About Katie

I have been many things in my time here on Earth…I have been a tour guide, an elf, a singer, an actress, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a student, a teacher, a helper, a brat, an introvert, an extrovert…elated, depressed, content, restless, angry, calm, uncertain, resolute, empty…but there was one thing I never felt or realized I was until I found yoga and meditation: whole

 
 
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Parts of my story feel long and winding, while others feel direct and immediate.  I spent more than the first half of my life cycling through periods of depression and anxiety and feeling as though I could never find a balance between being too much, particularly for others, and never being enough, both for others and myself.   While absolutely being able to laugh and enjoy my life for periods, there was always a sense that I was longing for something I had never known, something I couldn’t even name. 

 For a while this longing became a search for the perfect career for me…after pursuing a life in the arts, I realized that I craved more stability and had a strong desire to help others and landed on a career as a psychologist.  I am incredibly grateful that the search took me to psychology.  I love my work.  It is meaningful and fulfilling, and I often have the sense that I am doing what I am supposed to do when I’m working.  It is also through psychology that I found yoga and meditation.


While going through a divorce at the same time I was completing my pre-doctoral internship, I moved back in with my parents in my hometown.  Knowing I needed more than work, an SSRI, and even the undying love and support of my parents to get through, I walked into a local yoga studio where I took my first vinyasa yoga class.  I had previously dabbled in yoga, but did not have a consistent practice.  During that first class, I realized that my body was stronger than I thought it was.  I watched emotions and thoughts and even tears just come and go while I moved with my breath.  I couldn’t wait to go back…so I did…again and again and again.  I also finished my internship, defended my dissertation, and accepted a faculty position at the university where I earned my doctoral degree.  I then decided to wean off my medication.  The rebound anxiety was like nothing I had ever experienced, and I truly believe my yoga practice was a very significant factor in getting through that period.  That is one of the many reasons why I chose to complete yoga teacher training and share the practice of vinyasa yoga by teaching others. I am currently an RYT-500 registered with Yoga Alliance.

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The connection between psychology and meditation initially came through an e mail.  While working at a local health system, I received an e mail about a Level I iRest ® Yoga Nidra meditation training through which I could get most of my continuing education credits for the next two years.  I was interested in meditation but was “bad at it” and thought it might be a fun thing for my mother and me to do together.  The worst-case scenario that I could see was that I got my continuing education credits while spending five days with my mom and then never used what I learned.  That didn’t seem like a bad deal, so I enrolled.  I read the book and started practicing regularly.  I was amazed at what happened when I spent 35 minutes lying on the floor or in seated meditation, just being with whatever arose.  I went to that first training and felt that I was learning a language for things I already knew to be true.  I also felt absolutely whole for the first time in my life.  When I got home from the training, I started the certification process, knowing that I wanted to share this practice, these teachings with others and am now a certified iRest ® Yoga Nidra meditation instructor . I have also completed the 40 hour Breathe to Heal facilitator training with Max Strom.

The direct and immediate part of my story occurred while driving to the final in person requirement for iRest certification.  While driving on the PA turnpike with my mother in the passenger seat, the personal, localized sense of self slipped away…I could feel my hands on the steering wheel, see the road, hear my mom, but I wasn’t just in my body.  “I” was everywhere.  “I” was not contained or confined by this skin or these thoughts or these feelings.  “I” was everything around me and everything within me.  Everything “I” ever was and everything “I” would ever be.  “I” was whole, and it was beautiful.