Kate R. Casey, LMHC, Registered Yoga Teacher (200 hr level)

I was fortunate to have a mother who started doing yoga shortly after it arrived in this country in the 60′s. She read one of the first books on yoga that was available in the United States. I remember her doing ‘stretches’ on the floor in the living room. Fast forward to the 70′s and I was studying yoga (self-taught) and I stayed at that level for many years doing hatha yoga more or less, off and on, until I became a serious student in 2000. At that time I started attending classes and became devoted to my own practice.

I have been a psychotherapist for 25 years (my official title is Licensed Mental Health Counselor) and for the past 10 years I have been studying and practicing yoga with the intention of integrating Purna yoga into the work I do in psychotherapy. Purna yoga means whole or complete yoga that includes; alignment-based yoga as taught in the Iyengar tradition, philosophy and meditation as taught by Sri Aurobindo and others, and the teachings that I have learned from Aadil and Mirra Palkhivala at Yoga Centers (for more information on Purna Yoga go to yogacenters.com). In the past 2 years I decided to complete my training at the 200 hour RYT level and to begin teaching yoga for the joy and fun of sharing yoga with others. My belief about yoga is that it is ever evolving and unfolding in ways that continue to lead me towards a growing consciousness of my connection with myself,with others, and with the Universe.

In addition to working as a psychotherapist and teaching yoga I am also the human part of an animal-assisted therapy team. My dog, Honey, who is a soft-coated wheaten terrier, often joins me in my office while I am working. She is trained as a therapy dog and we spend time weekly at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, Washington visiting patients and their families, and the Hospice staff, providing comfort, respite, and humor. Honey is learning to be my assistant in yoga classes through demonstrating poses (she excells at downward facing dog) and lying quietly while class proceeds. She is also an enthusiastic greeter.

I look forward to sharing what I have learned and growing with you in the practice of yoga.

Check out my link with Yoga Centers.