ZoË Mulkey, MSW, LCSW

Many people come to therapy feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or uncertain about how to navigate the expectations and responsibilities of daily life. For some, complex trauma and difficult family histories have shaped survival strategies that once helped them cope but now affect their relationships, boundaries, emotional responses, and ability to trust their own decisions. Therapy can offer space to understand where these patterns came from while exploring how they continue to shape your life today.

My approach is direct, grounding, and collaborative. I will help you identify long-standing patterns and contradictions that may no longer be serving you while also slowing down to make space for difficult emotions and the uncertainty that can come with change. Together, we'll work toward strengthening your voice, developing self-validation, and making decisions based on your own needs and values—not simply on what will please everyone else. My goal is not to tell you what the “right” decision is, but to help you trust yourself enough to make choices that are right for you.

Children and teens navigating high-conflict or complex family situations often need support that is both flexible and steady. Whether they are adjusting to divorce, grief, family conflict, or other major life changes, I provide a consistent, predictable space where they can be themselves, explore difficult emotions, and move through therapy at a pace that feels manageable. My approach is steady enough to provide structure, warm enough to create safety, and direct enough to support meaningful change.

Therapy with me may include conversation, play, creativity, and other experiential approaches to help young people express what can sometimes feel difficult to put into words. I work closely with caregivers and other providers to help children and teens build emotional regulation skills, navigate conflict, and develop their own voice. While I will advocate for clients across the systems that impact their lives, my goal is also to help them increasingly advocate for themselves. Together, we work toward sustainable change that extends beyond the therapy room and into the relationships and environments where young people live, learn, and grow.

Families often come to therapy after months or years of feeling stuck in the same patterns, experiencing communication breakdowns, or trying to address the same concerns without meaningful change. Parent-child struggles, high-conflict co-parenting, and highly defiant behaviors can leave families feeling exhausted and disconnected, with everyone focused on being right, maintaining control, or simply trying to win. Together, we'll identify the patterns that keep these cycles going and work toward a shared understanding of what the family is actually trying to achieve.

My approach is direct, relational, and focused on the family as a whole. I will bring honesty and clarity to patterns that have become stuck or avoided while making space for every family member's perspective and ensuring that no single person becomes the sole focus of therapy. Family work is not about identifying one person as the problem; it is about helping everyone recognize how they contribute to the family's patterns and create opportunities for meaningful change. Even when family members cannot agree, therapy can help them move toward the same team, building more sustainable relationships and a shared path forward.