Katurah Bryant joined Trae Holiday live in studio for The Day With Trae to talk about her creation of The Zola Experience, an innovative approach to therapy that focuses on grief and loss.

“The Zola experience got started through my own experience of loss,” Bryant said. “Your lost loved object can be anything that created a shift in how you see yourself or experience yourself.”

Bryant said a lost loved object, or shift, can be both positive and negative. She brought up examples like having a baby, leaving high school for college and getting married as positive events which can still have large and mixed impacts on an individual.

“We have to figure out how we are going to navigate major life events like that,” Bryant said.

Bryant moved from Nashville to Seattle at seven years old. It was a major adjustment for a young girl, and when Bryant went to register for school in Burien the administrators insisted on calling her Katie because they said was easier for them to pronounce.

“It’s those kinds of experiences that we often don’t lend voice to and that we don’t realize how much they impact us emotionally,” Bryant said.

The Zola experience started in 2012 with a focus on personal losses, helping individuals in stages of grief through the losses of loved ones. Since then, it has expanded to include all forms of loss and adjustment.

“In 2020, the spirit woke me up and said it’s time for you to do Zola and this time you need to give it to the world,” Bryant said. “So I wrote a book.”

Bryant aims to educate individuals from all walks of life to be able to facilitate the Zola groups. She believes that this type of spread will bring the spirit of Zola to a greater audience and allow a greater level of engagment and healing.

If you would like to find out more information about The Zola Experience, click here