Mimi Zora, AMFT

Psychotherapist

(She/Her)

I’m interested in the stories we inherit about who we are and how life is supposed to go. Part of my own story is growing up a first-generation Slovak American, navigating the space between my family’s culture and the one outside our home. Questions of identity, belonging, and what gets carried from one generation to the next have always felt personal to me.

Before becoming a therapist, I explored many of those questions through creative work. I spent over two decades working in film and TV, where I found myself more interested in the inner lives of characters than in plot twists. Add to that motherhood, which deepened my curiosity about how our earliest relationships shape us. That same curiosity now informs my work as a therapist and my belief that understanding ourselves more deeply can give us greater freedom in how we live.

People come to therapy for many different reasons. You may feel stuck, overwhelmed, or ready for a change. Maybe your relationships aren’t as fulfilling or connected as you would like them to be. Or maybe you can’t quite name what’s wrong yet. That’s enough of a reason to reach out.

Together, we can look at what stories have shaped you, what patterns keep repeating, and what might open up new ways of relating to yourself and others.

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.

My theoretical 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. We’ll also 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. Therapeutic inquiry can lead to deeper questions around meaning, freedom, and mortality. This is the stuff that warrants unpacking with someone else, not on a loop in your head at 3am.

I want therapy to be a place where you can speak freely and bring in the parts of yourself that may not feel welcome everywhere else. 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.

Services & Areas of Focus

I work with individual adults, teens and couples facing a wide range of challenges. I welcome people of all identities, backgrounds, and forms of self-expression. Some areas of focus might include:

  • Depression, anxiety, and trauma

  • Major life transitions

  • Relationships and family dynamics

  • Identity development

  • Fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum

  • Parenting and caregiving

  • Sex, intimacy, and alternative relationship structures

  • Cross-cultural identity and immigration

  • Creative blocks, work stress, and burnout

Training & Credentials

License

  • Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT), #160184

  • Supervised by Jonathan Moss, LMFT, #89997

Education

  • MA Clinical Psychology, Antioch University, Los Angeles

  • BFA Film and Television, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts

Clinical Work Experience

  • Private Practice: Amphora Psychotherapy

  • Community Mental Health: Access Institute for Psychological Services; Community Institute for Psychotherapy

  • School Based Therapy: Miller Creek Middle School (San Rafael); Hillcrest Elementary School (San Francisco)

Professional Affiliations

  • California Association of Marriage and Family Therapy

  • Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California

  • Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology