Julianna Vermeys
Licensed Professional Counselor #C4561
Registered Yoga Teacher
National Certified Counselor
What therapy with me is like
In my experience over the years, it’s become clear that people are in need of compassionate collaboration. It’s been the integration of my work as a teacher, meditator, therapist and as a person who also is on my own healing journey that has enabled me to see the power and connection available in collaborative therapy. Particularly for anyone who has felt alone or abandoned or traumatized in their human development, feeling not just seen but truly engaged with is, in itself, healing. It’s empowering when trauma informed care winds up helping you feel like you are in command of your life without being alone or 100% responsible for it.
I have a lot of love, compassion and acceptance to offer. It is central to my work as a therapist to show you that I care about your experience and I believe you.
In these challenging times, I believe, more than ever, that therapists have an ethical obligation to support a client appropriately in developing insight and tools that support them. The old trusted reflective listening and foundational skills that help people make their own insight without much help from us doesn't not feel trauma informed. We are barreling through space with 100 crisis a day (many of us) and just simply need more help than that. Seems like therapy these days is a mix of first response and deep therapeutic care.
It’s beautiful to be able to really be in the present with peoples’ experience and have space to go deep into the origins of their responses, their pain, their sense of self. I’m honored and often courageous to step a bit outside the boxes of traditional therapy to explore someone’s intrinsic needs. There are tons of interventions out their, many of which work beautifully, but I hope to cultivate a therapeutic space where someone can come not to figure out how to feel better or fix themselves, but to finally find space to feel comfortable enough to be present, have the tools to tolerate distress and be with their actual experience with full presence, compassion and curiosity.
In therapy with me we slow way down and move from seeing you as a problem (or bucket of millions of problems) to being a unique sentient human deserving of witness, celebration, growth.
What supervision is like with me
Do you want to be seen as a whole human in your clinical supervision? Often, we are trained to be compartmentalized, not quite ourselves in this profession as counselors and therapists. Just as in therapy, I want the experience of supervision with me to feel inhabited by you. Your whole Self is not only welcome, but essential in supporting you to becoming the best ethical and equitable counselor you can be. I’d love for supervision to feel like a conversation, a place where we see each other as colleagues and collaborators. I offer my skills and mentorship, while you explore, enhance and build your wisdom. In my efforts to decolonize and dismantle white supremacy in therapy spaces, I will endeavor to collaborate with you to find the best approach to many of the issues you will face professionally, not scare you into thinking there is a right one that eludes us both and leaves us uncertain and afraid to care for our clients. I love working with other counselors and therapists oriented towards somatic and mindfulness oriented practices that empower and uplift their clients.
Who Am I?
Oof! That is a big question to answer. I believe we are so much more than our stories. I hold space for the complexity of who we are, who I am and know that one narrative will never really encompass the fullness of life lived.*
I learned early on how to be disembodied for safety, emotional safety mostly. My resilience is in my ability to follow the webs of storytelling and understand through my thinking mind.
When I was 23 I spent the night outside in the woods alone, except for the little critter that camped out near enough for me to hear them and feel like they were somehow keeping me company. The next day, after a fitful couple of hours of sleep I woke up to the sun rising and thought to myself: Everyone matters. All of us mattered and deserve to be seen and cared for. This is the vision for my life. Most definitely the thing that sits at the heart of my work.
When I went to a Yoga class in my early 20s, it changed my life forever. I learned that I could find my way through my feelings from my body, and I began to feel less bound to my life stories/roles and more connected to the world around me. And I wanted to share that. Help others who may have found refuge in their minds discover presence, and a feeling of being home in themselves. Soon after beginning my teaching career, I decided to pursue my license as a professional counselor. My degree and study, research and practice of therapeutic counseling helped me integrate the skills of inhabiting the body and mind together. I found a soulful blend of theory and practice that inspired my life and my work in the world.
Life gave me many twists and turns since I chose to practice therapy. I have experienced great joy, and I have suffered deep loss and trauma over the two decades since I started helping others. I have learned that healing is an ongoing journey, definitely not a destination. All the pain and healing intersect at some point. I believe in the power of transformation through awareness and radical self-acceptance. I have seen it again and again in my work with others. And in myself. I am still learning. I enjoy the continuity and consistency of a vibrant writing life, listening to music and going to rock shows whenever I can. I love and enjoy my family, friends and community and go outside whenever I can. My intention is to make my way to and from the refuge of my mind, back into my body, often in the forest or the ocean, on a yoga mat, in an embrace with my loved ones, over a good meal. And I am slowly learning that there is peace inside of me.
*I am currently working on a memoir that I hope to someday share with the world. There, you will be able to find out a lot more about me. For now, though, remember that my intention in my work as a therapist is to support YOU in knowing YOU. Sometimes our stories intersect and I will share parts of me with you when helpful and necessary.
Education and Experience
I completed an MA degree in Counseling Psychology from the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling in 2006. Major course work included human growth and development, current, evidence-based therapy modalities, couples, group, adolescent and adult treatment. As a Licensee of the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, I abide by its Code of Ethics. To maintain my license I am required to complete continuing education courses and training that are relevant to my profession.
I have offered mental health therapy in private practice, partial hospital eating disorders treatment program, mental health agency setting, and gambling addictions services since 2005. I am inspired by family/relationship dynamics, attachment, human development, trauma-informed healing and wellness, and client-centered therapy rooted in compassion and unconditional positive regard. I believe that a thoughtful, present-minded approach to any therapeutic technique or theory can offer lasting results to your mood, health, ambition and relationships.
I have specialized training in trauma-informed counseling, mindfulness and body-based therapies including:
Intensive trauma training with Bessel van Der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score
Polyvagal Theory training with Stephen Porges and Deb Dana
Meditation and Psychotherapy led by Tara Brach
Certification in Applied Polyvagal Theory in Therapeutic Yoga with Arielle Schwartz and Stephen Porges
Peter Levine’s Basics in Somatic Experiencing work
Racialized trauma and the body with Resmaa Menakem
Jungian Somatics Foundations with Jane Clapp
Mindfulness-Informed Professional Certification through Evergreen Certifications
Basics of EMDR, Parts work, Somatic and emotional resourcing
Informed by the work of Dan Siegel, Gabor Mate, Rick Hansen, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Nedra Glover Tawwab, Martin Pretchtel, Frances Weller and many others as they contemplate, research and write about human relationships, attachment, trauma and societal systems that impact our sense of autonomy.
My study and commitment to finding ways to integrate the body into therapy has been unwavering as I believe it is our access to the present where we can learn to explore safety and change to improve our life vitality.
I have completed 500-hr Yoga training and, most recently, have completed a 55hr training in Mental Health and Wellness through Yoga Medicine. I am currently participating in a new activist group called, Shaping a Holistic Future of Yoga and am excited by the collective considerations of how we can embrace ancient practices from other cultures with ethical, conscious care. I have taught yoga classes and private/couples yoga since 2003 in studio settings and private practice. I offer private, couples and small group yoga as needed and therapeutically appropriate. Yoga philosophy is central to my work as a counselor.
In addition to my counseling credentials, I offer trainings for clinicians in Somatic and Mindfulness-based Trauma Treatment and Anti-racist Private Practice and Supervision Training. I teach graduate classes as an adjunct faculty member at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School in the Counseling Program.