Areas of Expertise
Counselling
Julie is a Nationally Certified Counselor licensed in the state of South Carolina. She is currently scheduling appointments both in person in North Myrtle Beach, and online using a HIPAA compliant 2 way video platform. Using her exceptional person centered techniques, therapeutic rapport is developed and the work begins.
Julie will help you unravel the turmoil and confusion you present and help you develop actionable steps toward change.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
We are meaning making machines, constantly taking in information and interpreting that information through the lease of our experience. We see something and then we think something. What we think impacts what we feel, which in turn impacts what we do. What happens if our thought is incorrect? What if our thought is jumping to conclusions or catastrophising? What if we are misreading the situation in a myriad of other unhealthy ways? Unhealthy and incorrect thoughts lead to negative emotions and incorrect actions. Julie is skilled in helping you learn to identify and challenge unhealthy thinking patterns which have been contributing to your negative symptoms using the tools of cognitive behavior therapy.
Psychotherapy
Sometimes you desire more insight into underlying causes and reasons for defense mechanisms. Julie is able to work with you using a multitude of approaches to explore and unravel underlying contributors to current struggles. Together, as you explore, you will come to new understanding and re-intigrate memories with new understanding and lessons.
EFT Tapping
Julie has received specialized training in Clinical EFT Tapping which has been proven effective in over 100 peer reviewed journal articles for the treatment of: trauma, anxiety, depression, physical pain, migraines, and insomnia. EFT tapping is an alternative acupressure therapy treatment used to restore balance to your disrupted energy. Think of the energy and emotional memories running through your system like a river. Now imagine a log or boulder - a negative life event - blocking the river; disrupting the flow. EFT is the course correction tool useful for removing that block in a titrating, and non re-traumatizing way.
This technique has been approved for use with Veterans suffering with PTSD.
Trauma Informed Care
Julie has received additional training to help you process trauma in a safe and methodical fashion. This requires skill development and safety development on the front end, preceding into a titration of treatment to avoid re-traumatization. Paying special attention to somatic experience and training you to identify this felt sense, you become an active agent in your care.
My Approach
You can only make the best decisions if you have enough information and understanding of how psychotherapy works. Let me discuss some aspects of psychotherapy as I see it. I embrace an integrative approach to counseling. In other words, my style is a combination of many techniques, some of which include cognitive and somatic approaches, dialectical behavior therapy, emotional freedom tapping technique, solution focused, rational emotive therapy, short-term psychodynamic therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and others.
Therapy can be a large commitment of time, money, and energy, so a counselor should be carefully chosen. I strongly believe - and the science agrees - you should be comfortable, encouraged, and optimistic with the counselor you chose in order for therapy to be effective.
You have the right to ask me about other treatments for your condition and the risks and benefits. If you could benefit from any treatments I know about that I cannot provide I have an ethical obligation to assist you in obtaining those treatments – including referrals for medication.
Psychotherapy is not like visiting a medical doctor in that it requires your very active involvement and efforts to change your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I will ask for your feedback and views on your therapy, the efforts and progress we are making, and other aspects; and I will expect you to be open about these. Offering your views and responses when they are important to you even if I don’t ask is one of the ways you can be an active partner in your therapy. There are no instant, painless, or passive cures, no magic pills. Instead, there may be homework assignments, exercises, practice sessions, and record-keeping, and perhaps other projects. Probably you will have to work on relationships and make long-term efforts. Change will sometimes be easy and swift, but more often it will be slow and frustrating with a need for repetition. I may also at times suggest you reach out to another care giver for the possible addition of medication and medication management.
I do see this therapeutic discourse as a collaborative process.
Periodically, together we can evaluate our goals, and if necessary, design a treatment plan, goals and methods.
As with any powerful treatment, there are both benefits and risks associated with psychotherapy. Risks might include experiencing uncomfortable levels of feelings like sadness, guilt, anxiety, and anger. Difficulties with people important to you may occur; family secrets may be disclosed; and despite our best efforts, therapy may not work out well.
Despite this, you should know that psychotherapy has been repeatedly scientifically demonstrated to be of benefit for most people and in most situations. Benefits might include lifting of a depression or no longer feeling afraid or angry or anxious. You will have the opportunity to “talk things out” fully and completely until you are satisfied. Relationships and skills may improve dramatically. You may be better able to cope with social or family relationships, and so receive more satisfaction from them. You may better understand your personal goals and values and thus grow as a person and become more mature.
I do not take on clients whom, in my professional opinion, I cannot help using the techniques I have available. I will, therefore, enter our relationship with optimism and an eagerness to work with you, and if you need an orange...provide you with an orange.
