Hey there, I’m Kim.
I'm a UX designer, Squarespace developer, and the founder of Tiny Zen Studio. I'm also a first-year CMHC graduate student at Antioch New England, working toward my license as a clinical counselor in California.
I built this studio for therapists. Not because I am one. Or becoming one. And I know exactly what it feels like to be a clinician with deep training, a clear vision for your practice, and no idea how to make it visible.
The real story.
I'm 54. I live and work in Los Angeles, California. I work as a direct support professional at a nonprofit serving people with developmental disabilities while simultaneously pursuing a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. I am paying for this degree with federal loans while living paycheck to paycheck .
I'm telling you this not for sympathy, but for context. Because when I say I understand financial pressure, I mean it directly. When I say I understand what it costs to build something real while working a full-time job and studying for a demanding degree, I am not speaking theoretically.
I have spent twenty years in Vipassana meditation practice. I have sat over a dozen 10-day silent retreats in the Goenka tradition, including one just recently. I have traveled to India four times, each time for a year, drawn by the intersection of yoga, meditation, and documentary photography. That practice is not a credential I list. It is the lens through which I see everything, including this work.
My clinical orientation is depth-oriented. I am drawn to the intersection of Buddhist psychology and contemporary approaches like IFS, somatic awareness, and psychoanalytic thought. I plan to practice in Los Angeles, working with people navigating complex, long-standing patterns of suffering. That is the work I am building toward.
And while I build toward it, I am building this.
Why this studio exists for therapists
Most web designers who work with therapists understand websites. They do not understand the licensing journey, the clinical identity questions, the business acumen gap, or what it actually costs to go independent in California.
I understand all of it. Not from the outside looking in, but from inside the same process.
I know what it feels like to have a specific clinical vision and no idea how to communicate it online. I know what it feels like to look at Rula or BetterHelp and think, maybe this is just easier. I know the gap between finishing a graduate program and opening a practice that actually reflects the work you trained to do.
That gap is what Tiny Zen Studio exists to close.
I bring twenty years of experience in UX design, front-end development, and systems thinking. I bring formal training from CareerFoundry. I bring two decades of retail management experience, including P&L responsibility, team leadership, and revenue growth, the unglamorous business acumen that most clinicians never got a chance to develop.
And I bring the fact that I am building my own version of this exact thing.
What I actually build
I build web presences for therapists who want to practice on their own terms.
That means a website that communicates your clinical identity clearly enough that the right clients recognize themselves in it before they ever reach out. It means positioning that reflects the actual depth of your training, not a generic therapist profile. It means copy that sounds like you, not like a brochure.
I work primarily with three kinds of people.
Therapists-in-training who are building their foundation before graduation, because they refuse to arrive at licensure with nothing in place. Newly licensed therapists who are at the fork between platform work and independent practice, and want to build something of their own. And established practitioners whose online presence no longer reflects where they are or who they serve.
If you are in any of those places, we should talk.
The design approach
I work primarily in Squarespace because it gives clinicians the autonomy to manage their own sites after handoff. Clean, modern, easy to maintain. No developer dependency, no monthly agency retainer to keep the lights on.
I am not interested in building websites that look impressive in a portfolio screenshot and confuse the person who has to live with them. I am interested in building something that works. For your clients, for your positioning, and for your daily reality as someone running a practice.
I use AI tools strategically throughout the design and content process. This does not mean your website will sound like it was written by AI. It means the research, strategy, and iteration that used to take weeks can now happen in days, and that efficiency gets passed directly to you in terms of timeline and cost.
Elsewhere
When I'm not designing or studying, I'm usually behind a camera. I have a documentary and street photography practice that has taken me across India four times and through much of the world. My photography Instagram, @indiatraveladventure, is a record of that particular obsession. I am in the process of picking up a Fuji X100VI and returning to street photography in Los Angeles, which feels like the right next chapter.
I love to write. Poetry, essays, long-form pieces about the intersection of practice and daily life. That love of writing is visible in everything I build. The copy on a therapy website is not filler. It is what makes or breaks whether a client recognizes themselves and reaches out.
I am also, slowly and intentionally, becoming a therapist. I expect to graduate in approximately two years, complete my supervised hours as an APCC, and open a private practice in Los Angeles focused on depth-oriented work at the intersection of Buddhist psychology and contemporary relational approaches. I will build that practice infrastructure the same way I am building this one. In public. Step by step.
Let's work together
If you are a therapist who knows what kind of practice you want to build and needs someone to help you build the presence that makes it possible, I want to hear from you.
If you are a counseling student or APCC who wants to start building before graduation, the free Practice Launch Checklist is the right place to start.
And if you just want to follow along while I build this in public, the blog is the place for that.
Either way — welcome. I'm glad you're here.
Not sure where to start?
Download the free Practice Launch Checklist — everything a new or nearly-licensed therapist needs to build their practice foundation before they're overwhelmed by it.