Meet Juliana
Juliana Pirkle (she/her)
Education and Training
MA, Marriage, Couple & Family Therapy, Lewis & Clark Graduate School (2025), specialty in ecotherapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy training (2026)
Brainspotting level 1 training (2025)
Ecotherapy certification, EarthBody Institute (2021)
Clinical training at Heron Hill (ecotherapy) and Lewis & Clark Community Mental Health Center
Professional outdoor guide qualification (NZOIA Bush 1)
Wilderness First Aid (2026)
BA, Lewis & Clark College (2013)
My Approach
I believe every person has an innate capacity to heal. Just as the body knows how to mend itself, the mind and nervous system know how to find their way back to balance, given the right conditions. My role is to help create those conditions: an environment warm and spacious enough for real exploration, with gentle but firm boundaries that can hold whatever arises.
Most of the suffering I see isn't brokenness. It's patterns that once helped us survive and now cost too much, and shame is often the lock on the door. Together, we get curious about those patterns: where they came from, how they live in your body and your relationships, and what you want instead. I believe change comes from experiencing something new, not only talking about it, so I work with what's happening in the room, or on the trail, as it unfolds.
Before becoming a therapist, I worked as an outdoor guide, leading multi-day backpacking trips and teaching outdoor school. Before that, I studied the developing brain as a research assistant at OHSU and Lewis & Clark College. Both paths show up in how I work. I care about the felt, lived experience of being human and about the neurobiology underneath it. In session, we might notice what your body does in a hard moment, the thoughts that come with it, and why your nervous system responds the way it does.
The natural world is at the heart of my practice. Nature isn't a backdrop to the work. It's an active participant, offering grounding, perspective, and metaphors for our own growth. My work is also informed by Buddhist practice, ecology and systems thinking, and social justice, anti-oppressive, and feminist lenses.
As a creative person with ADHD, I have a particular affinity for outside-the-box thinkers, creatives, and couples where ADHD is part of the picture.
What shapes my work
Who I work with
I work with adults and couples navigating relationship challenges, ADHD, anxiety, depression, trauma, shame, and the ache of never quite fitting in. I believe the struggles we carry are often shaped by systems larger than ourselves, and that healing means tending to both.
My practice is LGBTQ+ affirming, sex-positive, and kink-friendly, and I welcome clients of all identities, backgrounds, and relationship structures, including ENM and polyamorous relationships.