Julie Cox, LCSW

09/18/2026

Welcome! I’m Julie Cox, LCSW. For more than 25 years, I’ve supported people through experiences that can feel difficult to navigate alone.

A central part of my work is supporting parents of children, teens, and young adults with PANDAS/PANS. I help parents make sense of the stress and uncertainty, respond to their child’s needs, and find room to care for themselves, too. I also work with adults healing from trauma, including those living with anxiety, perfectionism, or a constant sense of being on alert.

I provide virtual therapy to clients located in New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Delaware.

To learn more about my approach and resources, visit www.juliecox.org.

09/09/2026

Back-to-school season can bring an entirely different level of stress when your child has PANDAS/PANS—even if they are learning at home.

A new academic year may reactivate worries about symptoms, school demands, or difficult experiences from previous years.

My new article offers practical ways to create a flexible plan, support your child’s nervous system, and care for your own along the way.

Read Back-to-School Stress With PANDAS/PANS: Supporting Your Child—and Yourself:

Back-to-school stress can be especially hard with PANDAS/PANS. Learn how to support your child at school or home while caring for yourself, too.

08/14/2026

Finding a therapist who truly understands PANDAS/PANS isn't always easy.

Whether you're looking for a therapist for your child, teen, or young adult—or looking for support for yourself as a parent—it can be hard to know what questions to ask or how to tell whether someone really understands PANDAS/PANS.

That's why I created this **free guide: How to Find a Therapist Who Understands PANDAS/PANS.**

It includes:

• 6 questions to ask a potential therapist
• Green flags to look for
• Answers that may be worth exploring further

I hope it makes finding the right support for your family—or for yourself—a little easier. 💜

Download your free copy here:
https://bit.ly/TherapyForPANDASPANSdownload

07/03/2026

Have you ever felt like you've lost your connection with your PANS/PANDAS child or teen?

When every conversation seems to end in frustration, silence, or conflict, it's easy to wonder what happened.

But sometimes the problem isn't that your child doesn't want to connect.

Sometimes talking simply feels like too much for an overwhelmed nervous system.

In my newest blog, I share why communication can become so difficult during PANS/PANDAS and one simple, low-pressure way to help rebuild connection.

I hope it offers a little encouragement if you're feeling disconnected from your child right now. ❤️

📖 Read the blog here: https://www.juliecox.org/blogs/connecting-with-pandas-pans-child

Is talking with your PANS/PANDAS child or teen becoming more difficult? Learn why communication often breaks down during PANS/PANDAS and discover compassionate, low-pressure ways to rebuild connection and emotional safety.

06/26/2026

Is your PANDAS/PANS child, teen, or young adult pushing back on treatment?

What looks like resistance may actually be **treatment fatigue**.

Years of appointments, medications, procedures, flares, and setbacks can leave a young person's nervous system exhausted. Sometimes pushback isn't a sign they've given up—it's a sign they've simply been carrying too much for too long.

In my newest blog, I explore what treatment fatigue is, why it happens, and how a trauma-informed approach can help parents and clinicians better support PANS youth.

The blog also includes a link to my recently published ASPIRE article on this important topic.

📖 Read the blog here:

Is your PANS child, teen, or young adult resisting treatment? Learn how treatment fatigue, medical trauma, and chronic stress can affect the nervous system—and why a compassionate, trauma-informed approach can help. Read an overview and access Julie Cox's full ASPIRE article on treatment fatigue i...

06/15/2026

🧐 "Why do I keep reacting this way?"

This is one of the most common questions I hear from clients.

Whether it's anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional overwhelm, or feeling constantly on alert, many people become frustrated when they keep having the same reactions despite their best efforts to change.

I often see this in trauma survivors, adults struggling with anxiety, and parents navigating the ongoing stress of PANS/PANDAS.

In my newest blog, I explore why insight alone doesn't always create change—and how EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy can help create deeper healing.
👇

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Do you understand why you struggle but still feel stuck? Learn how anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and hypervigilance often develop as protective adaptations—and how EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy can help create lasting change.

06/04/2026

Worried about the next PANS/PANDAS flare?

That makes sense.

Many PANS/PANDAS parents expect that as their child's symptoms improve, they will finally be able to relax.

But even when things are better, many parents find themselves still watching for symptoms, worrying about setbacks, and feeling unable to fully let their guard down.

After months or years of navigating uncertainty, treatment decisions, school struggles, and the ups and downs of PANS/PANDAS, it's understandable that your nervous system may still be operating as though the crisis is ongoing.

In my newest blog, I explore:

✔️ Why some PANS/PANDAS parents stay on high alert even when things are improving

✔️ Why this experience is so common

✔️ How approaches such as EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy can help parents recover from chronic stress

If this sounds familiar, I hope you'll find the article helpful.

🔗 https://www.juliecox.org/blogs/why-some-pandas-pans-parents-stay-on-high-alert

Many PANS/PANDAS parents remain on high alert even when their child's symptoms improve. Learn why chronic stress and hypervigilance can persist, and how EMDR and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy may help.

05/15/2026

Parenting a child, teen, or young adult with PANS/PANDAS often changes over time.

What families need during the early crisis stage is often very different from what they need later on during stabilization or recovery.

In my newest blog, I explore the 3 common phases of PANS/PANDAS parenting:

• Crisis, diagnosis, and survival mode
• Stabilization, flares, and ongoing management
• Recovery, processing, and rebuilding

I also discuss the kinds of therapy, parenting approaches, and emotional support that often help families during each phase.

Many parents tell me it helps to finally have language for what they’ve been experiencing.

You can read the full blog here:
https://www.juliecox.org/blogs/3-phases-pans-pandas-parenting

Parenting a child or teen with PANS/PANDAS often changes over time. Learn about the 3 common phases of PANS/PANDAS parenting, including crisis, stabilization, recovery, and the types of support families often need along the way.

05/08/2026

Many PANS/PANDAS parents feel enormous guilt about becoming frustrated with their child or teen.

Part of them understands:
“My child is struggling because of PANS/PANDAS.”

And another part thinks:
“Here we go again.”

In my newest blog, I share 4 practical Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed shifts that can help parents approach these moments with more self-compassion and awareness.

Read the full blog here:

Feeling frustrated with your PANS/PANDAS child or teen can bring enormous guilt for many parents. Learn 4 helpful strategies inspired by Internal Family Systems (IFS) to reduce reactivity, increase self-compassion, and navigate difficult moments with more steadiness.

04/26/2026

There is a deep pain that many PANS/PANDAS parents carry.

It’s watching your child struggle in ways that don’t make sense.
Sometimes it’s sudden changes.
Other times, it’s a longer, ongoing pattern of symptoms that come and go.

At times, you may not recognize your child—and you may not be able to reach them in the ways you used to.

It’s trying to hold things together on the outside, while inside you’re carrying fear, confusion, and the constant question of what to do next.

And it doesn’t happen just once.

It happens over and over again.

For many parents, this becomes a quiet, constant weight they carry every day.

If this is something you’re going through, I want you to know you’re not alone in it.

I wrote more about this here, and ways to begin finding support within it:
https://bit.ly/4cQQTfC