Connection is the antidote to collapse.

Stylized illustration of two humans with butterfly masks holding tree branches, with celestial symbols like stars, planets, and moon phases above.

Therapy for the Apocalypse:
Intensives and process groups in Oregon for people navigating existential overwhelm, relational disconnection, and (re)discovering what actually matters when the world is falling apart.

Connection is the
antidote
to collapse.

Stylized illustration of two humans with butterfly masks holding tree branches, with celestial symbols like stars, planets, and moon phases above.

Therapy intensives and process groups in Oregon for people navigating existential overwhelm, relational disconnection, and (re)discovering what actually matters when the world is falling apart.

You’ve been thinking your way through things long enough.

A cartoon illustration of a person sitting inside a cloche, with large tears above them and a sweep of abstract gold paint across the top.

You’re ready for this work if:

  • You’ve hit a wall with weekly therapy

    You’re exhausted from analyzing why you do what you do. You’ve read the self-help books, maybe you’ve even been in therapy for years, and you can name your patterns — but you keep repeating them anyway.

  • The world is falling apart, and you’re supposed to just…keep going?

    You gotta keep working, keep showing up, keep having it together. But how are you supposed to do your assignments, care about your career, or stay invested in your relationships when everything feels impossible?

  • You're in the middle of a major transition right now.

    Coming out, leaving a career, becoming a parent, getting a new diagnosis. You need more than maintenance therapy can offer when the stakes feel this high.

  • You finally have the capacity to make this the priority.

    You’re tired of putting this off, and you’re ready to roll up your sleeves . This isn't something you'll get to "when things calm down" — this is — YOU ARE — the priority.

  • You can explain your patterns perfectly but you can't shift them.

    You live in your head and you're ready to try something experiential instead of intellectual.

You’re ready to feel something new, not just think about it.

Let me help.

Caryn--a white person with pink/green/blue short hair, glasses, and tattoos--stands leaning against a wall with a set of deep red tile stairs behind them. They are wearing a jumpsuit that is half-white half-black and are smiling slightly.

I’m Dr. Caryn Zaner, a licensed psychologist in Oregon. I work with people navigating existential overwhelm, relational disconnection, and the mess of being a human right now.

I don’t rush you toward a sanitized version of yourself, or ‘healing.’ I help people slow down, get curious, and practice connecting — to yourself, to others, and to what actually matters — because connection is how we survive this.

WHAT I OFFER

Illustration of a star with a single eye in the center, surrounded by two hands and decorative floral elements.
Illustration of a star with a single eye in the center, surrounded by two hands and decorative floral elements.

EFiT Therapy Intensives

Stop talking about your feelings.
Start experiencing them.

3-6 hour concentrated sessions for intellectualizers, people making big decisions, or anyone who's hit a wall with weekly therapy.
We slow way down and access the emotions you've been avoiding—fear, rage, grief, whatever's been stuck—and work with them in real-time. No more running out of time just when you're getting somewhere.

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Interpersonal Process Groups

You can't change patterns you can't see. Group makes them visible.

90 minutes of live relational practice, weekly, for ⅓ of what individual therapy costs.
If you people-please, withdraw, perform, or disappear in relationships — this is where you get to be messy, make mistakes, and discover who you are when you're not playing a role. We slow down what's happening between you and others, make the invisible visible, and you practice being yourself.

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Values Alignment Intensives

Navigate your inner compass in a chaotic world.

For people navigating big decisions, values conflicts, or the tension between what you care about and how you're actually living. We get curious about what matters underneath all the conditioning, explore where your values might conflict with each other or with the world around you, and practice moving toward what's true for you—even when it's uncomfortable or doesn't make sense to anyone else.

How it Works

  • Schedule a free 20-minute consultation. We'll discuss what you're struggling with, what you're looking for, and whether my approach is a good fit. No pressure to perform or have it all figured out—just an honest conversation about whether we should work together.

  • For ongoing support: Join an interpersonal process group where you'll practice new ways of relating with real people in real-time.

    For concentrated depth work: Book a therapy intensive (EFiT or values-based) for focused, extended sessions that go deeper than weekly therapy allows.

    Explore Groups | Explore Intensives

  • You can actually be with your feelings instead of shutting them down or being overwhelmed by them. You notice your patterns and can try something different. You know what you want and give yourself permission to want it. You can show up authentically instead of performing. You can do all this through collapse — personal, relational, political — without collapsing.

Common Questions

  • I work virtually throughout Oregon — Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend, Corvallis, and beyond. My practice centers queer, trans, disabled, and neurodivergent people, as well as anyone navigating what it means to stay intact while systems demand you stay small. I work with people experiencing burnout from performing someone else's version of success, moral injury from work that conflicts with their values, complex trauma (C-PTSD), anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism spectrum presentations, and relational patterns rooted in survival — people-pleasing, fawning, self-abandonment. This is therapy that won't pathologize your response to circumstances that are genuinely difficult.

  • I'm a licensed clinical psychologist (OR #3466) offering virtual therapy throughout Oregon, including Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend, Corvallis, and beyond. All sessions are conducted via secure telehealth.

  • I offer group therapy, therapy intensives (EFiT and values-based), and relational intensives for couples or close relationships. I am not currently accepting new clients for ongoing weekly individual therapy.

  • I am an out-of-pocket provider, but can provide superbills for potential reimbursement if your plan covers out-of-network providers. I also offer sliding scale fees and accept HSA/FSA cards.

  • My work is relational, attachment-based, and politically aware. I use emotionally focused therapy (EFiT), existential-humanistic approaches, and group process. This isn't therapy focused on managing symptoms or teaching you to cope better with unbearable circumstances; rather, it's about stopping the performance of okay-ness and living by what's actually true for you.

  • When in my doctoral training program, I continually encountered clients, particularly young adults (ages 18 - 26ish), filled with existential overwhelm, concern about escalating political crises, and fear about ongoing climate damage. I realized at that time that while DBT skills were helpful for getting folks stabilized, they didn’t answer many clients’ driving concern: how do I create a life worth living when the world is on fire? I turned to existential-humanistic therapy orientations at that time and found it to be invaluable for my ability to just sit in the shit with people and help folks feel some catharsis and autonomy.

    When I graduated mid-2020, we were still reeling from early lockdown and pandemic traumas; George Floyd had just been murdered by empire; Black, Brown, and queer people were routinely targeted, harassed, and harmed; that summer the sky in Portland stayed a sickly peachy-orange as fires raged around Oregon, Washington, and California, and I worked with clients actively evacuating their homes. It felt truly apocalyptic, and once again I found my prior training had truly not prepared me for living through unprecedented times with no end in site. Although I now rely more on emotionally- and interpersonally-focused approaches to therapy as opposed to purely existential ones, the idea of providing therapy during the apocalypse stuck.

    I also figured a name like that will weed out the people who do not align with my work (:

Ready to Start?

The world is on fire. You still deserve to get in touch with who you are and what matters to you. You still deserve connection, authenticity, and the permission to be messy and be human.

Fill out a brief CONSULTATION REQUEST FORM and I'll follow up to schedule a free 20-30 minute Zoom call. You don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to start.

Text in a curved shape that reads 'Looking for something outside of therapy?'

Through Felt Not Fixed, I offer values-based coaching, community support groups, and virtual workshops designed for growth beyond the clinical therapy framework.

I am also available for consulting, speaking engagements, trainings, and collaborative projects.

Collaborative Depth
Work