The Start of Something New

Dan Allender · Founder of The Allender Center

Storying

The story God is writing with my life involves airplanes, hotels, microphones, lecterns, classrooms, conference halls, retreat centers, living room gatherings, and a therapist couch and chair. It is a rapid pace with perils and joys along the way. God continues to sustain me and draw me to himself. If you see me in an airport lounge sniffng peppermint oil and davening, (a Jewish prayer practice that involves rocking) pay no mind, I’m simply a maturing man who’s trying to care for himself in the midst of a storm.

Defining Moments

A defining moment in 2011 was the launch of The Allender Center, an institution established to support my efforts to train young, mature, gifted women and men to engage the issues of trauma, abuse, the Gospel, and one’s personal story. The Allender Center will congregate like-minded thinkers, storytellers, and front-line care warriors who will not only outlast me, but carry on some of the core matters of my work far into the future.

A Collective Effort

Though it bears my name and stewards my work and theories, The Allender Center's existence is the result of a truly collective effort: specifically, alumni and staff of The Seattle School who have built the infrastructure, developed the brand, cultivated donors, and labored beside me at workshops, recovery weeks and now in the certificate programs. If these women and men continue to invest in The Allender Center, truly remarkable work will be done through it, long after I’m gone.

Dan Allender

Founder, The Allender Center;
Professor of Counseling Psychology and Founding President,
The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology