Julia Gerlitz Therapy
Change your Story:
Confidential & Convenient Online Therapy
Julia will help you break free from problematic stories of yourself by assisting you to identify the strategies and skills required to make the changes you desire. She views people as being in relationship with problems, rather than being problematic themselves. She sees clients as experts in their own lives, and employs a respectful approach to therapy that positions you and your therapist as a team, working together to live the life you prefer.
Helping You Move Forward
Change is Possible
Julia has assisted people dealing with many different kinds of challenges, but predominately she has helped clients make changes in these areas:
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS
Improve communication, and deepen emotional connection and understanding with the people you love. Julia has worked primarily with intimate partners and youth/parent dyads. She is also committed to working with people in a variety of relationship structures, including monogamous, ethically non-monogamous, and polyamorous love connections.
RECOVERING FROM MENTAL HEALTH STRUGGLES
Learn skills and evidence-based techniques to change self-narratives of depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and other mental health concerns. Julia will assist you to make a doable plan of action to decrease the impacts of mental health struggles on your life and relationships.
OVERCOMING ADDICTION
Change your relationship with substances, gambling, or food so that you feel safer and more in control. Julia uses a harm-reduction approach to substance misuse and will help you determine your own level of comfort with certain substances and behaviours.
LIVING LIFE WITH CHRONIC PAIN
Using mindfulness based cognitive therapy, Julia will assist you to perceive pain differently so that you can get back to living the life that you want. She will guide you to change your thinking patterns about pain and develop a regular mindfulness meditation practice to decrease the physical experience of pain.
HEALING FROM TRAUMA
Julia will help you identify how you responded to traumatic experiences, highlighting strengths and resilience, and will teach you methods to calm your nervous system and increase a sense of safety in your world.
Contact Julia
Contact Julia to learn more about online therapy or how she can be of assistance to you.
Julia offers an initial FREE video call to ensure she is the right fit.
1-250-551-1998
Learn More About Julia
Julia Gerlitz is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with 12 years of experience assisting individuals, youth, and families overcome problems in their lives. She has worked in a variety of settings, including private practice, mental health and substance use centres, and adult supported recovery programs. Julia holds a Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology from the University of British Columbia and has completed the Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy Foundations Level I Training and Advanced Level Narrative Therapy Certificate Training. Julia is also a registered member of the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC). The BCACC is a society of regulated Clinical Counsellors dedicated to providing the highest standard of professional counselling, consulting, assessment, testing and training services.
Julia divides her time between living in Nelson, BC, and San Diego, CA. She can be found climbing, running, and skiing in the mountains of BC, or surfing, camping, and exploring the oceans and deserts of the south west with her family, partners, and friends.
Julia's Approach to Therapy
Support That Makes a Difference
Therapy is an exchange. You don’t come to a therapist to be “fixed," rather you share your experience of the concerns you face and the changes you want to make, while your therapist asks questions to help you explore your preferred way of living. Julia does not view problems as being located within a person, as if something about their "inner self" or personhood is problematic, but rather sees the problems people experience as being products of culture and history. Julia always privileges her clients' perspective and wishes. She is passionate about helping her clients share untold narratives of strength and resilience, in order to create opportunities for change in their actions, perspectives, and identities.
Narrative Therapy
"The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem."
~ Michael White (co-founder of Narrative Therapy)
Narrative Therapy is about helping people change the story they have about themselves, and about moving away from problem focused stories to preferred stories. In Narrative Therapy, conversations are considered the tool to help people heal or "re-author" their self-narrative. It's about standing up to the problem and reclaiming your problem-free identity. Narrative Therapy encourages a new type of conversation about concerns in your life; a conversation that uncovers the many skills and competencies you already possess that can be accessed to break away from the problem’s influence on you. In narrative conversations, you are considered the expert in your own life. For more info:
http://dulwichcentre.com.au/what-is-narrative-therapy/
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Changing your thinking will change your world
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) teaches people to see the connections between what they think, how they feel, and what they do. Changing your thinking patterns about the problematic situation results in positive changes in mood and actions, allowing you to tackle the issue at hand from a new perspective. Mindfulness provides an added layer where you learn skills to accept what cannot be changed, to live more fully in the present moment, and to deeply experience what is most precious to you. For more info:
https://positivepsychology.com/mbct-mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy/
Services Offered
Online therapy is effective, convenient, and confidential
Telehealth video conference meeting or phone call
Easy, private, time efficient
We live full lives and juggle many demands. The first thing to go can be taking time to care for ourselves. Save time by connecting with a counsellor via your device from the privacy of your home, office, or even your car. The rapport of face-to-face meetings is maintained through video-conferencing and an enduring helping relationship can be developed between you and Julia.
