Zena Carlota, AMFT
Associate Marriage & Family Therapist
Offering Individual and Partners Therapy for Adults
License #129203 (Supervised by Liz Tong, LMFT)
How I Can Help
There are times when you may find yourself standing on the outside, looking in, and no longer able to see yourself in the world you created…
You may struggle with feelings of unworthiness, isolation, and disconnection from the life you’ve built, relationships you’ve chosen, or are carrying grief from the past or recent present that you cannot seem to let go of. Or maybe you are looking for support and grounded ways to integrate the new psychic awareness or spiritual transformation you are experiencing?
My clients are people who are searching for their authentic voice, yearn to reconnect to their intuition and ancestral wisdom, and create a sense of home in their bodies and lives. I offer a space to cultivate true belonging and discernment with creative tools to help build a bridge between the life you have and the life you are dreaming of.
Educated & Experienced
I am an intuitive, holistic, expressive arts-based psychotherapist who integrates ancestral healing arts, spiritual practice and somatic awareness with clinical interventions to help weave a bridge between the world of Spirit and psychotherapy.
My clinical training at CIIS took place under licensed supervision as a graduate intern with the Art Therapy Institute of North Carolina (ATI). During my time there, I co-facilitated groups and saw individual children and adult clients who primarily came from families of color, as well as refugee and immigrant communities who were transitioning to living in the United States.
EDUCATION & WORK BACKGROUND
California Institute of Integral Studies - MA in Counseling Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapist, Certificate in Black Psychology
Antioch University - BA in Environmental Studies
My Specialties
I specialize in working with women and femme-identified people, first generation, immigrant and refugee communities, sex positive and polyamorous relationships, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and creatives. I acknowledge how systemic oppression and violence affects these communities and hold a loving container for your experience.
I support clients with:
Depression
Anxiety
Individual and Generational Trauma
Isolation
Grief
Life Transitions
Psychedelic and Spiritual Integration
Self Regulation
Self-Esteem
Creative and Emotional blocks
Intimate Relationships, Dreamwork
My Style
I am an artist, storyteller and musician inspired by folk medicine, Afro-Indigenous healing arts practices, earth-based wisdom traditions and psychodynamic theory. In our work, we uncover the roots of your feelings and choices, unearth the seeds that have sprouted in your world, and tend to the landscape of your life with love, attention and care.
My approach is based in Jungian psychology with a focus on the subconscious and the symbolic; expressive arts therapy which combines talk therapy with imagery, art making, dreamwork, storytelling, movement and sound to help communicate what exists beyond words; attachment theory which explores early childhood relationships and emotionally focused therapy which helps to build intimacy and vulnerability between partners. I view healing through a collective lens and am involved in community-based healing arts practices that focus on transformation within individuals and groups in relation to each other, the animal world and the earth.
Together we will explore the unconscious lands of your feelings and choices, examine the invisible patterns that have influenced your life, while using the creative tools of imagery, dreamwork, ritual, somatics, symbolism and storytelling to cultivate connection, self awareness and empowerment, choose your next steps with clarity and live your life with freedom.
Specialized Training:
Jungian/Analytic Psychology: Jungian psychology seeks to reveal the unconscious patterns of behavior, beliefs, and becoming that amplify or inhibit our healing, and unfoldment by illuminating the unseen forces that animate our lives.
Expressive Arts Therapy: Arts-based therapies give a physical form to emotions that are sometimes repressed by the conscious mind. Ancestral arts practices of Sound Healing, Plant Medicine, Music, Movement, Storytelling and Myth, Dance, Imagery, Art making, and earth-based rituals can help to create paths of reflection, healing, and transformation beyond language.
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a therapy that focuses on adult relationships and attachment/bonding. Together, we look at patterns in relationships and take steps to create a more secure bond and develop more trust to move the relationship in a healthier, more positive direction.
Dreamwork: Dreamwork involves retrieving images, symbols, colors, shapes, and sensations from the dream world to cultivate and relate to in the waking world with the intention of understanding what can be learned from them. Dreamwork is an invitation to dialogue with these energies, made visible and tangible through the gifts of sleep.
Guided Imagery: a somatic visualization technique that focuses on translating the contents of one’s unconscious mind into stories, images and symbols. This process can help build a bridge between the conscious mind and the unconscious.