Julia Putnam
Marriage and Family Therapist
Julia Putnam, MA, LMFT, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a wide range of experience working in many different therapeutic settings, including wilderness therapy, residential treatment, community mental health, and community-based therapeutic mentoring. Her training in Marriage and Family Therapy helps her see all of her clients, whether they are individuals, children, adolescents, families, or couples, through a family systems lens. She believes that we as people do not exist in a vacuum and we are who we are in part due to the relationships, experiences, and stories within our lives.
Julia works primarily through a strengths-based and solution-focused theoretical perspective as she works to support individuals, couples, and families to identify and build upon areas of their lives that are working well in order to decrease the impact of the areas that aren’t. She works from the perspective that people have the ability to change their situation through the strengths and resources they already have, and that problems exist when these strengths are not being recognized or utilized. She also includes aspects of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Structural Family Therapy, Motivational interviewing, and Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) in her sessions.
Education & Experience
While Julia is originally from Pittsburgh, she is recently returning to the area after spending many years away exploring and growing personally and professionally throughout different areas of the country. She earned her Bachelors Degree in Sociology and Education from the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, spent time working in wilderness therapy in Utah, then earned her Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Her experience and interest lies largely in the areas of technology/screen/video game overuse and addiction, anxiety, depression, social anxiety, autism spectrum diagnoses, ADHD, executive function difficulties, communication struggles, and life transitions, including navigating the challenges of emerging adulthood, grief and loss, pregnancy loss/infertility, and new parenthood.
Hobbies & Interests
When Julia is not helping others learn and grow, she tries to take actions to do so herself. She loves to go on adventures and spend time outdoors. Her personal and professional experiences have taught her how we grow by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones, and she practiced what she preaches by challenging herself to accomplish the goal of hiking the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail spanning from Mexico to Canada in 2013. Just as she enjoys being outdoors, she is just as content enjoying quiet time and connecting with the people she loves. Her biggest joys come from spending time with her husband, son, and their very fluffy cat. She is excited to be back in Pittsburgh!
How to Get Started
Julia provides therapy in-person at the Pittsburgh office as well as via online therapy for your convenience. You can reach us at 412-322-2129 or email us at info@counselingwellnesspgh.com to get started. Or contact us here.