***IMMEDIATE AVAILABILITY, including some after-school & evenings.

Julia is an in-network provider with: BCBS (including Blue Home/UNC Health Alliance), AETNA (including State Health Plan), Ambetter, and CIGNA/Evernorth.

Julia Burke, LCSWA (she/her) provides individual therapy to children (ages 3+), adolescents and parents, using play- and talk-based interventions grounded in attachment, psychodynamic, and trauma-informed theories. Julia believes that therapy can serve as a space for people of all ages to explore their inner worlds in a safe, nonjudgmental, and supportive setting - and that this exploration, along with skills-based intervention, is the path towards lasting internal and behavioral change. Practically, she utilizes play, sandtray therapy, creative expression, and skills based interventions with children. She offers an empathetic, holistic, and person-centered approach to therapy, centering her clients’ needs, hopes and goals. She deeply values relationships as a source of healing and change, including the therapeutic relationship. 

Through a curious, reflective, and warm approach, Julia strives to create a space where clients feel nurtured, heard, and empowered to explore all parts of themselves. She welcomes people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, racial and ethnic identities, and religious or spiritual affiliations. 

Julia believes that play therapy offers a space for children to engage in self-exploration, develop curiosity and insight into their inner (and external) worlds, build secure relationships, and practice and learn coping and regulation skills. She sees caregivers as fundamental in supporting children in therapeutic work, and collaborates closely with them in dedicated parent/caregiver sessions. With caregivers, Julia works first to explore immediate interventions to manage pressing problems at school or home. In an ongoing way, Julia works with parents to understand the source of their children’s behaviors and experiences and strengthen parenting skills. In addition, exploration of how parents’ own past experiences may influence parenting and family relationships can be an important part of breaking intergenerational patterns and helping parents to build confidence and lasting closeness within their families. 

Julia is a graduate of the University of Virginia (BA) and the University of North Carolina a Chapel Hill (MSW). She completed psychodynamic training at the UNC Department of Psychiatry Child and Family Guidance Program, and brings school social work experience from her training in Chatham County Schools. Julia finds meaning and joy outside of therapy by exploring the outdoors and its many wonders, creating art, and sharing a meal with family and friends.