Julie Christianson, MSW, LICSW
Julie has worked in the field of children’s mental health for over 15 years. She especially enjoys working with children and families to move forward through difficulties. She developed a special interest in Selective Mutism following learning more about it while treating her first few cases. Julie treats clients through a relationship based manner. Her work is influenced by a number of models for treating emotional dysregulation and trauma.
Julie holds a Master’s degree in clinical social work from the School of Social Work at the University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catherine. Throughout her years of experience providing clinical and developmental services to clients, she has worked in a variety of settings, including a non-profit outpatient office, school systems, a shelter, a day treatment center, and in a private practice setting. She currently provides therapy and consultative services to young children and their families through her private practice. This can be done in her office, in the classroom setting, or over video (telemedicine). Therapeutic frameworks utilized include attachment, developmental, and psychodynamic theories, Child Parent Psychotherapy, Circle of Security International (where she is a Registered Parent Educator), CBT therapy, and exposure therapy.
Throughout her work, Julie has learned the importance of building a trusting relationship and creating an atmosphere where clients feel engaged and comfortable. She focuses on understanding a client’s unique needs and circumstances and finding solutions within a collaborative relationship with my client and their caregivers. With children, this is often done through play, as play is a child’s natural form of expression. It allows them to assign meaning and words to their experiences. Julie augments this through building a trusting relationship and by using narration, reflection, and asking questions to help the child gain insight regarding their experience.
Areas of special focus
Anxiety, selective mutism, attachment, trauma, ADHD, sensory integration issues, emotional self-regulation, and behavioral self-regulation in young children.
Many people have difficulty adjusting to life changes. Julie provides therapeutic assistance to children through life changes, such as starting school, the birth of a sibling, moving, grief and loss, or separation from a significant caregiver.
Julie Christianson, MSW, LICSW
Playmore & Prosper
18205 45th Ave N. Suite A
Plymouth, Minnesota 55446
763-355-5488
763-355-5699 Fax
