Julija Perko holds a university degree in sociology. In 1999, due to personal circumstances, she began studying a psychoterapeuthic modality called Reality Therapy (RT), which was designed by the American psychiatrist Dr. William Glasser and introduced in Slovenia by Leon Lojk. Since dual parenthood also occured in the meantime, her therapeutic studies were delayed until the end of 2016. She nevertheless tried to »live« daily by the presumptions of this therapeutic approach in such a way that she used the theoretical axioms of RT in the face of everyday challenges. At this time, she was most empowered by the new awareness that she can only control her own behaviour and that she has complete freedom of choice within the framework of her behaviours. That meant that she was not a victim of circumstances, but could influence her own life with her decisions. RT also taught that all long-term psychological problems are relational problems. A relational problem always stems from some current significant relationship. The past has contributed to who we are, but our needs could only be met in the present and the future. As per these axioms, she didn’t bother much with her past during her studies. The theory also directed her more towards relationships with significant others than with herself.
On a rational level, she was able to completely internalize the concepts of choice theory, which is the theoretical foundation of RT. But time and time again she found herself in severe personal distress when, despite all her understanding, she observed, how in circumstances where she reacted completely spontaneously, automatically, she painfully perceived that the choices she was making did not help her to feel better on a prolonged basis. She even felt more and more frustrated and guilty because all the theoretical knowledge did not help with her automatic reactions to »dangerous« circumstances.
In search of answers, she researched further and in 2020, finally found interesting terrain for further study and work on herself. With the help of two very influental books, she eventually realized that the description of her symptoms indicated that her psychosomatic problems had their origin in her traumatic childhood. She started to study literature dealing with the complex post-traumatic stress disorder. This is how, among others, she came across Pete Walker’s book called Complex PTSD – From surviving to thriving, which addressed her on a completely different – emotional level.
She contacted the author and after two years of therapeutic work with him integrated into her own therapeutic practice many of his concepts of working with traumatized clients. Given that Mr. Walker now refers some of his clients to her, they assure the consistency of the therapy through monthly supervisions.
The path of reserach and learning never ends for her. She is constantly upgrading her knowledge and understanding of trauma with updated discoveries in neurological science and integrating the best approaches of excellent trauma informed authors such as Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Richard Schwartz, Dr. Judith Herman, Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk and others. Just as the process of healing trauma is lifelong, so the path to greater well-being is daily hard work in raising awareness about our old behavioral patterns that harm and no longer serve us.
Julija now defines herself as a Relational Therapist, as her main approach to working with clients is based on building mutual trust, the basis of which is respect, compassionate interest in the client and her own personal experience of trauma, which provides her with the necessary integrity to understand the client’s situation.
In Slovenia, she currently provides in-person therapeutic counselling in Cerknica, where she lives and for international clients on-line via ZOOM platform. You can contact her via email julija.perko@gmail.com.