Julia Conley, LSW

About Julia

I initially thought I was headed toward teaching. I loved working with teenagers, especially watching them grow into who they are, but over time, the curriculum model started to feel too rigid. I struggled with the idea that when a student didn’t fit the way something was being taught, the responsibility could fall on the student rather than the system.

During COVID, I moved to Durango to work as a wilderness therapy guide. I was carrying a lot of anxiety myself and knew I needed something different. Out there, I watched people arrive in the middle of a crisis and begin to change—learning new skills, taking risks, and connecting with their peers in ways they hadn’t before. It showed me the power of simply being present with someone, and that became an important part of how I understand change. After two and a half years of guiding, I wanted to be more rooted in Durango and found a social work master’s program that emphasized rural practice and the needs of Indigenous communities.

Living and working in Durango continues to shape how I practice. When a client tells me about a hike, an event they’re looking forward to, or something happening at a local school, I have a sense of the world they’re describing. I also spent a year and a half doing case management in the community, so when someone keeps running into the same barrier and needs a connection to a resource, I often know where to turn. For me, therapy is not separate from the community we live in—it’s part of being connected to it.

Outside of work, I spend a lot of my time long-distance running, which I find grounding and calming. I know running isn’t everyone’s thing, so I don’t always lead with it! I grew up in Connecticut, and I still experience a bit of imposter syndrome living here, so having something that connects me to these mountains has helped me feel a sense of belonging.

I also have a close group of friends and a partner I love cooking for, camping with, and occasionally barging in on just to talk about the day. That sense of being woven into the lives of others—that none of us is meant to do this alone—is something I value deeply, both in my personal life and in the way I approach my work.

Julia’s Approach to Care

First and foremost I’m building comfort between us. I want you to trust me and I want to trust you, and that takes time and can’t be forced. Everything else we do rests on it.

From there I work from acceptance and commitment therapy. Put simply, it’s learning how to carry your thoughts and go live the life you want anyway. We’ll go through what you value and what your goals are, and build skills for sitting with the big emotions that sidetrack us, including how to say thanks, mind, I’ve got it from here and set something down in a different way. I weave in DBT where tangible skills would help, and my supervision has brought a lot of CBT into the mix.

I do my best work with people who’ve just had something large happen and are working out what life looks like now. Often they come in saying they don’t know who they are after the event, or who they are beyond their trauma, and we re-piece that together in session while reconnecting to the strengths that were always theirs. I like the identity questions that come with your twenties, the how do I want to be an adult in this world ones. And I like relationship work, though there’s both a benefit and a curse to only ever getting one side of the story. Session can be a calm place to replay it, talk it through, and pick up skills for handling conflict and the day to day.

You’ll know therapy is working when you first let yourself believe it could. It isn’t a pill or one dramatic change. It’s closer to sport: sessions are practice, life is the game, and you won’t always get it right out there. Progress feels incremental, and it helps to give yourself room to count the small victories. The biggest one is awareness. Once you start noticing the patterns, or can simply name what you’re feeling, you’re somewhere very different from where you started. We live in a world that wants data and graphs, and knowing yourself better is harder to chart, but it’s where the potential sits. A line I picked up at an ACT conference has stayed with me for exactly this reason: you’re not broken, you’re stuck.

One thing I wish people would stop apologizing for is going off on tangents or bringing up random parts of their life. I’ll hold the thread of all of it. Whatever came out was meant to come out. And I should say I bring a lightness with me, some humor and the occasional bit of sarcasm, never imposed on anyone. Bring yours too.

Julia’s education and experience

I earned my Master of Social Work through the University of Denver’s Four Corners Program, a program designed for this region with an emphasis on rural practice and meeting the needs of Indigenous communities. Before becoming a therapist, I spent two and a half years as a wilderness guide with Open Sky Wilderness Therapy, working with adolescents and young adults, followed by a year and a half providing case management with Community Investment Alliance in La Plata County.

Julia’s license information

Credential: LSW #0009927623
State: Colorado