Postdoctoral Fellow
Anxiety Center
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Zaizar is a postdoctoral fellow in the Anxiety Center. He provides treatment for the full range of anxiety-related concerns including panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety, health anxiety, specific phobias, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety with co-occurring depression. He strives to provide individually-tailored psychotherapy while fostering an authentic, warm, and collaborative therapeutic relationship.
Dr. Zaizar earned both his undergraduate degree in psychology and his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a member of the Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders (LSAD) at UT, where he was mentored by internationally recognized experts in the treatment of anxiety-related disorders. His graduate research focused on applying findings from neuroscience toward the treatment of anxiety.
In addition to working in multiple anxiety and OCD specialty clinics throughout his doctoral training, he also counseled asylum seekers and refugees at the Center for Survivors of Torture (CST) who were diagnosed with PTSD connected to torture, persecution, and genocide. He later went on to complete his clinical psychology internship at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle Division, where his training focused on helping Veterans with anxiety and mood disorders, OCD, and PTSD.
Dr. Zaizar has advanced training in exposure therapy, including home visits, out of office exposure sessions, and guided telehealth sessions to practice science-based exercises to overcome anxiety. He also has broader training in several other cognitive-behavioral approaches such as behavioral activation (BA) for depression, cognitive processing therapy (CPT) for PTSD, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) principles, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
Dr. Zaizar is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the International Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Foundation (IOCDF). He is a licensed psychologist in the state of Washington and is also a member of PSYPACT with authority to practice interjurisdictional telepsychology (APIT).
