We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julia Alexander . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julia below.

Julia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My mom taught me how to find my way home. As a child, I would catch a glimpse of her fiery red hair as she set off to pave her own way. I’d watch her step off the path she was on into uncharted territory. Usually she would just rent an excavator or some other heavy machinery to create a new path. I realize now as an adult, all of these divergent roads were her listening to herself- to understanding that she wouldn’t contort herself into an ordinary life. She was always just going home. Learning to listening to this inner voice- this compass, is one of the infinite gifts she’s given me.

Julia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

About yourself:

Hey there. I’m Julia Alexander.
I’m a licensed clinical social worker in the State of Texas and a social justice educator. I hold master’s degrees in both social work and social justice education. I’ve worked hard over the course of my life to learn how to own and honor my story – the parts that fill me with joy and gratitude, and the parts that are painful and heartbreaking. It’s been a vulnerable journey that I’m sure I’ll be on for the rest of my life.

I identify as a white cis queer woman and I live and work in and around Austin, Texas – land originally stewarded by the Tonkawa, Comanche, Lipan Apache, Jumanos and Coahuiltecan. I’m a dog and horse mom, and nature is my sanctuary. I love to dance salsa, bachata and kizomba. I have a tough time doing any chores without listening to an audiobook and nothing makes me laugh harder than a rousing round of Mad Libs! I have been well loved by family, partners and friends. I’m also child of divorce, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I believe that when we each honor our full story and address shame and oppression head-on – with love, compassion and accountability – we free ourselves to move toward braver, more vulnerable, more connected living. My greatest joy is helping others come home to themselves while connecting with the natural world.

How you got into your industry?
By the time I was 16, I had made a choice to learn more about racism. I lived in a community that aimed to be inclusive, but that practiced colorblindness. This was commonplace in the 90’s. I think it was the very contradictions in colorblindness – what I was told being vastly different from what I observed and felt – that ultimately sparked my need to better understand race and racism. When I graduated from high school, my mom gave me a book by Dr. Beverly Tatum, (Thanks, Mom), which was the first place I read the words “white privilege.” I initially railed against the concept defensively, because my interest in race and racism was just that – an interest in someone else, removed and disconnected from myself.

In college, understanding the construction of whiteness and racism became my focus. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on colorblind racism and became passionate about finding the most effective ways to create paradigm shifts for people who hold multiple privileged identities. People like me. I began my own therapy during this time – when weighed down by depression, anxiety, homesickness and disordered eating. I’d developed so many protective mechanisms to distance myself from my own hurt that therapy was really hard. After three years, my therapist observed, “You haven’t cried once since you’ve been here.” I just wasn’t ready yet. After college I pursued a master’s degree in social justice education, which provided me with an even deeper understanding of the historical, social, political, racial and other systemic inequities that create systemic oppression – and the opportunity to examine my own experiences within these systems.

Toward the end of my master’s degree program, I realized that the very things I felt deep shame around were being activated by the work I was attempting to do with other white people. The word “countertransference” summed up what was happening: I was putting my shame and hurt onto the very people I was aiming to support. I saw the parts of myself in them that I hadn’t come to terms with yet. I figured then that becoming a therapist would give me the insight and skills to not only take care of myself in ways I hadn’t been able to yet, but to help others examine their own identities, support healing from personal and systemic trauma, and create long-lasting change and growth. That’s when I decided to pursue a second master’s degree to become a therapist.

As a lifelong horse person, I continued working with horses throughout my college career. After completing my master’s degree in social work, I was offered a position with an equine-assisted psychotherapy program in Texas. It was my dream job, but over time, I became concerned with how we were incorporating horses into human treatment. I began to see how the mechanisms of oppression humans face and inflict on each other are the same mechanisms we inflict on our horses.

Today, I continue to combine my greatest passions by providing compassionate therapy, education and consulting services rooted in anti-racist, social justice and liberatory frameworks.

What type of products/services/creative works you provide?
I provide compassionate therapy, education and consulting services rooted in anti-racist, social justice and liberatory frameworks.

