By Brooke Manna

WESTPORT — Katie Augustyn, whose passion for wellness and positive energy animates her personal life, wants to share that spirit with others.

The Westport woman has established the Transformation Center CT, which she said can help people embrace their potential through spiritual healing and coaching. “We all have a reason for coming to earth in this lifetime and I want to help you find your purpose” she said of the venture.

Augustyn, who describes herself as a spiritual healer, also is known by the name, Mataji — meaning Respected Mother — given to her upon her initiation into the Taoist Yogi-Christ lineage.

The center will offer group workshops, training and personal sessions for those seeking personal growth, whether personal or spiritual, she said. “Self-love is a huge part of it,” Augustyn said of the process. “If you don’t have that then it’s really hard to experience a full life because you’re limiting yourself. 

“It’s hard to give and receive love to others if you don’t have that self-love” she added.

Janet, one of Augustyn’s clients, said, “Katie is an intuitive and knowledgeable transformation coach and mentor. I appreciate someone with multiple skills in several modalities who can delve into issues from different vantage points and help move beyond obstacles and blocks.”

She ‘has a great ability to connect with patience and compassionate listening and cares very deeply about the people she works with,” the client added. 

But what about her journey? How did Augustyn achieve her own sense of wellness and spirituality?

“Before I began this spiritual path, I was really happy!” she recounted. “But something was missing, and I didn’t know what it was. In fact, I didn’t even know something was missing until I met my mentor, spiritual coach and friend, Kathy French.”

Augustyn had worked in business in New York before moving to Wilton 26 years ago. After that move, she volunteered in local schools and PTA, and served as president of the Connecticut Association for the Gifted for six years.  

 “That did fulfill me in a lot of ways because I was helping other people, especially the parents of the children because I’m not an educator,” she said. “I worked with the teacher, but more from a point of view of, ‘What do the kids need?’ ”

But then she realized “there is so much more that was available to us as humans if we had that spiritual connection.” After attending a class led by French in energy healing, Augustyn said she instantly felt a connection. 

Of that experience, she added, “You can’t really talk to someone about this, they have to feel it and experience it for themselves … And that’s what I mean. I didn’t know what was missing, but it was my connection with spirit that was missing.”

Now, Augustyn is committed to helping others find their own path to wellness and fulfillment.

An important step, she said, is confronting “that little voice in your head going, ‘I’m not good enough.’ ‘I’m not strong enough.’ ‘I’m not pretty enough.’ ‘I’m not thin enough.’ ‘I’m never enough.’

“If you can let go of that, it’s amazing how much freedom it gives you to just be who you are, no matter what.”

Fundamentally, she said, people need to consider, “What really makes you happy?”

When coaching clients on how to realize a sense of happiness, Augustyn said, “I have them identify their core values. And most people don’t know what their core values are. I mean I didn’t before I was trained as a coach.”

“When you narrow them down to your top five,” she explains, “those will tell you what will make you happy and fulfill you in a practical way.”

For Augustyn, love plays a major role in wellness and spiritual awakening. “It’s not an emotion for me. It became a way of life. And if you come from love then everything else just flows.”

Robert, Augustyn’s husband of 33 years, occasionally joins group wellness activities that she conducts in their backyard. Practicing wellness activities together, she said, has been a positive dynamic in their relationship.

An example of a wellness activity planned at her home is a “sound bath.” Augustyn said that participants lie on the ground, eyes closed, as an instructor uses Tibetan brass bowls, gongs and crystals to create sounds that promote relaxation, balance and positive vibrations for mind and body.

“It’s like the whole thing just washed over, but also gets inside of you, too,” she said of the sound bath. “It’s hard to describe it,” but the experience is designed to help people relax and feel positive.

Augustyn also performs energy healing one-on one sessions. An example is an “extraction” healing, she described as “extracting old energy that you don’t need any more, that’s not serving you.” After getting rid of that negative energy, she said, “I bring in the light and energy that way. And that is what is like reiki in that it is energy healing, but this is more direct.”

A circular labyrinth of rocks has been created in the backyard of Augustyn’s home. Labyrinths have an ancient legacy, she said, representing “a journey to our own center and back again out into the world.”

The programs offered at the Transformation Center CT are designed “to get us out of our head and into our heart.”

“Because if you lead with your heart everything looks different,” Augustyn said. “It takes the fear out, it takes the worry out, it takes the blame out. There is so much opportunity that is there for us if we can just see it and use it.”

For more information about Transformation Center CT, visit transformationcenterct.com or call 203-820-3800. Augustyn also posts “The Katie Augustyn Spiritual Connection Show” on her YouTube channel.