Kohne and chameleon puppet, Cai, team up to teach children about emotions.
The ability to change comes naturally to Counseling alumna Katlyn Kohne (MS ’16). Her career has taken her from mental health counseling at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, where she worked with children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, to rehabilitation counseling at the Hiram G. Andrews Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, helping teens and young adults with disabilities pursue their goals of employment and independence.
In her current role as program supervisor for Allegheny Health Network (AHN)’s Chill Project, Kohne is part educator, part performer and all counselor as she helps children ages 3-6 learn how to identify and cope with their emotions.
As the host of a new YouTube series, “Cai & Kate,” Kohne partners with a larger-than-life chameleon puppet named Cai, who changes skin colors to communicate feelings such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear and nervousness. Once the young audience understands how to recognize emotions in themselves and others, Kohne demonstrates a variety of ways to regulate those big feelings, such as “bubble breathing”: taking big breaths and pretending to blow bubbles to calm down their emotions.
“Use your skills to keep it chill” is the mantra for “Cai & Kate."
WATCH SEASON 1 OF CAI AND KATE ON YOUTUBE
“These words also help parents of young children,” says Dr. William Davies (BS ’04, MA ’05), founder and director of AHN’s Chill Project. “Through ‘Cai & Kate,’ parents can learn the language they need to have conversations with their child about how emotions feel in their bodies and how to find the coping skills to handle these emotions.”
Although the concept for the series began several years before Kohne joined the Chill Project team, she and puppeteer Matt Acheson are the primary script writers.
“It’s been a passion of mine to combine my love for performing with my expertise in helping children,” notes Kohne. “Bringing those two interests together has been really special for me.”
According to Associate Professor and Program Director, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Michelle Schein, this project is ideal for Kohne.
“Kate has always had a creativity about her,” recalls Schein. “She could take the most straightforward assignments or tasks and turn them into something interesting and often entertaining. That passion and creativity, coupled with her warm personality and her energy and enthusiasm, has helped her take her career to the next level.”
In addition to her work with “Cai & Kate,” Kohne serves as the clinical supervisor to educators and master’s-level clinicians who bring the Chill Project to more than 30 elementary and high school buildings in the Pittsburgh area and as far north as Erie, Pennsylvania.
“We have therapists on site five days a week,” says Kohne. “That means they get to know students and students get to know and trust them. It makes a world of difference.”
“Throughout my career I have taken advantage of curveball opportunities that were new and exciting for me,” explains Kohne. “Although I never imagined that I would wind up on this path, the general wealth of knowledge I acquired through Pitt’s Counseling program and in my previous work experiences has benefited me greatly.”
Kohne enjoys growing and evolving into the kind of counselor that her clients need most. “I feel confident that my future career path could be even more versatile and ever changing,” she predicts.
“Kate is so good at inviting people into whatever circle she enters,” adds Schein. “Now that she is reaching so many more people and inviting them into her world, she is making mental health more accessible—and fun.”
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This article originally appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Facets magazine.