Kandace Zulak

My Story

Hello and welcome, I can understand that this step for seeking support can activate so many emotions, maybe you’re here on your own or have been heavily encouraged by people in your life for whichever reason, I’m glad you’re here. My desire to become a therapist came from my lived experience in communities where there was shame and stigma surrounding emotions and mental health and where connection was desired and longed for but not always available. My journey began working in in-patient facilities providing case management, community substance treatment centers as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor providing individual and group counseling and recovery support/planning, and within the health department in partnership with the public-school systems to provide psychoeducation and substance support/nicotine cessation. 

I enjoy working with individuals who are deeply disconnected to their emotions and who struggle with emotional awareness, the hot term of “avoidantly attached” individuals. I enjoy working with individuals who are seeking relational healing and who struggle to connect to people in their lives who matter most, exploring repair with self and others, and establishing a secure connection to the authentic self. We are beings that survive and thrive in connection and many of our learned strategies may come from our early life experiences and may no longer serve us in a helpful way. I utilize Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) to explore, understand, and gain insight into our emotional experiences, which are very often rooted in our past relationships, attachment patterns, and life events. From this we can gain a more secure and healthy sense of self, learn emotional regulation or expression in constructive way. In addition to EFIT I utilize an attachment lens along with somatic awareness to aid in our mind body awareness/connection. 

In addition to individual work, I enjoy working with couples who have found themselves feeling “stuck” in a cycle of conflict, rupture, and disconnect. I believe deeply in our ability to shift our “stuck” cycles, repair, and reconnect with our most cherished relationships. When we attune to these important relationships there is great power in this shared healing, connecting, and communicating our needs and attachment longings and have them be heard and validated. My goal is to provide a safe space to explore, slow down, repair, and communicate our needs in a healing and helpful way to honor our most cherished relationships. For couples work I also utilize Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) to help clarify and organize the inner world while exploring the problem which is the ridged pattern that is no longer serving the individual or couple. Shifting this pattern can foster and create safety to lean into vulnerability and communicate differently than what our “stuck” cycle tells us we should. 

I approach my work from a person-centered and trauma-informed lens while occasionally utilizing components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), along with Polyvagal Theory. I have completed the Essentials training of Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) and will be furthering that process to become certified as an EFIT therapist along with EFT couples training. I have received additional education regarding trauma and completed a trauma certificate at Lenoir-Rhyne University. I am a dually licensed substance use counselor. 

When I’m not working, I can be found spending time with my husband, daughter, and coaching youth sports. 

I specialize in:

• Couples

• Individuals

• Parenting Concerns

• Substance Use

• Relationship Concerns

• Life Transitions

• Identity Formation