What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
-Sheryl Sandberg
What You Can Expect
Therapy with me is spacious, relational, and grounded in humor, warmth, and curiosity. I bring compassion and a deep respect for your lived experience. We might stretch a metaphor to its limit and laugh at how true it still feels. But more often, we’ll be noticing what’s been asking for your attention—and giving it room to speak.
Many of the people I work with are deep thinkers, overperformers, or quietly overwhelmed—highly attuned to the needs of others, but not always to themselves. They’ve learned to minimize their own needs in order to keep things functioning.
Some clients work with me short-term; others stay for years, finding that the space we create becomes a steady home for reflection, clarity, and growth. Over time, a stronger sense of self begins to take shape.
When your truth is mirrored back with care, something shifts. Confidence grows. Self-compassion settles in.
Meet Homer: Small in size, big in feelings
A Bit More About Me
Hi, I’m Julie (she/her). I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for over two decades, and its textures—moss, fog, forests, birdsong—have become part of my internal landscape. I like my life quiet and richly lived—full of books, loved ones, rivers, forest paths, warm kitchens, and unexpected beauty. I’m also the lucky companion of a rat terrier named Homer.
I bring a wide lens to the therapy space—shaped by years of listening, learning, and living, with roots in the Midwest, decades in the Pacific Northwest, and time abroad in Europe and China. From 20,000 people in small town Wisconsin to 20 million in Shanghai—and lots of places in between—I’ve learned to pay attention to culture as context.
I bring personal experience with layered identity, questions of belonging, and the complexities of family—as an adoptee. These and other formative experiences have taught me that we, as humans, carry internal wisdom about identity, belonging, values, and resistance. I don’t assume sameness, but I offer space for what’s unspoken, still unfolding, or searching for its own language.
I love working with APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) clients, immigrants, adoptees, and people who’ve lived between cultures—including expats and adult third-culture kids. I bring particular experience supporting APIDA communities, and I welcome people of all backgrounds—especially those navigating layered identity, cultural disconnection, or the ache of not quite feeling at home in any one place. My approach is rooted in cultural humility, deep curiosity, and care.
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Licensed Professional Counselor - Oregon (C#8453)
Board Certified Rehabilitation Counselor - The Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (2008-present)
Board Certified Career Counselor - The National Career Development Association (2020-present)
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I received a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout in 2008. This degree promotes the philosophy, principles and practice of self-determination, empowerment, inclusion, and respect for individual differences. My education prepared me to identify the influences and functional impacts of mental health, chronic illness, injury, and/or disability across human development and the lifespan.
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Select continuing education coursework includes:
EMDR 5-day intensive training
Pain Reprocessing Therapy training
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
Compassion-Focused CBT
Somatic Attachment Therapy
Psychedelics and EMDR Therapy
Plant Medicine & Psychedelic Assisted Therapies
Please note: I am not certified to administer or prescribe psychedelics and plant medicines; however, I believe in harm reduction and value research, preparation, and the integration of these experiences.
As a licensee of the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, I abide by its Code of Ethics. To maintain my license, I am required to participate in continuing education and take classes dealing with subjects relevant to this profession. I am also bound to the Professional Code of Ethics established by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification and participate in continuing education relevant to this professional credential.
Philosophy of Care & Cultural Humility
Therapy with me is spacious, relational, and grounded in warmth, humor, and compassion. Together, we’ll untangle what’s been asking for your attention and make room for self-trust.
That trust includes honoring who you are—your history, your identity, your context.
You are a cultural being, shaped by many intersecting identities—race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, neurotype, religion, class, language, family history, geography, and more. You carry stories that come from place, from people, from systems, and from survival.
To ignore these parts of your experience is to miss something essential.
I believe therapy should honor the full context of who you are—not just your symptoms, but your story. Whether or not we share the same identities, I bring cultural humility, curiosity, and a commitment to understanding how your background, beliefs, and lived experiences shape your inner world.
Many clients prefer to work with someone who shares parts of their identity—and that can be a powerful source of resonance and safety. But research also shows that what matters most is a therapist’s capacity for attunement, cultural responsiveness, and humility.
That’s what I aim to offer:
A space that holds the complexity of identity, and care that’s spacious enough to meet the whole of you.
Beginning therapy is a big step.
To help determine if we’re a good fit, I start with a brief inquiry process by email.
Submit the form below, and I’ll follow up as soon as possible.
I’m currently accepting new clients for telehealth only. I’m in-network with OHP and PacificSource, and I can also provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement.
