Therapist · educator · founder
Some of our biggest choices are the ones we never realized we made.
I’m Zakiya Muwwakkil Akerele, a therapist, educator, and founder. I’m interested in the patterns, roles, beliefs, and expectations that shape how we live, and what becomes possible when we start choosing more intentionally.
Three ways into the work
The questions overlap. The way we work on them can look very different.
What are you carrying that you stopped noticing?
People often come to therapy because something feels wrong. A relationship. A career. A family dynamic. A belief they can’t quite name.
Sometimes the problem is the thing in front of them.
Sometimes it is a role they have been playing for so long that they forgot they had a choice. A division of labor. An inherited belief. A career built around a degree. A caregiving arrangement nobody ever said out loud.
Seeing the pattern matters. What you do once you see it matters more.
Therapy
Therapy that makes room for the whole picture.
I work with individuals, couples, and families. The work is integrative, collaborative, and practical: we look at what is happening, understand what matters, and figure out what to do with what we learn.
Telehealth across Georgia · Walk-and-talk in South Gwinnett
Founder story
I built something for this.
Nilea is a tool I created around household labor. It helps make the work that keeps a home running easier to see, name, and talk about.
Speaking & teaching
I teach the things I keep seeing.
I speak, lead workshops, teach, and host conversations about the patterns that shape relationships, households, careers, and the stories we tell about who we are supposed to be.
About Zakiya
One person. Several ways of doing the work.
I’m a therapist, educator, and the founder of Nilea. Before becoming a therapist, I spent years teaching and working in education, then stepped away from my professional life for a season to raise and homeschool my children. The different chapters may look unrelated. To me, they aren’t.
Start with the thing you can’t quite name.
You do not need to have the whole story figured out before you reach out.