Alexandra "Allie" Kolaski, M. Ed., Ph.D

Lead Therapist at Evoke Therapy Intensives

AllieKolaski

Alexandra "Allie" Kolaski, M. Ed., Ph.D

Lead Therapist at Evoke Therapy Intensives

Allie is a warm, compassionate, and knowledgable clinician who at her core believes that people are doing the best they can. She brings a validating and challenging approach to her work, aiming to facilitate corrective emotional experiences supported through strong relationships with clients and a feeling of safety and acceptance in the therapeutic process. Allie is curious, practical, and has a strong work ethic and sense of integrity. She has a special interest in working with and supporting important interpersonal relationships and the challenges brought by our connections with those closest.

Education & Prior Work Experience

Allie graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English and Environmental Science. During her time at Princeton, she discovered her passion for working with struggling adolescents and young adults as a leader in a freshman orientation program. Following graduation, she continued to pursue this path in wilderness therapy as a field guide, clinician, and researcher. Eventually, she realized that she wanted to direct her energy into clinical work, and began her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology at the University of Utah, where she fell in love with working with couples, families, and individuals across the age spectrum who need assistance in clarifying their values, working through challenges in relationships, and finding their authentic selves. Outside of her time doing intensives, she also completes comprehensive psychological assessments for diagnostic clarity and treatment planning.

Strengths

As a counseling psychologist who has spent time working in settings as varied as the Utah wilderness and an inpatient unit, Allie uses her wide base of knowledge on human behavior and development to facilitate long-lasting change in her clients. She prefers to integrate a wide variety of clinical modalities into her work, using elements of practical, skills-based approaches like Dialectical Behavioral and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, alongside relationship and emotion-focused approaches like family systems and interpersonal process. Allie also has a strong eye for how a client's environment - both personal and cultural - influences their experiences. She underlies her work with a deep appreciation for attachment theory. It is her overarching belief that therapy can be both practical and profound and that all clients deserve to be approached from a strength-based perspective.

Allie's research interests center around burnout among professional caregivers of various kinds. She has studied this concept in wilderness therapy field staff, and her dissertation looks at the influence of race and gender on experiences of burnout among physicians. Her ultimate interest is in how burnout in professionals impacts those they serve.

Personal Interests

In her free time, Allie feels lucky to enjoy the outdoor activities that Utah has to offer, including rock climbing, hiking, skiing, biking, and trail running mountain ultramarathons. She is also currently working to complete her goal of 40 marathons before turning 40! She is most happy in red rock desert with her husband and their two mutts.