Kate Holcombe

Kate is founder and director of Commonweal’s Healing Yoga Foundation, located in San Francisco, California. HYF is a non-profit project of Commonweal dedicated to supporting and empowering individuals in their own health, healing, and personal development through Yoga, regardless of ability, background, experience, or financial means.

Kate began her Yoga education in 1991 as a student of T.K.V. Desikachar in Chennai, India, and continues to study with him regularly, returning many times for extended periods of intensive one-on-one study. In addition to her extensive training in the therapeutic application of yoga, she enjoys studying and teaching Vedic chant, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, Nathamuni’s Yoga Rahasya, and other philosophical yoga texts. In conjunction with her Yoga studies, Kate has studied Sanskrit at UC Berkeley, and the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute (Madras Sanskrit College) in Chennai, India.

Kate has more than 20 years of experience working with individuals facing a broad range of health concerns and illnesses and has taught yoga with an emphasis on individual health and healing for many Bay Area organizations including the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Inner Circle HIV Support Group, and the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, among others. Kate is a KHYF certified Yoga Teacher Trainer and a contributing editor for Yoga Journal magazine.