About Julena

I believe I have been pointing towards therapeutic work throughout my life. Witnessing and supporting others through difficult experiences and transitions, particularly when pain, anguish, and sorrow are present, is familiar and meaningful work to me. These seasons of our lives can often feel isolating and disorienting and my work attempts to soften those edges by creating space safe enough to experience and make sense of overwhelming emotions in manageable ways. Therapy is deeply personal work. Being entrusted to know the nuances and complexities that make someone who they are is a gift I hold with tremendous care and respect. Our work together will be intentional and oriented towards the specific concerns in your present life. While it will gently push up against your working edges and involve stretching emotionally this will happen in relationship with one another and we will only move at the speed of trust. Together we will gain a rich understanding of your internal world and our therapeutic work will reflect and centre in the areas you wish to see changes in.

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I am a registered member (qualifying) of the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario as well as hold membership with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. I have obtained my MEd (Counselling) from the University of Northern British Columbia and have training in Holistic Expressive Therapies as well as Indigenous Focusing-Oriented Therapy. I am particularly drawn towards work that includes grief, loss, family systems, childhood, life transitions, belonging, boundaries, shame, (in)fertility, pregnancy, parenthood, and trauma.

I am a white settler of Dutch and Irish descent and I exist in spaces with cis-hetero, thin, able-bodied, and neuro-typical privileges. I work from a feminist perspective and my therapeutic approach blends narrative, attachment, polyvagal, DBT, and expressive theories. It is informed by my academic knowledge, personal and professional lived experiences, and continued learning. I strive to consistently act in ways that are aligned with my values around trauma-informed, justice-oriented, fat-positive, sex/gender/culture-affirming practices while acknowledging because of my privileges and complicities this is a commitment to lifelong (un)learning. Creating affirming therapeutic experiences that are non-judgemental and non-pathologizing is central to all of my work; therapy that is collaborative and grounded in consent, choice, and autonomy. All of you are welcome here.