About the Author

Julie is a licensed psychotherapist who maintains a private counseling and consultation service, Healing Services On the River, established in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, in 1995. Here she offers the year-long Initiation Course based on her book, Wheel of Initiation, her popular spiritual journaling classes, Bindu Breathwork, writing consultations and one-on-one transpersonal counseling. Her studies and investigation into cognitive-behavioral therapy, creativity, mind training, thought transformation, Buddhist philosophy, transpersonal counseling, and group dynamics lead to her development of the Wheel of Initiation. Julie obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she had a double major in sociology and social work. In 1982 she began her career as a social worker and case manager of a program in Minneapolis for those with chronic and persistent mental illness. While in graduate school at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, she designed and authored The Eight Stage Healing Process for Families and Friends of the Mentally Ill. This book was published by Doubleday in 1989 and Julie toured the United States, Canada, and Australia teaching the eight stages and offering instructions on how to set up a healthy self-help group. She founded the National Siblings Network in the United States through NAMI. Australia adopted her eight-stage protocol, incorporating it into their primary national program for families of the mentally ill. Julie is the author of nine books, two for adults and seven for youth. She is presently finishing up her first YA fiction. Julie has a bimonthly newsletter: Monday Musings for Writers & Spiritual Pilgrims, offering readers a means for spiritual inquiry through journaling and meditation. She also writes columns on transpersonal psychology & spirituality for two local papers. She lives outside of Spring Green, Wisconsin.