Chrysallis Collective

Full-spectrum doula care rooted in compassion, education, autonomy, and meaningful connection.

Holding space for becoming.

Life has a way of changing us.

Sometimes we see it coming. Sometimes we don't. And sometimes we're somewhere in the middle, excited, uncertain, overwhelmed, hopeful, grieving, becoming… maybe a little bit of everything at once.

Pregnancy, birth, postpartum, parenthood, loss, and the many paths our reproductive lives can take are deeply personal experiences. And while no two journeys look quite the same, I believe one thing should always be true:

You deserve to feel supported through yours.

I wanted to create the kind of support that feels less like someone coming in with all the answers and more like having someone beside you who genuinely listens. Someone who gets to know you, helps you understand your options, reminds you that your voice matters, and makes room for all the feelings and questions that come with such a big season of life.

You don't have to birth a certain way. You don't have to approach pregnancy or postpartum a certain way. You don't have to have everything figured out. And you certainly don't have to become the person everyone else expects you to be. My role is simply to meet you there, with information when you want it, grounding when you need it, a listening ear when things feel heavy, and steady support as your journey unfolds.

Because I don't believe transformation is something anyone else can define for you. Sometimes you just need someone willing to sit beside you while you find out what it means for yourself.

That's the heart of Chrysallis.

Beautiful color pencil work of a caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterly all on a vine with a butter yellow background

The Heart of Chrysallis

  • Support That Begins With You

    No two people enter pregnancy, birth, postpartum, or a reproductive change carry quite the same story. Each comes with their own hopes and uncertainties, their own history, their own wishes for what lies ahead. So, it is only fitting for your support to be individualistic, as well.

    At Chrysallis Collective, our work begins with knowing you - what matters to you, what you hope for, how you wish to feel, and what kind of presence will allow you to feel most grounded and supported.

    Rather than following a rigid formula, we shape our work together with thoughtfulness and intention, allowing your needs, your voice, and your unfolding experience to guide the way.

    We Prepare Together

    Preparation is about more than creating a birth plan. Together, we'll explore your preferences, questions, fears, hopes, comfort measures, support system, and the environment you want to create around your experience. You'll have space to learn, ask questions, consider your options, and develop tools you can carry with you into birth and beyond. The goal is to help you enter your experience feeling equipped to navigate whatever unfolds.

    We Create Your Support Toolkit

    Depending upon what speaks to you, our work may weave together education and advocacy, movement and positioning, comfort and relaxation, mindfulness and affirmation, or more whimsical practices such as ritual, herbal wisdom, crystals, and energy work. We simply gather what feels useful, meaningful, and true to you, creating a form of care that honors both the body and the person within.

    Nothing is Prescribed. Nothing is Required

    There is no practice you must embrace, nor any particular way you are expected to move through this experience. Together, we discover what allows you to feel most grounded, safe, connected, and wholly present. Evidence and intuition are welcomed here in equal conversation, with practical evidence-based knowledge resting gently beside holistic and embodied traditions. We keep what serves you and leave what does not.

    I Support. You Lead.

    My role as your doula is not to speak over you, make decisions for you, or promise you a particular kind of experience.

    I am here to help you understand the choices before you, to give language to the wishes you already hold, and to help you find your footing again when the way feels uncertain. I offer knowledge when you seek it, comfort when you need it, and a steady presence through all that may unfold. You remain the center of your care.

    Our Relationship Is the Foundation

    Chrysallis Collective is relationship-centered care. The goal isn't simply to show up for a certain number of appointments or hours. It's to build trust over time so that when you enter a vulnerable or transformative moment, you're being supported by someone who already understands what matters to you.

  • Holding Space for Becoming
    At Chrysallis Collective, support is not about telling you how your journey should unfold. It is about creating a space where you can feel informed, respected, connected, and deeply supported as you move through one of life's most transformative seasons.

    Autonomy
    Your body. Your choices. Your journey.
    You deserve to be at the center of the decisions that shape your experience. I am here to help you understand your options, explore what feels right for you, and feel supported in the choices you make, without judgment or pressure.

    Informed Care
    Knowledge should empower, not overwhelm.
    I believe education is an important part of feeling confident in your care. Support is grounded in evidence-based information while leaving room for your intuition, lived experience, preferences, and individual circumstances.

    Compassion
    Every journey deserves tenderness.
    Pregnancy, birth, postpartum, loss, and other reproductive transitions can hold joy, vulnerability, uncertainty, grief, strength, and sometimes many of these at once. Whatever your experience holds, you deserve to be met with warmth, empathy, and respect.

