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Zillah Hodgkins
About
Hi, I’m Dr. Z, a licensed clinical psychologist in California. I’m naturally curious about people and have always been fascinated by the different experiences, strengths, and characteristics that make each of us who we are. One of my favorite parts of being a psychologist is helping people answer questions they may have had about themselves for years and better understand why certain obstacles can feel particularly difficult to overcome—learning the “why” behind why am I like this?
Often, the ways we have learned to think, feel, and respond make sense when we understand the experiences that shaped them. Those same experiences can also be sources of resilience, strength, and tremendous growth.
I believe the assessment process should feel collaborative, comfortable, and human. My goal is for you to leave with a deeper understanding of yourself, including the strengths you may not have recognized along the way.
Outside of psychology, I’m a creative person at heart. I enjoy writing children’s books and making pottery. Creativity and curiosity are important parts of my life, and I bring both into the way I approach my work.
I believe there is something incredibly powerful about better understanding ourselves. Learning about ourselves is a never-ending process. As we grow and have new experiences, the way we understand ourselves can grow and change too.
We often spend years developing explanations for why we think, feel, or respond in certain ways, and those explanations are not always particularly kind. Having an opportunity to explore those questions with curiosity and compassion can help us see ourselves differently.
That is what I value most about psychological assessment. It gives us an opportunity to put some of the pieces together—to better understand how our experiences, personalities, abilities, and ways of interacting with the world have shaped who we are today.
For me, assessment is about much more than arriving at a diagnosis. A diagnosis can provide answers and open doors to helpful resources, but it does not define you. I hope the assessment process gives you greater clarity, helps you recognize strengths you may have overlooked, and offers new ways of understanding yourself as you continue to learn and grow.
I approach assessment as something we do together. Testing and questionnaires can give us valuable information, but they are only part of the picture. I also want to understand your experiences, what you enjoy, your strengths, what comes naturally to you, what may require more effort, and the questions that brought you to assessment in the first place.
My role is to bring those pieces together and help make sense of what we learn. I want you to understand not only what your results show, but how they connect to your experiences and what they may help explain about the way you think, feel, learn, and interact with the world.
Most importantly, I want the information we discover to be useful to you. My goal is for you to leave the process with meaningful answers, a clearer understanding of your strengths, greater compassion for the obstacles you have encountered, and information you can use as you continue to learn and grow.
