About Zina
Zina Mercil is a licensed professional counselor who helps adults facing stress, anxiety, grief, and major life changes. She focuses on practical steps people can take to feel steadier and more in control. Her work often centers on issues related to career and compassion fatigue, and she supports people coping with chronic illness, caregiver strain, and end-of-life concerns.
She combines talk-based work with body-aware methods drawn from somatic therapy and mindfulness.
Background and approach
This means sessions include attention to physical sensations, breath, and grounding practices alongside reflection and problem-solving. Zina also uses ideas from attachment-based approaches and dialectical behavior therapy to help people improve relationships and manage intense emotions. With ten years of experience, Zina draws on real-world knowledge of workplace stress, burnout, and the pressures faced by high-achievers.
She helps clients reduce self-criticism, clarify values, and explore purpose and career direction. Conversations often move between practical skill-building and exploring deeper meaning when life shifts feel overwhelming. Her background includes focused work with aging and geriatric issues, cancer and hospice concerns, fertility and caregiver stress, and long-term pain or disability.
These areas shape her sensitivity to medical and life-stage challenges that change daily routines and sense of self. Sessions are offered in English and are provided from Colorado. Zina uses a combination of video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so people can choose what fits their schedule and comfort.
Approaches that connect mind and body in online therapy
Somatic-informed work pays attention to physical sensations and how the body holds stress. It can help when anxiety or grief shows up as tightness, breath changes, or tension, and the therapist uses simple practices to increase bodily awareness and ease discomfort.Attachment-based work looks at how past relationships shape current connections and trust. This approach helps people name patterns in relationships, improve communication, and feel safer naming needs and boundaries.
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, focuses on practical skills for handling strong emotions and improving problem-solving. It offers step-by-step tools for distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and clearer decision-making when life feels chaotic.
Finding the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss your goals, preferences, and history and together you will try methods that feel useful. Adjustments are normal, and the plan evolves as needs change.
Online sessions are offered by video, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging, which makes it easier to fit therapy into busy schedules. These formats let people practice skills between meetings and stay connected from home or while traveling. Flexibility in how and when to meet can support steady progress while working around medical care, work, or caregiving responsibilities.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Colorado
- Languages
- English