About

Zak Mucha, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst in private practice and president of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. He spent seven years working as the supervisor of an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, providing 24/7 services to persons suffering from severe psychosis, substance abuse issues, and homelessness. Mucha has worked as a counselor and consultant for U.S. combat veterans undergoing training for digital forensic investigations in child pornography.

Before going into the clinical field, Mucha has worked as a freelance journalist, truck driver, furniture mover, construction worker, union organizer, staff member at a juvenile DCFS locked unit, and taught briefly at a women’s prison.

He is the author of Emotional Abuse: A Manual for Self-Defense as well as a collection of poetry, Shadow Box (Albireo MKG, 2019), and a novel, The Heavyweight Champion of Nothing (Dockyard Press, 2021). Swimming to the Horizon: Crack, Psychosis, and Street-Corner Social Work (Koehler, 2024), and The Ambulatorium (PWIC, 2024) are coming soon.