Julia Collins, LMSW

Nobody is you. That is your superpower. I’ve believed that since I was a kid, and it’s probably why my friends started coming to me in high school when they needed someone to help them break a problem into pieces that didn’t feel so impossible. I didn’t know it was going to become my career but looking back the signs were pretty obvious.

I’m Julia, a Long Islander from Bellmore who earned her MSW from Binghamton University. My clinical training took me through an inpatient psychiatric hospital, a college campus, and both day and community habilitation settings. Those experiences showed me that mental health challenges look completely different from one person to the next, and they taught me to get to know each client as a whole person rather than leading with a diagnosis.

The feedback I hear most often is “I never thought about it that way.” The aha moment I strive for in sessions is when someone sees their situation from an angle they hadn’t considered and something shifts in how they understand themselves. I love helping people reframe what they’re going through and find perspectives they wouldn’t have landed on alone.

I prefer a light-hearted approach, and I think that really makes a difference. During my time in habilitation settings, I did carpool karaoke with clients and played bingo during group sessions because sometimes connection happens when you stop trying to make it clinical. Clients enjoy my sense of humor, and I’ve found that when people are laughing, they’re also relaxing enough to be honest.

I work with individuals ages 15 to 60 navigating self-esteem, life transitions, relationship conflicts, depression, anxiety, and coping skills. I’m comfortable working with neurodivergent clients and people managing severe mental illness. My approach pulls from CBT for reframing thought patterns, narrative therapy for helping clients retell their story through a strengths-based lens, and DBT for building mindfulness skills. I’m also open to games, art, and whatever creative approach helps you express what talking alone can’t always reach.

A friend once said about me, “You really are the friend that everyone needs. You remember all the little things.” I do remember and I pay attention to the details my clients share so I can bring them back when they’re relevant. That tells people I’m listening with my full attention, not just waiting for my turn to speak.

Since the pandemic I’ve completed so many paint-by-numbers that my basement is basically an art museum, which is probably why I’m so comfortable using creative techniques in sessions. You don’t need to be artistic for art to be therapeutic. Sometimes just following a process one step at a time produces something beautiful without you realizing it. I also got my black belt in Tae Kwon Do at eleven and my roundhouse kick is still fierce, so when I say I’ll go to bat for you, I mean it in every sense