Zae Palmer, LMFT | Wild Heart Therapies
Welcome
Amongst the myriad of transitions that have occurred in the last several years, you and your beloveds have faced many struggles and challenges. The weight of the unraveling culture and climate may leave you disillusioned and feeling hopeless. The pressures of these changes have likely seeped into your relationships both romantic and familial.
Where exactly did everything start to shift? How did this conflict become a norm? What purpose does it serve? What am I suppose to learn as a partner or parent, sibling, child or neighbor? And how can I truly honor the grief and joy interwoven throughout this one wild life?
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These questions and many more will be explored through an atmosphere of loving awareness. In this intimate space, we will laugh, cry, and move with compassion as we cultivate the wise healer within.
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At Wild Heart Therapies, I provide Adlerian Depth Psychotherapy, Somatic Process Work, Positive Discipline, Ecotherapy, Meditations, Sandtray Play Therapy, and Grief Ceremonies. You will gain insight into movement patterns and attune to your wild heart through poetry, music, art, & dance, and foster imagination for any situation.
All are welcome and the journey of you, your partner, or your child will be held with care and grace.
Meet Zae
LMFT & Ecotherapist
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Zae Palmer (he/they) is a Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). Zae specializes in parenting, parent-child issues, sibling relationships, multigenerational family dynamics, and lifespan transitions.They have a particular interest in childhood trauma, spiritual trauma, grief and loss, identity formation, consensual non-monogamy, and sexual health. They see problems as purposeful creative adaptations to a family system, however these patterns often come from generational patterns that may no longer suit the current needs of the family or relationship. They are trained in Symbolic Experiential, Narrative, Contextual, and Feminist Family Therapy, Adlerian Play Therapy, Positive Discipline, and Depth Psychology.
Zae is democratic and promotes mutual respect in the culture of the therapy room. They feel that everyone's contribution is important to the process of unfolding and reforming relational patterns. With Zae you will gain insight, practice role flexibility, and attune to the emotional interplay of the relationship. Zae is dedicated to cultivating a culturally attuned atmosphere understanding that each individual is socially embedded and holds both positions of privilege and oppression.
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Ecotherapist
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Zae provides Ecotherapy sessions at Chicago's Lakefront and West Ridge Nature Preserve. They are trained in Nature-Based interventions and has a special interest in helping clients with their sense of environmental belonging. Ecotherapy is an affective method for anxiety, stress and emotional regulation, decreasing depression and loneliness, and addressing phobias. Learn more on the Ecotherapy page.
Scholarship
Zae holds an M.A. in Couple and Family Therapy from Adler University (Chicago, IL) and a B.A. in Psychology and Intercultural Studies from Houghton University (Houghton, NY). In 2023, Zae started teaching Adlerian Fundamentals and Interventions at Adler University and is in collaboration with the Director of the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship pursuing publication on Environmental Feeling and Environmental Interest in the Journal of Individual Psychology. Zae is a member of Delta Kappa, the International Marriage and Family Therapy Honors Society and KPACT, the Kink and Poly Aware Chicago Therapists.
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"Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life"
-Mary Oliver
Let's Connect
In-Person: Andersonville, Chicago
Virtually: Serving Illinois & New York
Monday - Friday
8:00am - 4:30pm
A Wild Heart
It takes a Wild Heart to live in this world.
The kind that sings at sundown,
dances with pain,
grieves into growth,
and slows down enough to
find breath amongst the constant rush of modern life.
A Wild Heart lets control go
allows the internal and relational to unfold.
It craves awareness
and participates in the world with
agency, accountability, and solidarity.
A Wild Heart is bold and courageous,
piercing barriers that challenge
movement towards
your sweet wild self.