It’s lovely to have you here.

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Hey, it’s me…

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So, who am I?

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First and foremost, I am a human being – with a lot of heart, curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. I am open-minded and I have pretty sensitive antennas when it comes to injustice.

There are many different parts of me – and probably quite a few contradictions, too. I often live by the principle of “let’s just try it and see what happens.” This has helped me turn quite a few ideas into reality – sometimes so quickly that doubt and uncertainty only manage to catch up with me once it’s already done. 

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I love leading groups, workshops and seminars. I enjoy giving interactive talks about topics that may challenge us, provoke thought or sometimes make us uncomfortable. And just as much, I love creating spaces for individual encounters – opening doors for people and accompanying them with warmth, curiosity and respect.

I’m Julia Appel – therapist, lecturer, diversity trainer, lifelong learner, mother of two wonderful children and someone who has spent a large part of her academic, professional and personal life exploring questions of identity, belonging and living between different worlds.

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My own path has taken me through different countries, languages and cultural contexts. I studied in Germany and France, later worked in international university settings and was involved in postcolonial projects in Namibia and South Africa. My academic work focused on multilingualism, postcolonialism, diversity and the ways in which language, culture and social structures shape our sense of self and belonging. But these questions are not only academic to me.

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Being part of an international family and moving between different cultural perspectives has made questions such as Where do I belong? What does home mean? Which parts of me have space here? very real to me. I know that identity can become complicated when different languages, cultures, family histories and expectations meet – and that belonging does not always mean choosing one side. These experiences shape the way I work as a therapist. I am interested in the whole person – not only in symptoms or diagnoses, but also in the relationships, histories, bodies and social contexts we live in. 

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My therapeutic approach brings together body psychotherapy, systemic thinking, trauma-sensitive work and a diversity-sensitive perspective. I am particularly fascinated by body psychotherapy – by the possibility of not only understanding something intellectually, but actually experiencing change in the body.

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I also believe that therapy never takes place in a vacuum. Our personal experiences are connected to our families, relationships and biographies, but also to the societies we live in. Racism, discrimination, gender roles, migration experiences and structural inequalities can affect psychological wellbeing. I want there to be room for these realities in therapy rather than automatically turning every difficulty into an individual problem.

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And, of course, I have my own inner journey behind me – and, like all of us, I am still on it. My own therapeutic experiences have taught me a great deal about protection, survival strategies, vulnerability and what can happen when there is finally enough safety to feel what has been underneath them.

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I don’t believe that personal development means constantly optimising ourselves. For me, it is much more about getting to know ourselves – including the uncomfortable parts – and gradually becoming more able to stay connected with ourselves.

Sometimes we can do that alone. And sometimes we need another person and a space that can hold what emerges.

That is the kind of space I want to offer.

 

My main areas of interest include:

• Body psychotherapy and trauma-sensitive therapy

• Complex and transgenerational trauma

• Identity, belonging and living between cultures

• Binational and international families

• Migration and experiences of not fully belonging

• Diversity, discrimination and racism-sensitive therapy

• Holistic psychology

• The relationship between psychological wellbeing and social structures