About Us 

History

ZurEd was founded in 2010 as an offshoot of online continuing education empire Zur Institute.  The Zur Institute provides online courses for psychotherapists and other mental health professionals, and has been in business serving the psychotherapy community for over 15 years.  Increasingly over the years, we noticed a rising demand for material made exclusively for the general public: Teachers, parents, and those struggling with addiction, loss, infidelity, finding meaning in this consumerist world, and many more.

Dr. Ofer Zur (link to his author entry), founder and director of the Zur Institute, partnered with his daughter, philosopher and author Azzia Zur, to create the ZurEd hub for lifelong learning.  You can learn more about the founders here. (link “here” to page called Founders)

Founders

Dr. Ofer Zur, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, educator, presenter, instructor, forensic and ethics consultant, and expert witness in private psychotherapy practice in Sonoma, California.  He has been in practice for over 20 years and is director of the Zur Institute, an online education forum for mental health professionals.   Dr. Zur has been a pioneer in the field of psychology  around issues of gender, bringing humanity into psychotherapy, teaching therapists to operate outside managed care, and much more.   

You can learn more about Dr. Zur’s professional experience here.  His primary areas of interest are in the psychology of technology, Internet addiction, online gaming, ethics, critical thinking, boundaries, dual relationships, the creation of managed-care-free private practices, critique of DSM, and others.  He is the author of four books: Dual Relationships and Psychotherapy (2002, co-edited), HIPAA Compliance Kit (2005), The Complete Fee-for-Service Private Practice Handbook (2005), and Boundaries in Psychotherapy (2007).

Dr. Zur was not always a seasoned psychotherapist and author: He explored several careers on as many continents before settling in Northern California and his current field.  Dr. Zur began his adult education in the fisheries of Israel, and later became a deep-sea diver.  He spent years in Africa living as an anthropologist in villages in Tanzania and Zambia, helping clean the water and provide food sources whenever possible.  (This experience was humbling, as it turns out that an outsider’s understanding of help is not always spot-on.)

Fueled by decades of exploration and travel, Dr. Zur earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA in 1984.  For the past quarter-century, Dr. Zur has built a strong history of taking on dysfunctional systems in the field of psychotherapy and transforming them - and public opinion - for the better.  His activism is always motivated with a desire to show new sides of an issue, encourage critical thinking, and make therapy, health care and education more current and humane.   

For more information on Dr. Zur’s courses and resources for mental health professionals, please visit the Zur Institute.

Azzia Zur, B.A. received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley in Philosophy  in 2009.  Her work experience includes entrepreneurship, project management, nonprofit fundraising, marketing and the creation of published articles and post-graduate courses with the Zur Institute.  She is a digital native, on the forefront of Generation Y (just after Generation X).  As such, she is well-situated to advise and teach on the use of technology in the lives of fellow digital natives.  Ms. Zur is especially interested in health and balance in the digital era, especially fast-paced urban areas.  Her personal life is dedicated to professional pursuits, family life and various forms of somatic (body) practices that inform her process of tuning in.  Because of these values, Ms. Zur’s contributions to business and nonprofit work are aimed at helping families enjoy more time together, and helping individuals realize their vocation, continue to develop at all ages and be well-settled in their own bodies.

You can learn more about Ms. Zur’s primary project outside ZurEd here.  She is committed to bringing useful, current education and appropriate somatic practices to any who desire them.

Message From the Founders

We are deeply committed to education, health and wellness.  We hope you find the site and its courses useful, and that you learn skills and information that will help you in your daily lives, your relationships and personal development.  We believe that it is always a good time to develop, and we welcome students of all ages.  Please contact us with questions.  We look forward to seeing you here!