We direct bill counselling services to Pacific Blue Cross, GreenShield, Canada Life & Sun Life! For a full list of direct billing providers, click here.
We direct bill counselling services to Pacific Blue Cross, GreenShield, Canada Life & Sun Life! For a full list of direct billing providers, click here.
Julianna is a therapist who works slowly and thoughtfully with people navigating complex inner worlds, identity tension, and experiences of harm. Her work centers consent, pacing, and helping clients reconnect with parts of themselves that have been overridden or doubted.
Julianna works with youth, adults, and relationships through individual and relationship counselling in Vancouver and virtually across BC. She also offers walk and talk and nature-based therapy sessions in Vancouver and Burnaby, bringing the therapeutic conversation outdoors for folx who process better in motion or who find the walls of a traditional office limiting. Julianna can support you with identity tension or bicultural identity navigation, trauma or experiences of harm, grief, anxiety, burnout, building self-worth or self-esteem through expressive art therapy and nature-based therapy.
…you’ve spent a lot of your life translating yourself between cultures, roles, or worlds (D&D anyone?), and you want room to think out loud without flattening the complexity.
Julianna often works with clients exploring bicultural identity, belonging, and self-definition. Her sessions draw on art therapy, walk & talk, and narrative practice, and tend to suit people who make sense of their lives through stories, patterns, and shared reference points.
This work pays attention to the roles you’ve inherited, the ones you’ve outgrown, and the ones you’re still choosing, without rushing that process or forcing it into neat conclusions.
This is not therapy that strips context, pushes tidy answers, or insists everything be translated into clinical language.
Hello and welcome! Come and sit, let’s chat for a while. In my own lived experience getting counselling, I know how uncomfortably vulnerable it is to reach out for help; I’m glad that you are here, bravely making that first step for yourself.
My work is grounded on the perspective that how we story our lives is incredibly powerful, and it is through these stories that we make sense of the world, ourselves, and our experiences. These stories can be taught, inherited, passed down, adopted, melded, and combined. Some stories are helpful and empowering, and some stories can cause us to feel trapped, frustrated, and helpless. And for some stories that we have, we would rather them be forgotten, hidden, and ignored because of how much pain and shame these stories bring us.
We would approach our counselling from a place that perceives healing from a holistic and relational perspective – creating a safe place where we feel free to be our whole self and reconnect with the parts of ourselves that may be tangled up in hurt, shame, and hopelessness. Part of our work together will be exploring all parts of your story with compassionate and thoughtful curiosity. We will be tracing the threads that make up our stories, examining how we came to know what we know about ourselves, others, and the world. As we slowly unravel the threads of our story, we will rebuild and reclaim our stories anew – learning new insights, new perspectives, new skills, and new (and rediscovered) strengths. Our time together will be collaborative and co-created. I may bring forward experiential exercises, questions, promptings, and tidbits of knowledge here and there, but ultimately, you are the author and the expert of your story, setting the topic and pace of where and how we will go.
A small glimpse about myself: I am an uninvited settler currently occupying the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. I am a cis-het, non-disabled Chinese woman, and am a 1.5 generation immigrant, born in BC to a dad from Guangdong, China and a mom from Hong Kong; I’m no stranger to navigating the nuanced and complex intracultural clashes between colonialism, Eastern traditions, and Western philosophies. I am familiar with the challenge of straddling multiple cultures, trying to satisfy conflicting expectations whilst trying to find a place where I can plant my feet and live out my full authentic story. Outside of the counselling room, I love to immerse myself in the rich worlds found in books and video games. Unsurprisingly, I also enjoy watching anime and streaming series – especially with friends and loved ones! That being said, my ultimate pastime is spending many hours curled up with a book, a cup of tea and a cozy blanket.
I’m excited to meet you and hear the stories you will share. I would love nothing more than to walk with you on your journey towards transformative healing and discovery. If you are interested in journeying together, feel free to email me or book a consultation with me. I can’t wait to meet you!
You’re curious and open to trying or hearing new things or different perspectives.
You’re introspective and like reflection.
You like metaphors and analogies. I often reference movies and pop culture, myths and legends.
You like to take things slow and peel back layers one layer at a time.
There is clarity and certainty in themselves and in what they are seeing. They aren’t out of their mind or not making sense. They did see accurately and correctly. Some part or parts of themselves were right all along.
Something that was said, or something inside, settles into place or resonates like an echoing bell. There is a softening in the eyes and the shoulders. During these moments, I try to stop talking so the client can just feel what is happening without the distracting buzz of words.
Sometimes truth and healing are felt first, before our words and brains come in to analyze what is happening.
Progress is not linear, with clear and delineated goal posts.
Sometimes healing is more subtle and hidden. Cell by cell, layer by layer, we are making changes and rebuilding ourselves.
Often, healing builds momentum until it bursts forth, or until we realize together how far you have come without noticing.
If we have been hurt, if trust feels uneasy, or if we feel wary and uncomfortable, that is okay.
We ask for consent. We take things slow. Trust is earned.
The room is a place where we extend an opportunity to each other to see if we are trustworthy.
Trauma-informed means we go slow, at a pace that you, the client, feel comfortable with.
I never say forgive and forget. There is no forgetting.
I do not say why couldn’t you or why can’t you.
I do not say but they’re your family.
I avoid anything that is overly positive without real substance or prior context from you.
How has this helped you in the past?
What do you think this part of you is trying to tell you?
Anger, fear, procrastination, and loneliness are approached as parts with meaning.
We won’t be rushing or hurrying.
We aren’t going to minimize. Everything has its importance and makes up the bigger picture.
We will explore, be curious, and let things out to breathe and be heard to their fullest, as many times as it takes. Each retelling is like a deepening layer.
Take a moment to breathe and notice what’s happening when we’re stuck. We don’t have to label a feeling, memory, or sensation. We can let it float up. We take things slow. We aren’t avoiding. We are approaching, poking, prodding, gently unwrapping and detangling.
Therapy sessions with Julianna Lei, MCP, RCC can be directly billed to most extended health insurance providers, as well as CVAP & ICBC. She currently offers virtual sessions as well as in-person sessions in Vancouver, and nature-based therapy sessions in Vancouver and Burnaby. Julianna works with youth and adults individually and through relationship counselling.
