Her clients benefit from her over 20 years of experience serving people across the life spectrum and with the entire range of life’s problems.
Julie specializes in helping adults and couples overcome anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, and difficulty managing life transitions, losses, or traumas.
Prior to HTG, Julie worked as a senior therapist for a community mental health center, as a case manager for a foster care agency, and as a counselor and house manager for various group homes (e.g., at a group home for at-risk, adolescent girls and a group home for adults with severe psychiatric disabilities). She has supervised other counselors as well as students working on their master’s degrees and license. Julie also spent time volunteering as a victim’s advocate for a sexual assault crisis center.
Julie holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana. Beginning with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Julie has dedicated her career to helping clients live more productive, healthy, and joy-filled lives. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers.
When not at the office, Julie treasures her family and close friends, spending time outdoors, and sharing laughter with others as much as possible.
Ever since early childhood, I’ve always experienced strong, natural empathy and an intense compassion for others. I also am naturally analytical, and have a strong desire to continually learn about and understand all people’s perspectives and how they interact. This led me to be very interested in humans as social beings, and how groups of people (whether families, friends, co-workers, community members, nations) relate to and affect one other. When I combined all of that with my long-standing fascination with the human mind, how it works, the role it plays in who we are on all levels (intellectual, emotional, physical, social, spiritual), helping others learn about their mind and emotional self in the context of their relationships and environment in an effort to decrease their struggles and improve their lives seemed like a perfect career fit.
First and foremost , I am a regular person. I have conversations with my clients. I am very interested in my clients’ ideas and value their opinions in sessions. I believe it is often the back-and-forth in our conversation that produces the most insight, learning, healing, and growth for my clients (and for me as well). And although I always create an environment where my client is empowered to direct therapy the way he or she wants it to go, I will also provide direction as needed to help create goals, focus the work in sessions, and assess progress as we go along.
When helping my clients, I access a variety theoretical approaches, which include cognitive-behavioral therapy, attachment-based therapy/Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) and narrative therapy. I believe that we can fully understand ourselves and our struggles only when we examine the context or systems in which we live our lives (i.e. our family of origin and early relationships, our current relationships, our physical environment, social and cultural background, work and school environments and our community.) I believe that gaining insight and understanding about how our context affects us, and vice versa, empowers us to more consciously and effectively create profound and positive change. I believe that we continually develop a story (a narrative) in our minds about our history and our identity that may or may not be fully healthy or embrace a person’s or family’s strengths, and which may in turn contribute to feeling low self-worth, having emotional struggles and turning to unhealthy behaviors. I believe that our patterns of thinking have a powerful affect on how we feel and on our reactions and the choices we make, and therefore on how we experience life (and the reverse is true as well). Therefore, I believe that addressing the unproductive, skewed, or unhealthy patterns of thinking, perceiving, and reacting can significantly improve one’s life. I also am convinced that combining Western and Eastern psychological theories and philosophies (including mindfulness and meditation) is the key to helping people reach the joy and peace they are looking for.
I work with adults … from new adults to old adults. I help individuals and couples who are struggling with depression, anxiety, a traumatic event or a history of trauma, PTSD, loss/grief, divorce, remarriage, difficulty with transitions in life, and struggles with having healthy and satisfying relationships. I also work with people interested in improving their emotional health, relationships, and sense of peace and satisfaction with their life even though they may not be struggling significantly.
I really like and enjoy people. I love being a part of a person’s experience of growth or recovery; it is inspiring and hopeful. I am also continually moved by, and drawn to, the experience of walking side by side with a person who is going through their darkest times, and helping them discover light at the end of the tunnel. And of course I get immense satisfaction from seeing the results of my work: my clients report growing personally, achieving a higher level of emotional health and peace and satisfaction with life as a result of our work together, which is wonderful. Their growth results in healthier and more positive experiences and relationships for them, which often results directly in positive changes in someone close to my client and so on and so forth. So secondarily, this larger perspective on how emotional health is contagious also helps me to satisfy my personal and professional goal of contributing to a healthier and more productive society, facilitating chains of mental, emotional, and relational improvements.
Julie helps individuals and couples overcome anxiety, emotional struggle, depression, difficult losses or life transitions and relationship problems. Her broad foundation of experience ensures that all clients come away with greater insight, understanding and practical skills that promote positive change.
Julie uses a here-and-now approach that helps her clients mobilize their current strengths. In therapy, her clients learn how to augment these attributes with new skills and self-awareness that help them manage and overcome problems.
Julie welcomes the inclusion of family and friends in her clients’ therapy sessions. Often, a client’s loved ones can play an important role in therapy. Working together, the source and meaning of the problem can become clearer, opening more doors to effective pathways for change.
In addition, sometimes involving select family and friends combats a client’s sense of isolation and decreases the feeling of powerlessness often experienced by those close to him or her, resulting in a more effective therapy.
Women face tremendous challenges in their everyday lives. In some ways, now more than ever. Obstacles such as negative body image, cultural expectations of womanhood and motherhood, and the sometimes dramatic mind and body changes that occur throughout different phases of life can affect a woman’s self-esteem and confidence. These issues can also influence her ability to enjoy the success that she has achieved.
Julie has worked with women of all ages. No matter what issue you are struggling with, she assures you that you are not alone. HTG is proud to provide women a therapist of Julie’s understanding and expertise. We encourage you to use her insight as your resource to better living.
In her couples practice, Julie emphasizes self-awareness. She guides couples in developing skills that help them manage strong emotions, improve communication and interactions, and build intimacy. In therapy, partners also develop awareness of the competing demands that work, home life, and extended family make upon each of them and on the relationship. Julie teaches couples how to manage and balance these competing demands.
