Mary Kay Zayani, LCSW

Mary Kay Zayani is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of experience providing psychotherapy and counseling. She holds a Master of Social Work in Clinical Social Work Clinical Counseling from Columbia University in New York and practices with the credential LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker, licensed in both California and New York.

She developed an early aptitude for listening, soothing, and supporting others, a natural tendency that shaped a long career in mental health. Her work centers on helping people navigate grief and loss, anxiety and depression, relationship and intimacy challenges, parenting concerns, career transitions, addictions, and the emotional fallout of life changes. She also addresses attachment and abandonment issues, body image and self-esteem struggles, codependency, communication problems, divorce and separation, infidelity, loneliness, and a range of family-of-origin dynamics.

Her clinical approach blends strength-based perspectives with cognitive behavioral techniques and psychodynamic insights, supplemented by modalities such as DBT, mindfulness, motivational interviewing, trauma-focused methods, solution-focused work, existential and Jungian ideas, and attachment-based therapy. In session she presents as a neutral, objective, and nonjudgmental witness who listens, validates, soothes, and encourages. Rather than prescribing solutions, she helps clients identify choices and answers from within while working to stabilize emotions, develop self-soothing skills, and challenge unhelpful core beliefs and cognitive distortions.

Mary Kay is known for a warm, empathic style that prioritizes understanding each person’s story and practical strategies for coping and growth. Her experience spans clinical counseling, coaching, and motivational support aimed at helping people regain direction, resilience, and healthier relationships.