Ride The Wave Recovery: Professional Clinical Counselor PC

12/15/2022

Ride The Wave Recovery rarely uses Facebook, as you can tell. :)

That said, Founder & Owner Kat Zwick has slowly slowly slowly downsized RtW as RtW's Fellows have naturally graduated over the last 2 years and moved on to their next adventures in the mental health space. Kat Zwick has now returned to being an independent provider and their private practice remains Ride The Wave Recovery.

Kat has transitioned their clinical emphasis away from process-/attachment-oriented and trauma counseling and now offers solutions-oriented therapy in two avenues. Individually, they offer ADHD/AuDHD/ Executive Functioning solutions-oriented therapy through a neurodivergent-affirming and social justice framework. And they offer advanced DBT solutions. They particularly specialize in working with LGBTQ folx seeking these services.

Kat continues to offer their 2SLGBTQIA 22-week DBT Mindfulness & Skills Group Series. Their next series starts in February 2023. This series is now predominantly neuroqueer. It is neurodivergent-affirming and rather deconstructionist in its approach to DBT, while retaining the helpful bones of DBT.

Please feel free to check out the website to stay current on RtW's offerings, and the best way to contact Kat for services is at admin@ridethewaverecovery.com

06/07/2020

Dear Recovery Community,

I join you in mourning, rage, and action.



The number of people to name that deserve justice is quite high.

I join you in mourning, rage, and action.

Black Lives Matter, since its inception after the murder of Trayvon Martin, has been working and inspiring others to work. Countless POC-led organizations, movements, and people have been invested in dismantling white supremacy for hundreds of years, before that and since.

The work is a marathon, not a sprint. The work is always needed. The work will not end when the protests do. The work was here before me, it's not about me, and it will be here long after me.

This moment is not my moment to shine as a white ally. While I want to be transparent with you all about where I stand, as the Founder & Executive Director of RtW, I find it most important to continue to center Black Lives in this moment. This letter is where I landed.

I stand with those who call for:

The END of racially motivated, state-sanctioned violence against Black people.

The END of the militarization of police and policing.

The REDISTRIBUTION of our tax dollars away from policing and towards the funding of social services that uplift and assist people of color rather than jail and kill them.

The END of the school-to-prison pipeline.

The END of voter suppression and disenfranchisement.

We as an organization support the Movement for Black Lives.

We grieve the deaths of too many Black and Brown people in this country, and I continue to be committed to my part in the fight against racism.

If you are interested in what RtW has done, is doing, and will do in the fight against racism in this country and at our organization, I will send another statement out about that in the coming weeks.

From my perspective, it felt most important to first center the lives of those who are unjustly hunted and killed in this country, to center the movement and the work.

In solidarity and in the work,

Kat.

Dear Recovery Community, I join you in mourning, rage, and action.  The  number of people to name  that deserve justice is quite high.  I join you in mourning, rage,

04/07/2020

Ride The Wave Recovery has been offering teletherapy since 3/9 and transitioned to video-only therapy as of 3/11. Read more about our therapeutic offerings amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We are here for you.

Hello to prospective clients: RtW has been offering teletherapy since March 9th and transitioned to video-only teletherapy as of March 11th, out of concern for the health of clients, staff, and our communities in Santa Cruz and Oakland and the surrounding areas. All RtW therapists are currently o

01/14/2020

The show “The Biggest Loser” is returning to television. I have a hard time believing it. But/& it’s true.

This article from Medium is a searing look at the show and at extreme dieting and fatphobia- and the negative consequences to our minds and bodies that can occur when we subject ourselves to not only the principles this show espoused but also to the show itself.

Hard pass, over at here RtW.

Content warning: multiple disturbing fatphobic comments, descriptions of methods of disordered eating and exercise, descriptions of adverse health effects of contestants on the show and adverse health effects of disordered eating and exercise

On the eve of its return, the show is still haunted by disturbing reports from former contestants & criticism from medical professionals

10/31/2019

Read this!

It is becoming more common to see folks proclaiming “diets don’t work”. But it seems to me that that statement is missing the point. It is missing the nuance.

What do we mean by “work”?

*Because most (not all, but many) folks do actually lose weight when they restrict their food intake (aka diet).
*Because many folks experience improvements in their health conditions when they diet.
*Because many folks feel better about themselves and more connected to their community when they diet.

Except.
Except those signs of dieting “working” are temporary.
*Because most folks regain at least the weight they lost and most of those folks regain even more by 2-5 years after starting the diet.
*Because health improvements that occurred early in a diet have often disappeared within the 1st year of starting the diet.
*Because folks who diet tend to have greater body dissatisfaction, lower self esteem, increased risk of developing an eating disorder, and increased anxiety and depression then folks who do not diet regardless of their weight.

So diets work temporarily. And then they stop working.
Then our weight centric healthcare system,
Our white supremacist, eurocentric beauty ideals,
Our capitalistic drive to preform,
Our sexist double standards,
Our ableist expectations,
Etc.
Convince us that when the diet stops working, that it is us (the dieter) who failed.
And then the cycle continues.
Billions of dollars get deposited into the weight cycling industry pockets ( ).
And the repeat costumers who blame themselves for failing keep on coming back.
Because in our fatphobic society, it is safer to be stuck on this hamster wheel of dieting, then to exist, content, in a fat body.

Diets work to distract us.
Diets work to quiet us.
Diets work to shrink the space we believe we deserve to take up in this world.

And that doesn’t work for me.
And that doesn’t have to work for you.
There is another way to care for yourself, your body, your mind, without having to shrink.

09/02/2019

We are set up in OAKLAND! Happy Labor Day and we are now open for business in the Rockridge hood!

08/14/2019

We are so excited to announce that RtW is expanding to OAKLAND, CA!

We are very excited to announce that Ride The Wave Recovery is expanding to Oakland, CA! As of September 1, we will be able to see clients of all genders recovering from eating disorders, addictions, codependency and trauma in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. We are so stoked! Email admin@ride

06/04/2019

Please check out our exciting new announcements!

New staff, new groups, and a letter from the owner!

02/12/2019

"NEDA Week is coming up. What will you do to celebrate recovery and choosing life?

I will be attending a week-long professional conference in LA during NEDA Week, with total freedom around food. I don't even think about 'what food will be there?' This is something to celebrate!

I recall a conference almost exactly 10 years ago that I was on staff for. I was in the last months of being in an active eating disorder that I'd struggled on and off with since I was 5 years old. I was so consumed by obsessive thoughts about the food at the conference that was being served and my body shape and size that I missed out on present and meaningful connections with other people at the conference. I missed out on the conference itself, really.

I am so grateful that isn't the case today and grateful to celebrate almost 10 years of abstinence from eating disorder behaviors (it'll be 10 years on the mark in May). Living my life to its fullest is how I celebrate recovery."

-Kat Zwick, Owner