Julie Rider

Julie Rider is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 25 years of experience in California. She focuses on anxiety, depression, and life-change concerns, and she also helps people who are coping with grief, trauma, and relationship strain. Julie uses plain language and practical skills so people can try things between sessions.

Over her career she has taught parenting skills and now draws on that experience while working with parents. She speaks from long experience as a parent herself and aims to offer realistic strategies that fit everyday family life. Julie also brings attention to issues such as adoption and foster care, postpartum challenges, and multicultural concerns.

Her approach blends client-centered listening with structured tools from cognitive behavioral therapy. She uses mindfulness practices to help people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting overwhelmed. When helpful, she adds solution-focused techniques to set small, achievable goals.

Sessions are conversational and goal-oriented. Julie helps people identify patterns that hold them back and then practices new responses together. She shares straightforward coping tools for sleeping problems, stress, compassion fatigue, and career or self-esteem concerns.

Julie aims to make therapy understandable and usable. She encourages a steady pace and supports people as they try new skills. Starting therapy is a first step toward change, and she works to make that step feel manageable.

Mindful and Practical Approaches for Online Work

Julie uses Mindfulness Therapy to help people notice thoughts and body sensations without getting swept away by them. Mindfulness practices can be useful for anxiety, sleep problems, and coping with ongoing stress. She also draws on Client-Centered Therapy, which emphasizes careful listening and tailoring the pace to each person's needs. That approach helps people feel heard while they decide what changes to try next.

Julie also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify thinking patterns that feed worry or low mood and to develop concrete strategies for changing those patterns. CBT techniques can help with sleep, anxiety, and managing day-to-day stress. Choosing the right mix of approaches is a collaborative process; Julie works with each person to match methods to their goals and preferences rather than forcing a single method.

Confirm the available online session formats before booking so you know how sessions will be scheduled. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into busy days, shorten travel time, and allow for more consistent check-ins when life is hectic. The therapist will help adapt mindfulness and CBT practices so they fit your routines and goals, and will set simple, practical homework that can be done between sessions.