Kat Allen, MA, a lifelong mover with an extensive background in dance, yoga, healing and consciousness, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, a Certified Yoga Therapist and yoga instructor, and the founder of Four Aims Center for Mind-Body Therapy in West Seattle. Maintaining a private practice as a psychotherapist in West Seattle since 2004, she practices a whole person-whole systems approach to therapy and healing that acknowledges the vital role and synthesis of body, energy, emotions, relationship, spirit and culture in creating a sense of well-being.
As a therapist who has herself taken the long healing path from complex trauma and catastrophic loss, Kat utilizes, along with client-centered talk therapy, mindfulness-based awareness and other body-oriented models, in working with the complications of everyday life and relationship. Because she is expert in body-mind techniques, those who suffer from emotional reactivity, trauma, addiction, anxiety, depression, grief, loss, body-and eating disorders find her method life-changing. Kat is an especially effective guide for couples, covering a wide range of issues, including difficult emotional dynamics, intimacy & sexuality, and clearing and correcting communication issues. Kat helps clients learn to be present with, and nurture themselves and their relationships in new ways, to step out of defensive stances, expand their views and heal deep wounds. Her guidance helps clients clear mental, emotional, and energetic obstructions, and connect to what is highest and inspiring for each individual.
Psychotherapy Background
Kat’s clinical training includes a Masters degree from LIOS/Bastyr University in Family Systems, as well as extensive training in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (a Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy), Focusing-oriented Trauma Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology (how brain-behavior affects relationships), the Enneagram for personal growth, and Voice Dialogue Method (the Psychology of the Inner Selves). For couples Kat utilizes a number of styles, including Emotionally-focused Couples Therapy, the Gottman, and Imago methods, and Non-violent communication. Kat is presently working on a book that addresses issues of Addiction & Reactivity in Relationship, told through the lens of her own healing journey, as she continues to be inspired to help humans transform themselves and all their forms of suffering.
Yoga and Meditation Practitioner
As a yogi, Kat stands out for the in-depth paths she has taken. She engages in yoga, energy and meditation practices every morning, and is a devoted student of the tulku Tsoknyi Rinpoche in the Dzogchen and Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, studying with him every year. In hatha yoga, her sat-guru is T. Krishnamacarya, the incomparable yoga master who so impacted yoga in the West. Kat can claim that four of the world’s leading yoga masters were both his students and Kat’s direct teachers: BKS Iyenger, TVK Desikachar, K.Pattabhi Jois and Gary Kraftsow. She has been blessed to study numerous times in India, Nepal and Tibet, and is certified in Iyengar, Viniyoga, and Sivananda yoga.
Teaching background
Prior to Kat’s practice as a psychotherapist, Kat was one of a handful of Seattle’s early yoga instructors and educators. She began teaching in 1987, and soon made the transition from her long performing career in dance and theatre, which she began at age 10, to full-time teaching. Kat helped create and direct four centers in Seattle since 1990, and due to her interest in weaving in artistic elements into her work, Kat’s schools expanded on the traditional Hatha yoga classes to include devotional practice and chanting (satsang and kirtan), movement and “yoga-dance,” as well as meditation instruction. Her dedicated, continuous service of teaching yoga, energy and consciousness practices to the Seattle community for over 30 years has enriched many with the depth teachings from these powerful lineages.
Utilizing this background, Kat skillfully adapts the universal teachings of yoga and Buddhist psychology as an adjunct to help her counseling clients discover and work with their personal strengths, growing edges and ultimately, their destiny for this lifetime.