At Village Wellness, we believe care should be both intelligent and deeply human. We support mind, body, and soul as one interconnected, living system. Our bodies are not machines to be managed; they are part of nature itself.
We’re here for women seeking grounded, evidence-informed care that honours their biology, intuition, and autonomy. No quick fixes, no numbing: just real, relational support that helps you reconnect with your body’s own intelligence.
Because true wellness restores sovereignty: the quiet knowing that you are free to change your circumstances, your story, your life.
Once, care was woven into the rhythm of the village; shared, trusted, alive. Village Wellness exists to remember that way of being: where health and belonging meet, and where modern care finds its old, human heart.
We are located in the Similkameen Valley, though all offerings are online at this time. Our work is inspired by the land, community and beings we are getting to know as we become more and more rooted in this beautiful place.
About Village Wellness
About Julia
Therapist and Founder at Village Wellness
Hi, I’m Julia,
I’m a Registered Clinical Counsellor, endlessly passionate about the possibilities in creating a world lived from the heart.
My work is a true weaving of the practical and the subtle. My professional training and education have always revolved around possibility, alchemy, and the quiet miracles that unfold in healing, likely long before I consciously knew that to be true. I studied psychology alongside an anthropological perspective on religious studies, with a focus on various mystical traditions. I hold a Master’s in Counselling Psychology and have training in yoga and meditation facilitation.
From a young age, I’ve felt at home moving between worlds. That quality helps me connect with and understand many different human experiences. My approach to healing and change is creative, compassionate, relational, and intuitive. In my therapeutic work, I draw from several modalities, including Existential Psychotherapy, Depth Psychology, Emotion-Focused Therapy, mindfulness, and ongoing training in energetic and nonverbal healing and communication practices.
My understanding of eating disorders is both personal and professional. For many years, I was at war with my body in nearly every way. The process of finding my own way forward to a truly peaceful relationship with my body and myself has shaped how I work with others, allowing me to see beyond textbooks and labels, and to help people return to a sense of home within themselves. All of my work is shaped as much by my studies as by every life experience that has brought me to deep and transformative places; experiences that continually expand my capacity to see, hold, and be in awe of the people I have the privilege to work with.
I’ve worked with adults and teens navigating eating disorders and disordered eating, suicidality, anxiety, depression, self-harm, grief, major life transitions, relationship challenges, and more, within the full spectrum of what life brings. My hope is always to support the people I work with in cultivating a more peaceful and sovereign relationship with themselves: one rooted in trust, choice, and the quiet intelligence of nature. I believe healing is really a remembering of our innate wisdom and belonging within the living world.
When I am not working, you will likely find me in the kitchen, outdoors with my Livestock Guardian Dog, Saša by my side, or trying (often unsuccessfully) to learn how to use an unfamiliar piece of farming equipment.
Education & Training
Yoga For Eating Disorder Recovery:
Module One Training
by: Eat Breathe Thrive
The Process of Teaching Meditation:
11 Hr. Intensive
by Carolyn Budgell
Linking Awareness Journey:
Intercellular Communication
Preliminary Activation
Reiki Level I
Usui/Holy Fire III
Queen's University
Bachelor of Arts (Honours):
Psychology & Religious Studies
Adler University
Masters of Counselling Psychology
200-Hr. Yoga Teacher Training
Studio 330 Kingston, ON
Fitness Theory: Anatomy & Physiology
Infofit
At the heart of my work is restoring the inner communication system that lives between your body, your psyche, your emotions, your instincts, your imagination, your unconscious, and the life unfolding around you.
Once these channels come back online, life itself becomes the guide.
My Approach
Restoring Inner Communication
At the heart of my work is restoring the inner communication system that lives between your body, your psyche, your emotions, your instincts, your imagination, your unconscious, and the life unfolding around you. Once these channels come back online, life itself becomes the guide. Therapy becomes optional, not because you have outgrown it, but because you have re-entered relationship with yourself.
