Zac Maag, AMFT

Zac Maag is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Primary Therapist at Engage Young Adult Transitions, where he works with young adults navigating mental health challenges, motivation, executive functioning, relationships, and the transition toward greater independence.

Zac has approximately five years of behavioral health experience across youth residential treatment, adult substance use treatment, outpatient therapy, and young adult transitional care. Across these settings, he has worked extensively with adolescents, emerging adults, young adults, and families.

Zac is particularly interested in helping young adults who feel stuck, struggle to translate insight into action, or have difficulty navigating the growing expectations of adulthood. His clinical work includes anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), autism, executive functioning challenges, and gambling-related concerns.

Zac has completed I-CBT Basic Training through The OCD Training School, with specialized instruction in Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for OCD. He has also completed approximately 30 hours of certificate-based training in gambling counseling and has provided training to Engage staff on OCD and its treatment.

When working with OCD, Zac incorporates principles from I-CBT to help young adults better understand the reasoning processes that can contribute to obsessive doubt and compulsive behavior. His broader therapeutic approach draws from Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Narrative Therapy, and family systems thinking.

Zac views therapy as a collaborative process that begins with understanding what matters to the young adult. He works with clients to identify meaningful values and goals, understand what may be keeping them stuck, and develop practical steps for moving forward.

His therapeutic style is relationship-focused, practical, and collaborative. Zac believes young adults benefit from meaningful autonomy while also developing greater accountability, confidence, and responsibility for their lives. Therapy may include traditional office-based conversations, but he also values walks, activities, and other real-world experiences when they help young adults engage more naturally and apply what they are learning.

At Engage, Zac works within a therapeutic community where treatment extends beyond the individual therapy session. He considers how mental health interacts with family relationships, friendships, technology use, education, employment, routines, community involvement, and daily responsibilities.

Engage’s combination of therapy, case management, Life Coaching, peer relationships, adventure experiences, education and vocational support, and real-world practice allows Zac to help young adults translate therapeutic insight into everyday functioning and greater independence.

Zac is particularly interested in emerging adulthood because it is a developmental period involving significant changes in identity, relationships, responsibility, education, employment, and independence without a single roadmap for navigating them. He believes effective young adult therapy should help clients not only understand themselves more clearly, but also build the confidence and skills needed to participate more fully in adult life.

Zac is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the Utah Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (UAMFT). Outside of work, he enjoys attending sporting events, being active in his community, spending time with friends and family, and hanging out with his corgi, Cricket.