About Julia

Professional Experience

At 45 (and proud of it!), I've had lots of experience, both personally and professionally. I'll tell you about each because I think it helps to know a little bit about the person you're possibly going to work with.

Professionally, I received my bachelor's in Sociology from Gonzaga University (2002) and my master's in Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch University Seattle (2009). I am also a Martha Beck Wayfinder ICF Coach (2023)

My passion has always been around grief work, and I was very involved with Seattle's Swedish Hospice program for six years, providing respite and counseling for caretakers of dying patients in their homes.

Crisis work is in my blood, and I volunteered for two years at King County Crisis Line serving distressed individuals during the overnight shift. Those 400+ hours of talking people through the worst times in their lives were educational and an honor in itself.

I've participated in 350+ hours of psychodrama retreat work, led parenting groups through PEPS (Program for Early Parent Support), ran therapeutic retreats and started Bloomers Society, an online support community for women coming out later in life. I’ve been coaching divorcing couples through my program The Co-Parenting Way for the past four years.

Personal Experience

I've learned about as much (actually, more) through life as I have during my "formal" education.

I've lost my stepfather (2013), mother (2018), and father (2020), after many years of caring for them. I lost a baby girl late into my pregnancy. I’ve moved across the country with young children and started life over from scratch. Five and a half years ago I took my last drink of alcohol (one day at a time).

At 39, I fell in love with a woman and told my husband of 11 years that I was gay. Our daughters were 8, 5, and 14 months at the time.

It was hell. It was painful. It was beautiful. And it was the first decision I ever made that I knew was right. (Read my Facebook divorce announcement).

Today, life is like I never thought it could be. My wife and I are deeply in love and grateful for each other every day; our children can't imagine life without their "bonus mom” and bonus sister (whom I adopted—my bonus girl ;-), and co-parenting with our girls' dad and his wife/other bonus mom is an honor and a joy. We've all worked hard to give our children the kind of family they deserve – and as parents, we reap the benefits as well.

My path has been made up of hard twists and turns and confusion and grief and lots and lots of laughter in between. And I wouldn’t give up any part of that path. I would do it all over again to end up where I am right now.

Whatever your story is, it's unique to you. People don’t have to understand it, but dammit, you deserve to live it.

And I’m here to help you do just that.

My Family

  • Christy, myself, our four daughters, and two (of four) dogs.

    I love how you can see the “Here’s to Strong Women” sign in the background. We are definitely raising strong girls!

  • My beautiful (and hilarious) wife.

    At our home in Dallas.

  • "Modern Family" (our text chain name).

    Our co-parents, the girls’ Dad and bonus Mom at a birthday party. We all go to all the celebrations.

  • "The Sisters"

    Visiting big sis at college. (Our youngest just calls out for all of them at once …”Sisters! Where are you?!”)

  • Cutting the cake

    We may have had one of the very first Zoom weddings in May of 2020.

  • My sisters

    My beautiful sisters

    I don’t know what I’d do without them.

  • They do ALL the sports.

    We spend a lot of time cheering on the bleachers together.

  • Just Crusin'

  • "The Divorce Picture"

    We took this pic a week after we told the girls about the divorce (hence the two thumbs up, we’re doing ok!” pose). When I look at this I see two people who were in a lot of pain but who also loved their family and wanted to make this new life work.

    Read My Divorce Announcement

  • Fa La La

    The first Christmas we were all together. I think some of us were nervous, but it went great. (My sister is poking her head in as well)

  • Our first dance

  • Speaks for itself ;-)

  • My amazing girlfriends

    They were worried about me—about all of us—but they were always there.

“I mean, sorry, this can be an unpopular opinion, but divorce almost 100% of the time is a decision that what was is not good enough to stay in, which means it’s a new beginning, which means it’s almost always hopeful, painful, but also a brave, bold step towards the future and towards more and towards bigger and towards life. But if we gather and cry about it just because that’s what we’ve always done, what if we had, like we have graduation parties, divorce is largely a graduation, why aren’t we having soulful, it doesn’t have to be frivolous, but shouldn’t we gather in a milestone honoring the courage of a divorce as a new beginning?”

— Glennon Doyle,

We Can Do Hard Things Podcast

Glennon and I sharing a little moment together.

Glennon Doyle and I sharing a little moment together when we met at a conference.

She (and Abby and Craig) are a co-parenting success story and an inspiration to me.