Welcome to my website!
My name is Julee Peterson
I have a thriving private therapy practice via telehealth throughout California and blended family coaching throughout the U.S. My expertise is with blended families, couples and relationship issues. I also have an extensive background working with teens, children and family communication. I work from an Attachment Theory, strengths-based belief where I help clients realize their strengths, clarify communication and help guide them toward the changes they wish to see in their lives and relationships.
I earned my M.A. in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute in Berkeley, California and in researching ways blended families could relate more easily, I found EFT – Emotionally Focused Therapy and EFFT – Emotionally Focused Family Therapy. EFT gets to the heart of Attachment issues in relationships and in Blended Families – with insiders and outsiders – attachment and feelings of belonging or not belonging are abundant.
I have a friendly, warm and relational style – and am able to tackle tough issues. I understand how different values, family of origin, heritages and varying family cultures affect and trigger emotions in relationships that cause negative patterns. I create an emotional environment that feels safe, and all viewpoints get their chance to be heard and respected. This is a place to confront triggering topics, heal your emotional wounds and sort through relationship struggles. The trust we build in the therapeutic relationship is what allows for positive change to happen.
Those are the basics of my professional background.
From a personal side, my interest in psychotherapy came from becoming part of a Blended Family and going through the challenges of building a family from the ground up. If you’re a stepparent and you feel like you’ve signed up for more than you bargained for—between the mixed-up family boundaries and feeling like your spouse has a tighter relationship with their bio-children than with you—I understand how you feel and I can help you through the process of becoming a blended family.
My mission is to use my personal experience and professional expertise to help build step-relationships and blend families. Understanding the journey, and personal experiences inside the blended family helps generate a common neutral territory where members gain empathy for one another resulting in more emotional awareness, more positive interactions and better communication for a happier and healthier blended family.
I believe every blended family deserves an opportunity to thrive and create their unique family culture, way of blending, new family traditions, and a different type of family cohesiveness. It’s my privilege and passion to help clients work toward the belonging and stability they crave, and to gain an improved sense of appreciation for their relationships.
Researching ways to help yourself are the first steps toward change. I am different from most couples’ therapists and family therapists as I have very specified training with blended family dynamics and the eight developmental stages of blended families, and I’ve also walked the path of building a successful blended family. In hiring a therapist find someone who is able to understand the unique undercurrents that exist inside of a simple blended family and complex blended families – but, it is also my belief that to truly understand something, it needs to be experienced firsthand.
Getting support for your blended family as a couple can dramatically aid in reducing the struggles in your relationships and life, this is why I have created The Blended Blueprint course series to aid in normalizing and educating blended families on the unique and challenging dynamics of blended families and to help aid in creating better step-relationships. The Complete Blended Blueprint, The Brief Blended Blueprint and The Premarital Blended Blueprint are available now! Please explore the rest of the website where I answer frequently asked questions and provide psycho-education and a blended viewpoint through my blog.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Julee
LICENSING:
Board of Behavioral Science, State of California
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#117074).
Education:
Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA 2014
Bachelor of Science, Ball State University, 1995
Honor’s College, Ball State University, 1995
Psychotherapy Workshops, Trainings, and Certifications:
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Beyond Core Skills 2 (Oct. 2023 – March 2024)
Specialized Family Therapy [co-parenting] Certification: 2021
Reunification Therapy training: 2021
Discernment Counseling Certification: 2021
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Beyond Core Skills (Nov 2021 – March 2022)
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Core Skills 2020
Emotionally Focused Therapy: Externship 2019
Kids in the Crossfire of Divorce and Blended Families training: 2019
Certified Blended Family Coach, 2018
Gottman Therapist Level One Certification: 2017
Professional Organizations:
American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT)
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) –Monterey Chapter
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) – Santa Clara Chapter
ICEEFT – International Center of Excellence for Emotionally Focused Therapy
NCEEFT – Northern California Community for Emotionally Focused Therapy
Services:
Blended Families
EFT Therapy – Core Skills
Gottman Level 1 Therapy
Couples Counseling
Individuals with relationship issues
Premarital counseling
Discernment Counseling
Strategic Family Counseling – Co-parenting counseling
Reunification Therapy
Issues I work with:
Blended Families
Co-parenting
Parenting
Communication
Family Conflict / Values Conflict
Grief and Loss
Deciding whether to divorce – Discernment Counseling
Relationship Issues
Self Awareness
Coping Skills / Stress
