Julia Guerra

I am trained in therapy for adults looking to improve their emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. I am interested and have experience conducting psychological assessments and providing treatment for depression, anxiety, improving relationships, trauma, sleep difficulties, life transitions, existential concerns, and connecting with one’s inner experiences. I welcome clients from all ethnic, religious, gender, and cultural backgrounds. In our first meeting together, I would like to hear about your background and personal history. Together we will discuss the present concerns that bring you to therapy, and the goals you have for our time together. I will conduct a thorough assessment and offer my professional opinion of evidence-based treatments that can help you achieve your goals. I base my treatment on therapeutic processes that are supported through rigorous research, including interpersonal, cognitive behavioural, mindfulness-oriented, experiential, integrative, emotion-focused, attachment-based and psychodynamic therapies. Assessment measures, such as questionnaires, will give us a deeper understanding of your present concerns and strengths, which will help us select the best treatment approach to achieve your wanted outcomes. Our work together will be collaborative, transparent, respectful of your wishes, and I will ask for your continued feedback to ensure that we are working in a way that you find meaningful. I am a therapist at the Centre for Interpersonal Relationships under the supervision of Dr. Karine Cote, Psy.D. C.Psych, where I complete psychological services. Previously, I have provided psychological services in hospitals, including the Ottawa Hospital’s Rehabilitation Centre for Acquired Brain Injury, where I worked with patients suffering from acute brain damage; The Ottawa Hospital’s Pain Clinic, where I completed group therapy for managing chronic pain; The Ottawa Hospital’s Psychological Consultation Services for Inpatients, where I worked with patient facing medical health concerns; The Royal Mental Health Centre Operational Stress Injury Clinic, where I provided trauma-focused psychodiagnostics assessments for veterans and active members in the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and at CHEO’s Treatment Centre, where I conducted psychodiagnostic assessments for Autism Spectrum Disorders in children. I have provided therapy services in community-based clinics and in elementary and high schools, including the Centre for Psychological Services and Research at the University of Ottawa, The Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, as well as at the Ottawa-Carleton School Board. I am a member of the Canadian Psychological Association and have previously worked as the Director of the Logistic Committee in the Interdisciplinary Conference in Psychology, at the University of Ottawa. I have participated in several research projects in linguistics, general surgery, urology, nephrology and research methodology. Below are some publications in peer-reviewed journals: Guerra, J, Wayne C, Musambe T and Nasr, A. (2016) Laparoscopic-assisted transanal pull-through (LATP) versus complete transanal pull-through (CTP) in the surgical management of Hirschsprung’s disease. Journal of Pediatric Surgery, 51(5): 770–774. Hayes, R. J, Nasr, Y, Fitzpatrick, R, Guerra, J, Jalali, S, Wayne, C, Grandpierre, V, Leonard, P. M, Guerra, A. L, & Keays, A. M. (2019, April). Limiting the use of ultrasound and optimizing referral and treatment time for boys with suspected undescended testes. Oral presentation at the Summer Studentship Day – CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, ON. Guerra J, Keays M. (2017, August) Establishing a learning health system for undescended testes: A qualitative assessment of healthcare provider and research leader views. Presented at the Studentship Research Day at CHEO, Ottawa, ON. Carson, R., Desrochers, A., Boyes, R., Kraft, C., & Guerra, J. (2016). How Do Readers Process Noun Number?: The Battle Between Surface Frequency and Grammatical Number. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 70 (4): 357- 358. Guerra J, Leonard M, Nicholls S, Kamil Y, Nesbitt L, Pluscauskas M, Wayne C and Keays M (2016, August) Does i2b2 match the gold standard for patient cohort identification? A study on children with high-risk urinary tract dilation. Presented at the Studentship Research Day at CHEO, Ottawa, ON.