Practice information:

My name is Giulia (Julia) Santaca and I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor in British Columbia. I have always been motivated to work with children, adolescents, couples and families to help them positively deal with life challenges and psychological issues that can compromise their daily routine. With children and adolescence, I would be helpful with school related problems, behavioral or conduct problems, anxiety, trauma, special needs. With couples would be helpful with communication, infidelity, cross cultural differences, separation/ divorce.

During my teenager years, I developed a big passion for dance and arts that translates into my work. I use many Expressive Therapy techniques to discover the best modality which individuals can use to communicate and express themselves. I have been using dance, movement and Art Therapy in various psycho educational settings as an educator, a teacher and a psychologist assistant.

Training

I come from Italy where I got both my B.A. and M.A. in Developmental and Educational Psychology. I moved to Vancouver in 2017 where I concluded an internship in Counselling and Art Therapy at Adler University and developed my love for expressive therapy. Subsequently, I volunteered at the Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction and I’ve worked at the UBC Centre for Infant Cognition. My interest in working with couples was heightened when I took couples, family and group therapy courses at Yorkville University in Canada.

Psychological approaches and techniques 

I strongly believe in creating the most effective approach for each individual client (client centered approach) since every individual is unique and has different needs. Examples of approaches that I use entail working with; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Expressive Therapy (Play and Art Therapy), Mindfulness, Mindful Based Cognitive Therapy, Solution Focus Therapy and Systemic Therapy.

I would love the opportunity to work with you!