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

(What is Coercive Control? What is the BITE model of authoritarian control?)

Kat’s online CV here

kat started her own outpatient practice in 2016…

From 2018 - 2022, Kat was the Executive & Clinical Director of RtW when RtW functioned as a larger group practice and training site for postdoctoral Fellows and post-graduate Masters-level Associates seeking training and supervision in robust eating disorder, gender affirming, neurodivergent affirming, and substance use disorder care and relationship challenges.

After the last of Kat’s Associates and Fellows had graduated from their positions, Kat returned to solo private practice to focus on providing direct clinical care, clinical training and consulting, and executive consulting services at treatment centers. Kat relocated back to Chicago in January 2024 after nearly a decade on the West Coast and now provides therapy services part-time to the greater Santa Cruz and Bay Areas of California.

Kat has managed all aspects of RtW, from clinical to operations and finance to marketing.

Prior to opening their own business, Kat spent 7 years working in higher levels of care - Residential, Partial-Hospitalization and Intensive Outpatient — in Chicago, IL and in Santa Cruz, CA. Kat specialized in managing and directing the treatment of eating disorders and co-occurring challenges, as well as special populations who may often be missed by “one size fits all” approaches to treatment. Kat continues to carry a practice of multidisciplinary, robust and individualized care at the outpatient level for those in recovery.

therapy with kat

Kat has been described as a therapist as engaged, compassionate, warm, discerning, present, and strengths-based. They are both direct and non-judgmental, and Kat invites non-judgment in how clients relate to themselves and others. Kat uses humor, metaphors, stories and analogies to help clients “unstick” their thinking in individual and group settings.

In process groups, Kat seeks to help clients connect with each other, the present moment, and the emotions and histories underlying what’s coming up in the moment and connect the dots as to how this relates to clients’ challenges in their life outside the group. Groups can be powerful “in vivo” places to be vulnerable, express imperfectly, and be supportively guided to practice new ways of relating to oneself and other people. Kat also assists clients in understanding and working through their relatedness with power and authority, which impacts us all in different ways based on how we grew up and in what bodies - in families, institutions, communities, and in society. Realities of power and authority impact mental health and recovery, and groups can be a particularly useful place to make sense of these things and heal. It is essential to Kat to be actively mindful of how privilege and social positionalities factor in to individual and group behavior, experiences and the healing path.

In skills groups, Kat helps clients focus on doing what works, what is most effective, and assists clients through humor, stories, and real-world examples to teach otherwise perhaps “boring” skills and help them come to life. DBT skills can truly be life-saving - helping clients radically change stuck mindsets, symptoms, behaviors and unhelpful communication. The skills also need to really connect to each individual’s heart and treatment needs. Kat helps each client “find the reason” and the logic week by week, because the most effective and compassionate thing Kat can do is help clients meet their goals. Kat’s skills groups are infused with the fundamental recognition that structural oppression impacts not only mental health but also how we receive care, and Kat works collaboratively with all clients to ensure skills material centers populations usually relegated to the margins as well as the realities of the clients in the room.

special training in:

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Marginalized Populations

  • Multi-Family DBT

  • DBT-PTSD

  • Harm Reduction

  • Motivational Interviewing

  • Trauma-Informed Care

  • Internal Family Systems

  • Psychodynamic & Relational Approaches

  • Family Systems

  • Group Psychotherapy

  • Group-As-A-Whole & Modern Group Analytic

  • Organizational Dynamics

  • Social Justice, Equity, Diversity & Accessibility in Therapy

  • Ecological Model

special populations/treatment areas:

  • LGBTQIA+

  • Neurodivergence

  • Eating Disorders

  • Substance Use Disorders

  • Complex Trauma

  • Borderline Personality Disorder

  • Chronic & Acute Suicidal Ideation

  • Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

  • OCD, particularly Moral Scrupulosity, R-OCD, and presentations with disturbing intrusive thoughts, rumination to completion compulsions, and more.

  • Parents of Children Ages 0 - Adult/Parenting

  • Families & Couples With Mental Illness/Disability Realities

  • Adolescents and Transitional Age Youth

  • IPV/DV, Coercive Control and Recovery

kat the consultant

Kat also has been a practitioner and scholar in organizational and group dynamics since 2007. In Kat’s multiple leadership and executive roles, they have brought their systems-level analysis to staff and client populations to assist in the successful improvement of operational and clinical processes, in addition to more satisfied and retained staff teams and client milieux. Kat also brings inclusive, equitable, just and diverse analyses and practices to her engagement in all consulting.

Kat has served in management and executive positions in complex treatment and staff environments, in both corporate and non-profit settings. At Ride The Wave, Kat has been providing fractional, project-based, or ongoing consultation to individuals and treatment centers to assist with organizational dynamics, process improvement, business development, leadership development, strategic planning, program design and implementation, compliance and quality improvement design and implementation, and communication.

additional info…

kat the human

In her spare time, Kat loves to geek out on a variety of topics usually concerning human behavior, zeitgeists, pop culture, quantum physics and related sci-fi, and music. Kat loves to hang out and hike with their dog-daughter Tessa, chill with friends for life and family, and otherwise unwind through the senses/lounge epically.

kat is a member of:

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)