With more than 25 years of experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Amy Zauel brings warmth, insight, and a deeply personal understanding to her work with children, teens, adults, and families. She earned her Bachelor of Social Work in 1992 and Master of Social Work in 1994 from Grand Valley State University and has spent her career helping individuals navigate life’s challenges with compassion and practical support.

​

Amy is especially passionate about working with teens and young adults, while also enjoying her work with middle school-aged children and adults navigating midlife transitions. She understands that every stage of life brings unique pressures—from school stress and peer relationships to parenting struggles, divorce, burnout, identity concerns, and major life changes. Her goal is to create a supportive, personalized therapeutic experience where clients feel understood, empowered, and equipped with tools for growth.

​

Amy utilizes a variety of therapeutic approaches tailored to each individual’s needs, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), traditional talk therapy, play therapy, mindfulness practices, and parent coaching. Her areas of focus include anxiety, depression, sports and athletic-related concerns, adoption-related issues, parenting support, postpartum depression, behavioral challenges, life transitions, and divorce recovery.

​

Adoption holds a particularly meaningful place in Amy’s heart, both personally and professionally. As an adoptee herself, she understands the complex emotions that can accompany questions of identity, belonging, and family connection. Her own experience meeting her biological parents during college led her to seek therapy for the first time—an experience that profoundly shaped her understanding of the healing power of counseling. She has since spent more than 30 years working in the adoption field, with extensive experience in international adoption, domestic adoption, and foster care adoption.

​

Amy is passionate about helping clients discover their place in the world, build resilience, establish healthy boundaries, and find healthier ways to cope with stress and life’s obstacles. She also enjoys supporting new parents and sharing practical parenting strategies developed throughout her years of professional and personal experience.

​

Outside of the therapy office, Amy is the proud mother of three adult children and shares her home with two cats and Leader Dogs. A former college athlete, she has a special appreciation for the role sports can play in mental health and personal growth. Amy and her husband love to travel, and in her free time she enjoys golfing in a couples league, gardening, caring for her many houseplants, and unwinding with her guilty pleasure—binge-watching reality television, especially The Real Housewives.