About Julie
Julie Ekman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 29 years of experience. She practices from Illinois and brings a calm, practical style to sessions. Julie focuses on stress and anxiety while also addressing self-esteem, career concerns, and life transitions.
She trained at the University of Denver with a Master of Social Work and also holds a Master of Arts in School Leadership from Concordia University. Much of her career was spent as a school social worker and family therapist, including 26 years working with middle school students in educational settings.
Background and approach
Julie uses a client-centered, strengths-based approach. She draws on solution-focused work and cognitive behavioral techniques to help people identify small, doable changes. In sessions she helps people break problems into manageable steps and practice new skills between meetings.
Common concerns she helps people with include panic attacks, social anxiety, workplace stress, family conflict, and coping with chronic illness or life changes. She also supports people facing guilt, shame, relationship endings, and questions about life purpose. Sessions aim to build coping skills, restore confidence, and improve day-to-day functioning.
Julie describes therapy as a collaborative process. She works with each person to create clear goals and practical strategies. Her long experience in schools informs a patient, straightforward approach that suits people looking for steady, skill-based support.
How her approaches work in online therapy
Julie relies on evidence-based techniques that focus on changing unhelpful thoughts and building practical skills. Cognitive behavioral techniques involve identifying thought patterns that feed anxiety and testing new ways of thinking and acting to reduce worry and panic. These strategies are useful for social anxiety, panic attacks, and general stress.She also uses solution-focused methods to set clear, short-term goals and find immediate, workable steps. This approach helps people tackle workplace issues, family conflict, and life transitions by focusing on what changes will help right now rather than rehashing every past detail.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist and client review goals, try techniques, and adjust based on what helps most. Julie frames therapy as collaborative, so the plan evolves with the person’s needs and preferences.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to offer flexibility. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and skill practice. Phone calls can fit a busy day or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text messaging suit brief check-ins, ongoing support between sessions, or shorter exchanges when writing feels easier. These options make it simpler to maintain regular contact and build steady progress.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How long has she worked in the field?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Which languages are offered for sessions?
What session formats are available?
How is cost handled?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Experience
- 29 years
- Licensed
- Illinois
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.