    Embodiment
    Your body is part of the conversation.
    Birth is more than something to simply endure. I believe in creating space for movement, breath, comfort, rest, connection, mindfulness, pleasure, intuition, and presence, helping you feel connected to your body rather than separate from it.

    Individuality
    There is no single right way to become.
    Your values, beliefs, family, body, circumstances, and hopes are uniquely yours. Care should be, too. Evidence-based and holistic practices can exist alongside one another, with spiritual or intentional elements always offered as invitations rather than expectations.

    Connection
    We were never meant to navigate transformation alone.
    Support extends beyond a single person or moment. Chrysallis Collective values meaningful relationships, with clients, partners, families, and other birth-space professionals, so that you can feel held within a wider circle of care.

    Transformation
    There is space here for who you are becoming.
    A chrysallis is not the destination; it is the protected space where transformation happens. Chrysallis Collective exists to help hold that space and allow for who you are meant to become.

  • Chrysallis Collective grew from noticing how many people are looking for clear, trustworthy information about pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and reproductive care, and how difficult that information can be to find and understand. Not everyone has the time or capacity to sift through endless articles, videos, and research, and not everyone has access to a doula. I wanted to create a place where evidence-based education feels approachable and accessible, so you can understand your options, ask better questions, and make informed decisions about your care.

    And that vision goes far beyond birth. Chrysallis is growing into a full-spectrum resource and community for pregnancy, labor, postpartum, fertility, loss, abortion, adoption, surrogacy, and the many ways reproductive journeys can unfold. Here, you'll be able to explore thoughtfully created resources, learn about topics you may not have known to ask about, take classes, connect with trusted professionals, or work with me directly. Whatever brings you here, my hope is simple, that you leave feeling seen, included, a little more informed, and a lot more confident in whatever comes next.

About Me

  • …but you can call me Julie!

    As a child, I had what must have been twenty teddy bears, and in the small world of my imagination, they were not merely toys; they were mine to nurture. Each evening, I kissed every one of them goodnight. Their birthdays were remembered and dutifully celebrated. I tended to them with a love and sense of responsibility that felt entirely earnest to me then and, in retrospect, seems an early expression of something that would quietly accompany me throughout my life.

    As I grew older, that instinctive tenderness matured into a profound curiosity. I became captivated by pregnancy, birth, and motherhood, not solely by the extraordinary process, but by the transformation of the person bringing it forth. There was something about the becoming that fascinated me.

    I spent countless hours listening to women recount their birth stories, watching expectant mothers prepare for the arrival of their children, and immersing myself in a world to which I did not yet belong, yet somehow felt inexplicably drawn. Even as a teenager, I remember carrying two convictions about the life I hoped one day to lead: I wished to experience motherhood for myself, and I wished to stand beside others as they found their own way into it.

    For many years, I assumed this calling would lead me into medicine. I imagined that becoming a physician was perhaps the clearest expression of the work I felt drawn to do. Life, however, has a curious way of leading us elsewhere. My path unfolded differently than I had imagined. Through years of learning and questioning, of changing course and coming to understand myself with greater clarity, I eventually discovered doula work. And when I did, it felt less like finding something entirely new than recognizing something I had known, in some quiet way, all along.

    In many respects, I had not discovered my way to this work at all. I had simply found my way back to it.

  • I was born and raised in Chicago, and much of who I am seems to return to three things: creating, noticing, and caring deeply. I am married to my bestest friend, and he remains my favorite companion in both the exciting and ordinary parts of life.

    I find great pleasure in working with my hands, whether wheel throwing, knitting, or losing myself in a puzzle. I am equally fond of books, bicycle rides, pilates and yoga, matcha, beautiful spaces, and the quiet art of surrounding oneself with deliberately curated and well-loved things.

    I feel most myself in nature, particularly with my toes in the sand, and I have always held a special affinity for butterflies and all they seem to represent. Spirituality is woven deeply into the way I understand myself and the world around me. I am introspective, deeply feeling, and, for those who believe the stars may have influence on matters, a Libra Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Gemini Rising.

    More than anything, I am drawn to depth, beauty, and connection, in my work, in the people I love, and in the life I am creating.

    • BADT Full-Spectrum Doula Training

    • Spinning Babies Workshop Completion

    • Certified in Adult, Child & Infant First Aid, CPR & AED