Services
INDIVIDUALS
Urgent matters, transitions, and old habits that no longer serve you can be daunting when you try to navigate them alone. I aim to meet you where you are and to support you in discovering what you need and want in your life right now. I offer a kind, nonjudgmental space to attend to all the parts of you that you want to explore. While I work with a wide range of issues, I specialize in helping clients who are experiencing anxiety or difficult situations in their lives, and those who have the recurring sense they should be doing things differently somehow.
Family therapy
I offer practical interventions for working with tension or conflict anywhere within your family, especially in
- divorced or divorcing families who want to develop healthy co-parenting "rules of the road"
- families where attention challenges (ADHD/ADD) are showing up for children and/or parents
Couples therapy
With couples, I rely primarily on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), a research-based approach to strengthening relationships and improving connection. I also draw on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to help couples learn to “fight fairly” and minimize conflict, and on forgiveness practices to overcome rifts and ruptures in relationships.
I have a particular interest in and experience with couples embarking on second marriages.
AREAS OF FOCUS
- anxiety
- life transitions
- working with difficult situations and people
- parenting and co-parenting challenges
- second marriages
- step-parenting
- premarital counseling
- grief & loss
- trauma
- women's issues
- environmental anxiety and grief
- mindfulness training
- Mindfulness-Based Classes
About Me
In therapy with me you’ll get engaged accompaniment as you navigate between where you are and where you’re going. My style is attentive, warm, grounded, accepting…and at times, humorous. I approach each treatment uniquely— because I view each client as a unique person with their own distinct needs.
I became a therapist after earning an MFA in Poetry and working for 10 years in environmental action and finance. Along the way, I trained extensively in mindfulness practices and insight meditation in the Vipassana lineage. Currently, I'm on the certification path with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in their two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program.
Education, Certification and Training
- Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, AMFT # 101575: 2017
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) Externship & Core Skills, Northern California Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy: 2017
- Narrative Therapy, Level 1 Certification, Vancouver School of Narrative Therapy: 2017
- Forgiveness Training, Northern California Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy: 2017
- MA, Integral Counseling Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies: 2017
- Practicum, Golden Gate Integral Counseling Center: 2016-2017
- Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Immersion Course with Diane Fosha: 2015
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher Practicum with Bob Stahl: 2014
- Karuna Training in Contemplative Psychology, Shambhala of San Francisco: 2014
CONTACT ME
If you would like to discuss working with me, reach out via phone or email. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Julia Ward
(415) 562-5228julia@mindfulcenter.org
Hayes Valley Office
110 Gough Street, Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94102
“If you want to understand your mind,
sit down and observe it.”
Mindfulness training for beginners
Curious about meditation but unsure where to start? Individual training offers an opportunity to learn the foundations one-on-one, ensuring time and space for the kinds of questions that inevitably come up when we first start meditating.
After exploring your hopes and intentions for bringing mindfulness into your life, our sessions will focus on foundational practices: sitting meditation, loving-kindness and self-compassion practices.
Together, we'll develop a meditation practice that suits you—one tailored to your life right now.