kat zwick, ma, lpcc, lcpc, cgp-s, cccs

owner, consultant, trainer, individual, family & group therapist

she/her, they/them

Certified Group Psychotherapist & Qualified CGP Supervisor

Certified Coercive Control Specialist

Kat’s online CV here

I am an experienced and dedicated clinician, supervisor, educator, trainer and consultant with nearly 19 years of practice and scholarship experience in the field of organizational and management dynamics, group, individual and family therapy.

I grew up in very diverse urban New England environments and situations, then spent 18 years of my adult life in Chicago before woodsy adventuring in Northern California and Washington State and returning to Chicago, which I consider my home. My immediate family lives in California and Hawaii. Context matters, and these are but a few of my many contexts.

In my approach to institutions and people, I consider all experiences and symptoms at multiple levels simultaneously: the self, the interpersonal, the group, the family, location, micro cultures, macro cultures, the institution and intersecting systems that impact individual, group, and organizational behavior, feelings, functioning, and symptoms.

In this way, I help families, individuals, groups and organizations identify where and why specific change can be most effective and how to balance a potential need for individual progress with a need for interpersonal, organizational or systems-level innovation, repair, and modification.

I assist individuals, groups and organizations hold the complexity of “both/and” - individual goals can be worked towards, AND it is always true that conditions, contexts, and systems inform individual experiences and challenges.

Similarly I hold complexity as a clinician and consultant: I can be both a hope merchant and strategist for change AND someone who recognizes and sits with the ongoing struggle for systemic change that is larger than any single one of us.

Inherent in my approach and training as well as in my lived experience is a curiosity about and recognition of cultural identities and the impact of power and privilege on individual, family, community and organizational health and functioning.

special training in:

  • Organizational Dynamics, Management & Executive Training

  • Anti-Oppression Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Adapted for Marginalized Populations

  • Group Psychotherapy & Supervision

  • Clinical Ethics With Diverse Populations/Settings

  • Multi-Family DBT

  • DBT-PTSD

  • Harm Reduction

  • Motivational Interviewing

  • Trauma-Informed Care

  • Internal Family Systems

  • Psychodynamic & Relational Approaches

  • Family Systems

  • Group-As-A-Whole & Modern Group Analytic Adapted for Multi-Cultural Populations

  • Social Justice, Equity, Diversity & Accessibility in Therapy & Consultation

  • Anti-Racism

  • Ecological Model

  • Transformative Justice

special populations/treatment & supervision areas:

  • LGBTQIA+

  • Neurodivergence

  • Eating Disorders

  • Substance Use Disorders

  • Complex Trauma

  • Borderline Personality Disorder

  • Chronic & Acute Suicidal Ideation

  • Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

  • OCD

  • Parenting

  • Families & Couples

  • Adolescents and Transitional Age Youth

  • IPV/DV, Coercive Control and Recovery

To read about RtW’s 4 years as a group practice and training site in Santa Cruz for gender affirming and eating disorder care, please visit RtW’s Legacy Page

professional memberships:

American Group Psychotherapy Association

International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp) - Heartland Chapter

GAYLESTA: The Psychotherapist Association for Gender and Sexual Diversity

Group Relations International

World Professional Association for Transgender Health

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

Association for Size Diversity and Health

*Katherine Marie Zwick is the name associated with Kat’s licenses in CA, IL, WA and CO

**The business was first named DBA Katherine Marie Zwick (2016), then DBA Ride The Wave Recovery (2018), then Ride The Wave Recovery: Professional Clinical Counselor PC (2019)