Hi, I’m Tiss.

A super-intuitive psych nerd with a sharp eye for emotional nuance, a knack for spotting harmful relational patterns, and a soft spot for the messy, imperfect parts of others—especially those who are still healing.

We often get stuck in relationships that don’t serve us, whether they’re controlling and abusive or quietly built on denial, fear, and avoidance. I break down what’s going on beneath the surface, and build tools to help you finally do the hard things, and do them without shame. Because guess what?! You’re human.

Photo of Tiss Zaitz standing on a mountaintop in a blue jacket, smiling.

“Drug detox is sheer misery, but it will save your life. The same is true of leaving an unhealthy or unhappy relationship.”

My Core Values

Irreverent Compassion This is about eliminating the shame in screwing up…because we’re all human. It’s about calling people in, then showing up with curiosity and empathy instead of blame and judgment. It doesn't ignore the damage and it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card, but the goal should be healing and connection or healing and closure, but never punishment or shame. Slip in some levity, too, when you can. Serious conversations don’t have to be heavy or hard.

Radical Accountability The secret to inner peace and true connection is taking full, no-excuses ownership of your mistakes, and not just your intentions, but your impact. It’s owning your part without getting defensive, making excuses, or shifting blame. It also means facing your own hard truths, even when it hurts. The truth doesn’t stop being true because you avoid it, but the avoidance tends to hurt people more than the mistake itself.

Clarity over Emotions Don’t believe everything you feel. All emotions are valid, but they aren’t all accurate. What feels true, safe, or right can be misleading. Your nervous system interprets experiences based on how it learned about love and connection in your early years. If that blueprint was shaped by neglect, trauma, inconsistency, or conditional love, what feels safe may be your nervous system misfiring. Clarity can make sense of the confusion.

Education Therapy helps us process emotions and experiences, but it doesn’t always explain how those experiences rewired us. Understanding why we feel a certain way—not the experiences we had, but what those experiences changed in us, is something that’s too often overlooked. It’s why you can know something is wrong, but when it’s happening, it feels right…and what you know goes right out the window.

If you’ve hurt someone you love, own it with radical accountability.

If someone you love has hurt you, approach them with irreverent compassion.

*Approaching with empathy & compassion ≠ excusing or tolerating abusive or harmful behavior. It’s ok to love someone AND leave them if they are hurting you.

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What drives me

It’s watching so many people lose their happiness because one or both are so wounded. I've been on both ends of this, too many times. This is far more common than people realize, because it hides in plain sight.

And for those in more toxic or abusive relationships, it’s helping them see and understand what’s really happening, because so much of the information out there is wrong or oversimplified, and often doing more harm than good.

This is bigger than me

It is fundamentally cruel that because other people failed you, you are wired to tolerate abuse or feel safe in relationships that don’t bring you peace, happiness, or genuine connection, and to sabotage the ones that do. But that’s how trauma works; that’s how trauma begets trauma.

And the only way out? Terrifying, painful choices that usually make things worse—way worse—before they get better. You have to go against your strongest instincts. You have to walk through more pain in order to heal.

My goal is to help others heal their wounds, or at least better understand them, so they can escape the pain and find their way to true inner peace and genuine happiness.