Julie Alp

Registered Psychotherapist PBANZ. B.Communication Studies, Certificate in Oranga Tinana (TWOA).

Location: 34 Jervois Rd, Ponsonby, Auckland
Email:  Julie.alp@gmail.com, Ph 021 117 6545

Clarity - Insight - Relief

I believe good therapy offers the time, the space and an unbiased relationship within which it's possible to grow and find new ways to move towards whatever it is that will make a good life for you.

What I offer in therapy:

I have seen the life-changing possibilities of finding a place and a person with whom you can talk and think about what is most important to you without fear or shame.

I see adults and older teens who are looking for someone to help them understand what is going on and how to navigate through it.

 Some people come to therapy with names for what pains them like anxiety, depression, or trauma and this provides a good starting point for the work. Just as many will come feeling awful but without a clear sense of what’s wrong.

What does this look like in the room? Some people start from a painful place of emotional overwhelm, or numbed out, or both. Maybe a small thing feels like a really big thing. Maybe a really big thing doesn’t feel like anything at all. Some are struggling with the ongoing effects of childhood abuse or neglect, or as parents. Some struggle with feeling ashamed or enraged in the face of physical sensations, sounds, or images that remind them of the past. Some struggle with family and intimate relationships, with feeling deeply alone or swallowed up by the ones they love most. Some are stuck in self-destructive loops, limited by fear or unable to clearly think about what’s going on. Some are stuck in grief. Some cannot grieve. Some feel unable to feel fully alive in the present, to look back, or plan for their future.

Many come longing for something other than a life that relentlessly unfolds and deep in despair that they will not find it. Many can also imagine what they want but do not know how to get there.

As a therapist I think first and foremost my job is to listen with care and curiosity to the person in front of me. I believe we are meant to learn and grow in our relationships with others but for too many this has not been possible. I endeavour to walk alongside my clients as the therapy unfolds, to keep them company in their distress and their victories, to help them find new paths, all the time working together to untie the knots that keep them tangled in the past.

I firmly believe that growth needs both relief from pain and nurturing of joy to find more of what you want in your life.

I bring to the work optimism about what is possible paired with a solid clinical practice that is shaped to best meet each client where they are starting from.

My approach:

For 2022 I am offering only long term weekly therapy. I’m not currently adding any fortnightly or short term clients.
I like to use an intuitive, creative approach to the work.
I work from a base of my clinical training and draw from CBT, DBT, and from my experience and training working for a trauma agency. The nature of the work depends on where we start from and what issues are at play. I have successfully worked with a number of clients who have previously struggled with open-ended therapies by using a more explicitly structured approach where necessary.

Specialism:

I am particularly interested in working with people to navigate the ongoing effects of dysfunctional families, childhood abuse, neglect or trauma however this is manifesting in the present.

I am also interested in building up a working therapeutic practice for those that struggle with feeling silenced - struggling with a fear of speaking and putting their experience into words, or with family secrets and denial.

I have experience working with: obsessive thinking and problematic ruminating, anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, OCD, self-harm, dissociation, feelings of unrealness, unmourned losses and grief, impacts of adoption, depression or overwhelming sadness, disordered eating, issues with intimacy, relationship struggles, finding joy and what a good life looks like for you, and help in building a creative and meaningful life.

Client Types: Teenagers (16+) & Adults

Professional Memberships: I am a registered psychotherapist (PBANZ).

Member of International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation

Fees: I work in 50-minute sessions and my fees are $155 per session (incl. GST) paid via electronic banking or cash.

Location: 34 Jervois Rd, Ponsonby, Auckland

Contact: It is easiest to get hold of me via text 021 117 6545 or make contact via email: Julie.alp@gmail.com