Julie Schwartz Gottman

In December 2015, she appeared on Talks at Google on Modern Romance moderated by Logan Ury to discuss common misconceptions about relationships.

She is the author or co-author of Ten Lessons to Transform Your Marriage (Three Rivers Press, 2006), And Baby Makes Three (Three Rivers Press, 2007), 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015), The Man’s Guide to Women (Rodale, 2016), The Marriage Clinic Casebook (W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), and The Science of Couples and Family Therapy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2018). Her articles have appeared in many peer-reviewed journals and national media publications.

In 2002, the Washington State Psychological Association (WSPA) honored Julie Schwartz Gottman with The Distinguished Psychologist of the Year Award. She also received the 2005 Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Army. Drs. John and Julie Gottman were named the "renowned experts on marital stability" by The Atlantic.

In 1996, Julie Schwartz Gottman co-founded The Gottman Institute in Seattle with John Gottman. She served as the Clinical Director from 1996-2001 and CEO from 1999-2001. She currently serves as President of the organization. She helped design and direct the "Couples Together Against Violence" research study to develop an evidence-based group therapy method for treating domestic violence. She also created and served as the Clinical Director of "Loving Couples Loving Children," a national program for treating couples in poverty that was tested with over 3,000 couples.

After returning from India, her clinical work included residential treatment for young adults with schizophrenia, and individual and group work with incest survivors. She later specialized in working with low-income clients, incest and sexual assault survivors, combat veterans, and cancer patients and their families. In 1983, she helped to develop and implement a program to treat and prevent sexual harassment on campus at the University of California at San Diego.

During the 1980s, she conducted research that compared the effects of lesbian and heterosexual mother’s parenting of now adult-aged daughters in order to examine the commonly held judicial position that children of lesbian mothers should be removed from them for their own well-being. Prior to this study, no adults raised by lesbian mothers had been scientifically studied. No significant differences were found in sexual orientation, gender identity, or social adjustment between daughters either raised by lesbian or heterosexual mothers. As a result of this research, she has served as an expert witness in lesbian mothers’ court custody disputes, and her practice includes seeing women and men of any sexual orientations.

Julie Schwartz Gottman began her professional career while at college, where she helped establish a counseling center for rape victims, combat veterans, and others in need. After moving to Boston, she worked with patients suffering from schizophrenia or heroin addiction in a Massachusetts General Hospital outpatient program in the Boston "combat zone." Between 1976 and 1978, she served as psychiatric staff at the University of Oregon Medical Center Psychiatric Crisis Unit where she continued to treat impoverished individuals with serious mental illnesses.

Julie Schwartz Gottman was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Marvin and Selma Schwartz. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology at Colorado College in 1974. In the years following college, she completed an M.Ed. in Community Mental Health Counseling from Northeastern University Graduate School of Education in 1976 and later, lived in India and Nepal for a year that included serving people in poverty in Calcutta. After returning to the U.S. in 1979, she earned a Master of Arts (MA) in Clinical Psychology in 1981 and Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), San Diego in 1985.

Julie Schwartz Gottman (born April 7, 1951) is an American clinical psychologist, researcher, speaker, and author. Together with her husband and collaborator, John Gottman, she is the co-founder of The Gottman Institute - an organization dedicated to strengthening relationships through research-based products and programs. She is the co-creator of the Sound Relationship House Theory, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and The Art and Science of Love weekend workshop for couples, among other programs. In addition to her internationally recognized clinical work, Julie Schwartz Gottman is the author or co-author of six books - Ten Lessons to Transform Your Marriage, And Baby Makes Three, 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy, The Man’s Guide to Women, The Marriage Clinic Casebook, and The Science of Couples and Family Therapy. She is also the co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles.