Julie the founding member of the Attachment Coalition of Michigan. She is a clinical social worker who has a private practice in Livonia, Michigan specializing in therapy that is uniquely sensitive to the issues of trauma, adoption, and attachment. Julie has been treating children, adolescents, adoptive families, and adult adoptees for about 30 years. She has trained with Dr. Daniel Hughes and utilizes Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) as her primary treatment philosophy. DDP is a comprehensive treatment approach that honors the dyadic relationship between the parent-child as the primary agent of healing and change. Through playfulness, love, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy (PLACE), parents help their children/teens explore the hurt and trauma of the past in therapy, facilitating healing. Using the PLACE philosophy, Julie teaches therapeutic parenting to support parents in strengthening attachment with their wounded children.

 

Julie’s passion for her work in adoption and attachment comes from her own experience of being adopted. Being an adoptee herself, Julie enters a therapeutic relationship with wisdom, insight, and empathy into assessing and treating core issues of adoption that effect children, adolescents, families, and adult adoptees on varying levels.

 

About 25 years ago, Julie founded the Attachment COALITION of Michigan, a group of clinical social workers, psychologists, and counselors with specialized training and experience in trauma, attachment, and adoption. The COALITION is committed to strengthening professional development of its members, to providing a comprehensive team approach to serving families, and to facilitating local and national trainings on issues of attachment and trauma. Additionally, Julie and the COALITION have been an actively involved of the national organization, the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children (ATTACh) including attending the annual national conferences around the country with leading experts in the areas of trauma, child development, neurobiology, and attachment-focused treatments.

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