About
I am Z. Hamilton Avery, LCSW, BC-TMH, CMT, CYT-1,000, TIYT (he/they), a psychotherapist, clinical social worker, coach, educator, bodyworker, yoga and meditation teacher, and integrative wellness practitioner. For more than 15 years, my professional work has crossed behavioral health, healthcare, crisis services, coaching, education, bodywork, contemplative practices, and integrative wellness.
I approach well-being from a humanistic, person-centered, strengths-based, trauma-informed perspective. The mind and body are often discussed as separate systems, but my work repeatedly brings me to the places where they interact. Stress can be emotional and physical. Trauma can influence thoughts, emotions, behavior, relationships, and bodily responses. Chronic illness and pain can affect identity, mood, relationships, energy, functioning, and everyday life.
My work is evidence-based and research-informed. This includes the complementary and mind-body practices I incorporate. I have spent years reviewing peer-reviewed research and translating that literature into practical, accessible information. I want people to understand not only how to use an intervention, but why it may work. Understanding what helps and why can create greater self-awareness and guide us toward other approaches that may fit.
Through Therapy with Z, LLC, I provide online psychotherapy to adolescents (13+) and adults in Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, and Idaho. I also provide coaching to teens and adults nationwide. Depending on the person and context, my work may incorporate cognitive and behavioral strategies, mindfulness, meditation, self-compassion, grounding, relaxation, somatic practices, values exploration, emotional regulation, and other practical skills.
I approach interventions as opportunities for collaborative exploration rather than prescriptions. People receive information, options, and opportunities to ask questions. We can try something, discuss the experience, understand what helped or did not help, and use that information to guide what comes next.
Beyond individual work, I create classes, workshops, trainings, retreats, presentations, workbooks, manuals, and other educational resources. My educational work translates research into understandable information, practical skills, and experiential learning across mental health, mindfulness, self-compassion, meditation, yoga, chronic illness and pain, stress management, coping skills, complementary and alternative medicine, and integrative wellness. My practice is 2SLGBTQIA+, neurodiversity, and disability affirming.
What sets us apart
My professional background crosses disciplines that are often kept separate. My education spans pre-nursing, psychology, and social work. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Board Certified in Telemental Health. I am also a Certified Massage Therapist, Certified Reiki Master trained across multiple lineages, and Certified Yoga Teacher with more than 1,000 hours of accredited training, much of which I completed in India.
My broader training includes massage therapy, Thai yoga massage, myofascial release, craniosacral therapy, Reiki and energy work, Chinese and Japanese styles of acupuncture, mindfulness, meditation, and Hatha, Kundalini, yin, restorative, and trauma-informed yoga. My clinical background includes outpatient psychotherapy, integrated primary care, community mental health, hospice and end-of-life care, mobile crisis services, 911 emergency communications and first response, school-based services, and health education.
What sets my work apart is not simply the range of disciplines I have studied. I have spent years examining the research behind the approaches I use. I look to peer-reviewed literature, including randomized controlled trials, broader bodies of efficacy research, reviews, meta-analyses, and conclusions from credible professional sources. Different interventions have different amounts and strengths of evidence, and I believe people deserve an accurate understanding of that.
I also believe evidence becomes more useful when people can understand it. I translate research into everyday language rather than expecting clients or participants to have backgrounds in statistics or research methodology. My educational materials bring the research directly into the learning process. People can understand the rationale behind an intervention, consider potential benefits and limitations, ask questions, and make informed choices.
I bring clinical knowledge, healthcare experience, mind-body training, contemplative practices, and integrative wellness perspectives into my work without treating them as interchangeable. Psychotherapy remains psychotherapy. Coaching serves a different purpose. Bodywork, yoga, meditation, Reiki, and other integrative practices have their own contexts.
Across these areas, I value curiosity, transparency, autonomy, informed consent, and practical usefulness. I want people to leave with more than a collection of techniques. I want them to understand themselves more clearly, recognize why certain approaches fit them better than others, and have knowledge they can continue using independently.