We are not here to fix. Rather, I support you in rebuilding the connection through which you can relate to yourself, your body, your experiences, the people and beings around you, and life as a whole.
My aim is always the same: to essentially render myself unnecessary. When your inner communication system is working again, you remember what it feels like to sense what is happening inside and the clarity to choose from that awareness.
Therapy (or support of any form) becomes a resource rather than something we feel more reliant upon.
How I Support Self-Connection.
Self-connection returns through many different doorways. Sometimes through inquiry and meaning-making. Sometimes through the steadiness of co-regulation between our nervous systems. Sometimes through exploration and new awareness. Sometimes through imaginative or visual inner dialogue, somatic imagery, or experiential meditation. Sometimes by naming and strengthening instinct, desire, embodiment, and the parts of you that have been silenced or blurred.
Often, the unconscious reveals itself naturally through your life events, relationships, dreams, habits, and emotional patterns. We work with whatever arises.
In this way, there is no need to go digging for wounds, we can simply be present and I am here to support a remembering (because part of you does know) how to digest what life brings forward.
We strengthen your inner relationship so that when life brings you into deeper territory, you can meet it. This protects you from the endless therapy loop where there is always one more wound, one more story, one more shadow to dig up.
When your internal landscape is solid and your relationship to self strong, you know what you need. You can move through a challenging experience feeling steady enough to handle it, knowing more often when and where to ask for help from awareness rather than confusion. You can sense when you want support, when you simply want to be witnessed, and when you can walk on your own. And this space can be any of these things.
You can also find out more about my approach, specifically working with eating disorders/disordered eating and supporting empowered sensitivity.
Who I Work With
You may have tried various forms of support or therapy to heal your relationship to food and your body but something has still felt to be missing. You no longer engage in the unhealthy behaviours around food that you used to, but you still find that harsh voice beating you up in the back of your head.
Perhaps you have followed the protocols and restored your physical health, but still secretly hate your body and feel uncomfortable in your day-to-day life.
You might see similar patterns to those of your eating disorder now showing up in other areas of life: needing to feel in control, numbing out, or distracting to avoid painful or uncomfortable emotions.
You feel tied to a meal plan and a more mechanical way of eating, but long to feel the safety and peace in your body to be able to hear its cues and eat more freely without fearing relapse.
You may have gone through inpatient treatment programs, and while the eating disorder has eased, you feel the impact of such an intense treatment protocol and controlled environment, and can’t seem to feel like yourself again, even years after.
Perhaps you’ve tried hospital or community-based treatments for your eating disorder and felt that something was missing or never felt seen or safe enough to really trust that recovery could be for you.
You have always felt different, maybe questioned if something was wrong with you. You seemed to feel things more deeply than others, be more impacted by events or emotions than your peers.
If any of this resonates, know that you are not alone. Recovery is less about returning to who you were before, rather, remembering a level of peace and safety in your body, woven with an integration of all you have experienced.
True freedom from disordered eating is possible, a way of living that feels settled, alive, and entirely your own.
Ages I Work With
I work with women and teen girls aged 14+. For teens, I offer individual therapy, which simply means the sessions are focused on yours or your daughter’s internal world, wellbeing, and relationships to self and others.
While I do not offer family therapy at this time, I value and support the health of the family system. My intention is never to separate teens from their families, but to give them a grounded space of their own where they can make sense of their experiences, emotions, and challenges with a steady perspective from someone who isn’t involved in the day-to-day of their life.
Every family is different. Some teens feel comfortable involving their parents more directly; others need privacy as they build trust and clarity. I respect both, and I work with each teen to help her communicate and connect in ways that feel right for her situation.
The focus is always on strengthening a teen girl’s inner stability, resilience, and self-awareness so she can relate more clearly and confidently to herself, her family, and her life.
Contact us
You are welcome to reach out with any questions, wonderings, or thoughts about our offerings or what working together could look like. We so look forward to hearing from you.