About
Zakiya Muwwakkil Akerele
Hi, I’m Zakiya. I’m a psychotherapist working with individuals, couples, and families who want to feel better within themselves and within their relationships, especially when life has become heavy, stressful, or disconnected.
I hold a Master of Family Therapy from Mercer University School of Medicine, where I trained in family systems, relational dynamics, and mental wellness. Before that I earned a Ph.D. and three master’s degrees across philosophy, religion, and education, and spent sixteen years as a university professor, community school director, researcher, and author. My book Dump Your Degree helped early-career professionals align their education with work that actually mattered to them.
That interdisciplinary background is not a detour. It is why I look past surface-level symptoms and into the wider context: your relationships, your roles, your family patterns, and the meanings you have had to make along the way.
It is also what led me to build something. I developed the Balancing Acts Framework to make household labor visible enough that couples can actually divide it, and Nilea, the app that delivers it. It started as a design project and turned into the research that sent me back to school.
I am a homeschooling mom of two, and that keeps me grounded in the real dynamics that shape families: communication under pressure, emotional labor, shifting roles, and the work of building a home that holds up.
My approach is warm, collaborative, and practical. We look at patterns with clarity, build tools you can use in real life, and move at a pace that feels supportive.
I see therapy clients through Cardinal Counseling Group by telehealth across Georgia and in person in South Gwinnett County. I am pre-licensed and practice under the administrative direction of Charlie Luther, LPC, NCC, and the clinical supervision of Dr. Amanda Nicholson, LMFT. I run educational intensives on household equity through Nilea, and I speak and teach on the invisible load.