Eco Therapy and Equine Assisted Therapy
I can offer you a safe place to land so you can get to the heart of the big stuff.

Big, as in:
Childhood relationship trauma
Coming out
Systemic oppression
Shame held by white-bodied people

We take into account past experiences, current situations, and all those established patterns, habits and beliefs that just may not serve you anymore.

Social Justice Education
The threads of healing and compassion are woven into my work as a social justice educator.
I offer customized consulting, curriculum design and group facilitation to help you, your team, or members of your group or organization understand your experiences and beliefs in the context of systemic oppression. Then I teach you how to participate in meaningful dialogue for change.

People, Horses and More-than-Human Animals
I combine my expertise as a therapist and social justice educator to offer equine-assisted psychotherapy rooted in the ethical inclusion of horses in human treatment. I can help you learn how to shift your perspective from a human-dominant framework to one of connection, dialogue and choice.

What problems do you solve for your clients?
I offer a safe, compassionate space for clients to come home to themselves. Regardless if someone is wanting to heal from past trauma, deepen their anti-racism work or connect with the more-than-human world in a way that aligns with their values, I provide a path to get there. Most clients I work with come to me to speak truth to shame, find relational safety and discover their inner resilience.

Or what you think sets you apart from others?
Over the past 15 years, I’ve found that understanding my intersecting social identities has allowed me to continuously deepen my healing. I’m so grateful to the parts of myself that have kept engaging and that didn’t give up because it was painful, hard and scary. I know now that these parts had some deep wisdom about the powerful healing that could occur if I continued to fight to reconnect to myself. Commitment to my own inner work continues to inform my perspective as a therapist and the liberation work I do in the world.

What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of the ways I’ve learned to listen to myself deeply. That hasn’t always been easy but I love supporting my clients in connecting to their inner wisdom.

what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.
You are not alone.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Self-righteousness to self-compassion:

Early in my career in social justice education and before becoming a trauma therapist, I stood my solid ground in all-or-nothing ways of seeing people and the world. I urgently called out my family and friends for contributing to racism in their beliefs and actions. I devoutly preached my views, not as an invitation but as a declaration. From high on my soapbox I could easily turn the spotlight away from myself and highlight what was good and bad, right and wrong about the way other people were doing things. I effectively escaped my grief and pain for years.

When I first learned about white privilege my thinking was rigid and my behavior punitive. I was trying to sort out seeing the world and myself in a new way, and wrestling with the contradictions of who I thought I was. I see this happening with white people newly engaged in a deeper understanding of racism and it’s a predictable part of the growth process. The psychological stages of racial identity development can give us deep insight into the developmental process of learning and growing in our identity. After 15+ years of this work, it’s still hard for me not to run toward the door marked “you’re right!” I feel things deeply and believe things strongly. Maybe if I was right I’d be less racist, more worthy of love, or somehow exonerated from all the abuses I’ve committed against my horses in the past. Now, when I see that door urging me to run, I do my best to slow down. I’m better at not running from myself because I’ve committed not to turn away or abandon versions of myself that fill me with shame. My vow to them is compassion.

I know now that It is self-compassion, rather than self-righteousness that allows the space between us to breathe. It allows an all-or-nothing debate about positive vs. negative reinforcement, for example, to become an invitation for dialogue, finding shared meaning, and listening to understand rather than to win. It is self-compassion that gives us room when engaging in difficult conversations about race and racism to acknowledge “I’ve been there, I used to believe that.” And in doing so commit to holding a loving space for those parts of ourselves so that we can create space for others to grow.

There is no soapbox in self-compassion. No “I’m right and you’re wrong.” When we practice self-compassion we are choosing to stay with and take care of our pain with a simple acknowledgment; I see and love myself enough, to see myself in you.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Probably my own therapy. As a therapist and a social justice educator it’s been so important to prioritize and invest in my own healing. This gives me more understanding of what my clients are experiencing and it also aids in my own self-awareness so my stuff doesn’t get in the way of helping others heal

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.juliaalexandercounseling.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliaalexander_lcsw/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077917657165
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaalexander421/

Image Credits
Jessica Rockowitz: https://jessicarockowitz.com/