washington is pending, having applied and completed all requirements for licensure. When she receives her license, she will be able to accept insurance for individual sessions in counseling and yoga therapy.
In terms of psychotherapy, Kat has
trained with teachers and therapists whose approaches range from Family Systems to Buddhist Psychology and Mindfulness practice, including Integrative Body Psychotherapy, Voice
Dialogue, Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples, Core Energetics and Jungian-based approaches. She recognizes 22 years of yoga and meditation practice as most greatly impacting her life and work. Inspired, perplexed and
activated by her own journey, she observes how working in an integrated way
allows insightful, lasting change to occur. With more connection to one's vital energy, Core Self and
others, resting in a more expansive consciousness, one is able to experience a
life full of balance, joy and compassion.
Kat received her Master's Degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the
Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr
University, with an
emphasis in Systems Counseling, and has been in private practice as a
registered counselor since 2005, and a yoga therapist since 1994. Kat's first career began as a dancer at the age of 6, and she worked as a performer, choreographer and teacher throughout her twenties (B.A. in Dance, University of Washington, 1981). Discovering yoga at the age of nineteen, she began teaching in 1987 in the Iyengar tradition (see below for certifications, teachers' influences). In the 1990's she opened The Abode of Joy-A Yogashala in her home studio near Seward Park, was founding faculty at the Community Yoga Circle in Seattle, and fianlly established herself in her vibrant
neighborhood yoga studio, Kaya Yoga (now
Lotus Yoga in Columbia
City). Her greatest sense of accomplishment was the south-end yoga community, which is still thriving, that she established as a result of Kaya Yoga, Kat sold the yoga studio in 1994 in order to achieve her goal of helping others expand the gains they made on the mat in class, but who were unable to take those learnings into their private, everyday life and relationships.
Kat has practiced and
studied in the field of psycho-energetic healing with a variety of teachers, and her extensive training
in the
Moseley Method, specializing in body-oriented relationship therapy,
gives her practice a
unique edge in terms of utilizing the body as a primary source of
wisdom. She continues to enjoy working with youths and their families
(both in
semi-private yoga sessions and/or therapy), as she did for Renton Area
Youth
and Family Services, and is an associate member of the U.S. Association
of Body
Psychotherapists and the American
Associations of Marriage and Family
Therapists.
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| As a yoga teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist, Kat is recognized by her
peers as an inspiring source of practical knowledge in the lineage of T.
Krishnamacarya, one of the greatest yoga masters and healers of this century.
She's been fortunate to study personally in India, beginning in 1990, with his famous students BKS Iyengar, TVK
Desikachar, and Pattabhi Jois . Her credentials include the
American Viniyoga Institute's teachers's certification with Gary Kraftsow
(2000), and subsequent yoga therapy training with him, National Iyengar
Association teacher's certification (1992), and completion of the Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Society (1989) and Integrative Yoga Therapy (1996) programs. As
well, she has taught numerous in-depth study and teacher training courses
herself, and has contributed as guest lecturer and teacher to the NW Yoga
Festival since its inception.
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Kat has been an adjunct professor at Bastyr
University, running the
yoga program 2005-7 as well as teaching in the Psychology
Department (Psychology of Nourishment). Kat continues
to explore and develop the interactive field between classical yoga and modern
therapeutic approaches to health and well-being, leading workshops,
intensives and retreats. (See Contact Us page)
She is inspired to help
others discover greater personal meaning in their lives, and to connect one's
innermost calling to community and global awareness. This is the
"new," "integral" yoga referred to by Sri Aurobindo, where
through our personal practice of self-discovery, we then reach out to help
others fully awaken and be free!
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