NICE TO MEET YOU!
Hi! I’m Julie. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#112037) working with couples, individuals, and children in the Bay Area. Let me tell you more about myself.
I received my graduate degree from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. I recently served as a therapist, Assistant Clinical Director, and Clinical Director at an Eating Disorder treatment center in San Francisco. I’ve developed specialization in working with couples and teens. I also have extensive experience treating adults and teens with Eating Disorders, body image issues, and perfectionism. I have advanced training in Emotionally Focussed Therapy for couples as well as the Gottman Method for couples therapy. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, I worked in sales and marketing and overseas as a teacher. I am also a yoga teacher and have completed multiple silent meditation courses, which I bring into my work with clients when appropriate.
My approach to therapy is warm, compassionate, and strengths based. I believe that all of your behaviors, feelings, and beliefs are valid within the context of your life, even at times when it’s difficult to make sense of them. I take a strengths-based, non-pathologizing approach to therapy, which means I will help you curiously explore the functions of behaviors and feelings and seek to identify their roots. My goal is to help you develop insight into your inner world and to guide you in cultivating new attitudes toward all parts of yourself. Throughout this process, I will work with you to develop new strategies for dealing with life’s struggles. Humans are wired for connection with others, thus I find it critical to support people in improving interpersonal relationships. In the same vein, a trusting, connected therapeutic alliance is a critical factor in successful therapy, and my intention is to build this with every person with whom I work. I work hard to stay up to date on empirically supported treatment modalities in order to ensure that my clients are receiving the best care possible.
I hold my clients’ stories with the utmost compassion and respect. It consider it an honor to work with people in this way.
I love what I do. I became a therapist because I believe that hardships are opportunities for greater personal depth and resilience. Adversity in my own life led me to pursue healing through therapy and spirituality, and through this path I have developed immense respect for the therapy process. Lastly, I grew up living in various places in the United States and in Japan and have spent 8 years of my life overseas. Being in different cultural settings has taught me of the importance of taking a culturally sensitive approach to therapy.
My practice welcomes people of all ages, genders, races, religions, sexual-orientations, and abilities.
I look forward to meeting you!