Text, online chat, or email
Safe, low pressure, time to think
Some people may feel uncomfortable going to see a counsellor at an office. What if you can't think of what to say? Avoid this possible barrier to getting support by spending a total of 60 min per week, texting, emailing, or online chatting with Julia. This service can be beneficial for youth who can be more open and confident when communicating via text, chats, or email than face-to-face. Increase your youth's comfort level by suggesting meeting with a counsellor online.
Therapuetic Letters
A record of your meetings
During counselling conversations, many important things are explored and discussed. But a week later, it's not uncommon to forget much of the helpful content of the conversation. A therapeutic letter is a summary of the session written by Julia and then emailed to you after each meeting. Letters increase the staying power of what was talked about, so that you get more from your sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does online therapy cost?
Julia follows the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors' fee schedule which recommends:
$140 for a 60-minute individual meeting
$170 for a 75-minute couples or family meeting
Julia believes in making therapy accessible to everyone and offers a sliding scale for those who would benefit. Also many employee benefits will cover a percentage of this fee. Contact your benefit provider to ask for details.
What are the benefits of therapy?
Therapy takes time, means opening up about your life, and costs money. All of these things can seem like a sacrifice, so how will working with Julia benefit you?
You will gain:
- A deeper understanding of the problem you are up against and how it came to be present in your life.
- Ideas for how to decrease the effects of the problem in your life.
- New strategies to attain your goals and make the changes you want.
- An appreciation for the skills, abilities, and competencies you already possess.
- A trusting and respectful professional relationship with Julia in which you are actively listened to and supported.
-An improvement in your relationships with your partner(s), friends, family, and/or colleagues; and a reconnection to your community as you successfully make the changes you desire.
Do I actually need therapy?
Sometimes people wait a long time before they decide to meet with a therapist. Problems have a way of convincing us that maybe what we're dealing with isn't so bad or that we should be able to just get over it ourselves.
No situation or concern is too big or too small for therapy. Some people have a specific concern they want to work on, like depression or past trauma, while others don't know exactly what the problem is, except for a general sense of dissatisfaction. Some people are deeply suffering and require assistance in getting relief; whereas others feel they are doing fairly well, but would like growth in one or more areas of their lives. Some people don't necessarily need to fix something, but rather to improve upon something, such as communicating with their partner. There isn’t a prescribed “right” time to start therapy, but if you are curious about the process, have some personal changes you would like to make, and are interested in healing or self-growth, now could be a good time to start.
Are there any particular risks to online counselling?
Online counselling comes with risks to confidentiality as video conferencing platforms, emails, and texts are unsecured forms of communication and all data from these servers is stored and thus subject to electronic monitoring. You must be aware that your information is not 100% secure when using these mediums of online communication. To mitigate these privacy risks, Julia uses an end-to-end encrypted, secure telemedicine platform for video-conferencing.
Additionally, self-harm and suicidal ideation, serious mental health crises such as psychosis or mania, or intimate partner violence are not appropriate for online counselling. These situations require more care and support than an online counsellor can safely provide. If this applies to you, please contact your local mental health and substance use centre, your doctor, or emergency department.
Youtube links
Watch Julia's Youtube tutorials
Julia talks about certain topics pertinent to clinical counselling in these Youtube tutorials. Have a watch to get a better sense of how she works.
1. The 5 Big Exhalations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRYNgv3Rl_k
2. The Three Senses Mindfulness Practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-lsJhHpIA&t=50s
3. Rise Above Pain webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAI5RljENEY&t=49s