Julia Friend

Julia is a holistic, relational therapist who is passionate about helping clients strengthen emotional awareness, build healthier relationships, and live more authentic and aligned lives. She believes effective therapy is grounded in trust, collaboration, and open communication.

Julia takes an integrative approach, rooted in psychodynamic and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)modalities, while also drawing from emotion-focused and trauma-informed approaches. She combines insight-oriented exploration with practical tools for emotional processing, communication, and self-understanding, tailoring therapy to each client’s unique needs and goals.

Julia strives to create a warm and empathic environment where clients feel supported, understood, and empoweredin their therapeutic journey. She values the role relationships play in shaping emotional experiences and sense of self, and works collaboratively with clients to better understand patterns, deepen self-compassion, and move toward greater inner peace and authenticity.

In addition to Julia’s areas of special focus, she is qualified and experienced in treating a wide range of mental health concerns, including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, panic, OCD, PTSD, trauma, grief, burnout, couples and family issues, relationship difficulties, personality disorders, eating disorders, addictive disorders (including alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and food), ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, dissociative disorders, psychotic disorders, chronic illness adjustment, sleep disorders, somatic conditions, work and career stress, identity and existential concerns, perfectionism, cultural and racial identity stress, and life transitions. Using an eclectic range of evidence-based approaches, she provides compassionate, individualized care tailored to every patient she serves.

Prior to her graduate studies, Julia worked as a leadership consultant, helping companies and teams work better together through organizational psychology-backed interventions. She believes her prior experience brings a unique perspective and sense of understanding to the therapy space. She also held various research positions ranging from social and clinical psychology to neuroscience labs.

In addition to her Master’s in Mental Health Counseling at Columbia University, Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology from Harvard University.