Julie Kim
I am a licensed therapist in California, holding a master’s degree from Columbia University, with over twenty years of experience. I lived in the Bay Area for nearly 20 years and now proudly call San Diego County home. I strive to create a warm space where curiosity and compassion guide us in exploring and understanding our lives.
I continue to develop a keen ability to authentically hold a positive regard and remain grounded through complex, unsettling times.
I deeply value self-agency and believe in the power of personal journeys that invite choice and meaningful reflection. It is truly a privilege to support my clients, and I hold our work together with genuine care and respect.
First session
The first session will open with a conversation about yourself and what, at the moment, you hope therapy will address. I am open to questions about the process. I love deep listening and asking reflective questions for you to have as much space as you would like to share your experience. This helps me have a clearer picture of your expectations and I hope gives you a sense of my strengths in the work.
Strengths
I continue to develop a keen ability to authentically hold a positive regard and remain grounded through complex, unsettling times. I have genuine reverence for our human experience and can manage difficult discussions with humility, levity, and empathy.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who has navigated significant challenges and discovered within themselves the strength to keep moving forward—to build a life, grow, and care for themselves and others. From the outside, they may appear strong, capable, and even successful. Yet beneath that strength, they may still feel caught in old patterns that make it difficult to fully enjoy the life they have worked so hard to create. They are thoughtful and curious, with a quiet sense that something more is possible—more ease, meaning, connection, and freedom. They are open to understanding themselves more deeply, even when turning inward feels new or unfamiliar. Many of the people I work with come from cultures, families, or environments where introspection was not always encouraged or accessible. In our work, there is room to explore without rejecting where you come from. The patterns you developed made sense within the context of your life. Together, we can approach them with compassion and deep respect—understanding how they helped you survive while creating new ways of being that feel more authentic and freeing. I especially value working with people who are ready, at their own pace, to move beyond simply getting through life and begin experiencing it with greater presence, possibility, and joy.
Treatment methods
Psychodynamic
My practice is grounded in gently exploring both past and present experiences to uncover deeper meaning in our challenges and strengths. Through this process, we learn to hold our stories with greater compassion, allowing for more peace, balance, and clarity in our lives.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
I bring training and experience in cultivating the attitudes and foundations of mindfulness to support the development of lasting skills that help us hold both pain and joy with greater ease. Together, we will explore practices that foster new perspectives, inviting healing and deep self-compassion—so that we can more fully appreciate even the simplest moments in our beautifully complex lives.
Person-centered (Rogerian)
I deeply value each person’s lived experience and hold a core belief that we all carry the capacity for healing within us. I see therapy as a collaborative and compassionate space where empathy and authenticity can support meaningful growth. With the right conditions—community, trust, and support—we naturally move toward health, resilience, and self-acceptance. Rather than focusing solely on analyzing difficulties, I strive to honor each individual’s unique context and cultivate a greater sense of self-worth, agency, and wholeness.
Eclectic
Over the years, I’ve trained in a range of therapeutic modalities that have meaningfully shaped my work, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Play Therapy, Hypnotherapy and Motivational Interviewing. While these approaches offer valuable, sometimes directive tools, I integrate them in a way that invites reflection rather than prescription. My goal is to offer ideas and perspectives that individuals can explore at their own pace—taking what resonates and adapting practices in ways that feel authentic and helpful to their unique journey.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
Top specialties
Other specialties
Doesn't specialize in
Licensed in
- CaliforniaLicense 24420