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Dry, tall plant with small seed pods growing against a light-colored, slightly textured wall and partially on a stone ledge.

If you’re here, it’s likely something has become too difficult to ignore.

How Therapy Can Help

Life is hard. Therapy won’t change that, but it can help you understand the patterns, defenses, and old stories that keep tripping you up.

And while understanding yourself matters, meaningful change takes more than insight alone. It takes the experience of doing something different, often more than once, within a steady relationship where you can say the uncomfortable thing, contradict yourself, change your mind, and still be taken seriously.

Therapy offers both: a deeper understanding of yourself and a relationship in which new ways of being can take shape.

My Approach

My style is warm, collaborative, non-judgmental, and lovingly direct. I believe humor is a powerful therapeutic tool, so we may laugh together, even when things feel heavy.

I want therapy to be a place where you can speak openly, feel supported, and bring all parts of yourself into the room. For me, that means approaching our work with curiosity and cultural humility, and offering an inclusive, affirming practice that honors the many ways people experience identity and belonging.

Let's Connect
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How We’ll Work Together

I'm an integrative therapist, which is a fancy way of saying I don't think one size fits all. I pull from a range of theoretical influences to create care that feels specific to your needs and supportive of meaningful change.

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Psychodynamic

My foundation is psychodynamic, meaning we'll get into it: early attachment, the unconscious, all the ways your past is quietly (or not so quietly) running your present. This includes looking at what happens between us in the room.

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Systems

We’ll zoom out to think about the bigger picture, the multicultural contexts you're embedded in, because you’re a person in a family, in a society, in a very specific and complicated moment in history.

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Narrative

I'm naturally drawn to the stories we tell about our lives, so we’ll explore your personal narrative, where it comes from, and whether it’s actually serving you today.

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Existential

Therapy often leads to deeper existential questions about meaning, purpose, freedom, isolation, and mortality. This is the stuff that warrants unpacking with someone else, not on a loop in your head at 3am.

Services

I offer weekly psychotherapy for individual adults, teens, and couples. Sessions are held in person and remotely.

  • I work with adults and teens facing a wide range of challenges, and welcome people of all identities, backgrounds, and forms of self-expression. You may know exactly what’s bothering you, or just have a sense that something isn’t working. Individual therapy can help you understand what’s getting in the way, get clear about what you want, and begin making changes that feel possible.

    Some areas of focus might include:

    • Depression

    • Anxiety

    • Grief and loss

    • Major life transitions

    • Relationship and family dynamics

    • Confidence and self-esteem

    • Identity exploration

    • Creative blocks

    • Body image

    • Stress and burnout

    • Caregiving

    • Infertility and perinatal

    • Perfectionism

    • Parent separation, divorce, or blended-family adjustments

  • I work with couples facing a wide range of challenges and welcome all backgrounds, relationship structures, and sexual orientations. My approach to couples work is informed by Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), attachment theory, and family systems theory.

    Some areas of focus might include:

    • Communication

    • Premarital and marital

    • Separation and divorce

    • Sex and intimacy

    • Alternative relationship structures

    • Infidelity

    • Parenting

    • Power imbalances

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A woman with curly red hair smiling at the camera, wearing a white button-up shirt and hoop earrings, in an indoor setting.

About Mimi Zora

I’m an associate marriage and family therapist offering depth-oriented psychotherapy to adults, teens, and couples throughout California.

Before becoming a therapist, I spent over two decades working in film and TV. An early career highlight was writing and directing a film inspired by my upbringing as a first-generation Slovak American. It explored themes of acculturation and identity, subjects close to my heart and still central to how I connect with clients navigating multiple worlds. Another highlight was working on the film Inside Out at Pixar, an experience that deepened my interest in how we process emotion (and now gives me instant street cred when working with kids). Across all my creative work, I was less drawn to plot twists and more to the emotional lives of characters, a pull that eventually led me to the field of psychology.

Becoming a parent also shifted my career focus in a profound way. As a mother of two and daughter to aging parents, I’m navigating the realities of the sandwich generation and have come to understand the emotional impact and complexity of caring for others.

Along with my training, these lived experiences inform my work with clients across the lifespan.

Credentials

I received a BFA in film/TV from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Los Angeles. My postgraduate training in psychodynamic therapy was completed at Access Institute. 

Professional Affiliations

Let’s Connect

I offer a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation where we can talk about what brings you to therapy, answer any questions you have, and see if working together feels like a good fit. If this is something you're interested in, please reach out here.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • I offer both in-person and remote sessions. 

    If you live in the Bay Area, we can meet at my office in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco, at 1738 Union Street: MAP LINK

    I’m also available for telehealth sessions across California.

  • • Individuals, 50min: $200

    • Couples, 50min: $250

    • Couples, 60min: $275

    I have limited openings for sliding scale rates. Please contact me for availability if you’re interested in this option. 

    You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency healthcare services, including psychotherapy.

    For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit this web site: www.cms.gov/nosurprises

  • Therapy is most effective when appointments are treated as a regular commitment. Showing up consistently (and bringing whatever is happening, even when you’re not sure what to talk about) is enough.

    Weekly sessions provide the momentum needed to build trust, understand recurring patterns, and stay connected to the work as it unfolds.

    While most clients meet weekly, there are times when meeting more than once a week can be helpful.

    We’ll work together to find a rhythm that feels supportive and helps you stay engaged.

  • I’m an out-of-network provider and don’t bill insurance directly, but I am able to provide you with a superbill so you can file a claim for partial reimbursement.

    If you have insurance, I encourage you to check the details of your plan, you may be eligible for out-of-network mental health benefits. To determine your reimbursement, ask how many sessions your plan covers, whether it includes a deductible, what percentage your plan reimburses and what the customary rate is for therapy services.

  • I ask for 72 hours notice. Late cancellations or no-shows are charged the full session fee.