Julia Friend

Julia is a holistic therapist passionate about helping patients harness their strengths, build healthier relationships, recover from trauma, and live a more aligned life. She believes the key to an effective therapeutic relationship is trust, open communication, and collaboration.

In addition to a Psychodynamic approach, Julia integrates Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Client-Centered Therapy. Above all, she is committed to tailoring her approach to each individual and finding what works best for every patient.

Julia takes pride in creating a safe and empathic environment that empowers patients in their therapeutic journey. She emphasizes the importance of relationships—romantic, familial, and social—in shaping emotional development and life experiences. Her goal is to equip patients with tools to understand and learn from lived experiences, fostering a stronger sense of inner peace and authenticity.

Before her graduate studies, Julia worked as a leadership consultant, helping companies and teams improve collaboration through organizational psychology–backed interventions. She also held research positions in social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience labs, which contribute to her integrative approach. Currently, Julia also tutors middle and high school students in executive functioning skills.

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.

In addition to her strong foundation of mental health counseling through her training at Teachers College, Columbia University, Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology from Harvard University.