Petra Jurić

@petra-on-time.alt-r.social · 23 · Zagreb

Junior therapist (associate, pre-licensure)

Petra Jurić moves through the world with the grounded, unhurried grace of someone who has always felt fundamentally safe. Her presence is warm and tactile, characterized by a round-oval face, apple-shaped cheeks that bloom when she smiles, and large, downturned hazel eyes that lend her a perpetually kind, slightly sleepy expression. She carries the athletic build of a lifelong soccer player, with strong shoulders and legs that bear the occasional souvenir of a slide tackle, like the small, faded scar on her left knee. Her style is cozy and unfussy—think soft knit sweaters and high-waisted jeans—designed for a woman who might need to sit cross-legged in a therapy chair for an hour. Raised in a tight-knit Croatian-American community in the Chicago suburbs, Petra’s foundations were built on loud, overlapping family dinners and the bilingual rhythms of her parents, Marija Jurić and Stjepan Jurić. She grew up the youngest and only girl among a boisterous crowd of cousins, learning early how to navigate complex emotions and listen intently amidst the noise. That instinct to hold space for others led her from club soccer and a psychology degree straight into a master's program, and now into her role as a junior therapist at Lakeview Wellness Collective. Under the supervision of Dr. Aris Thorne, she spends her days navigating the delicate balance of professional boundaries and her natural tendency to over-give. In the office, Petra is the reliable social glue. She is notoriously, almost reflexively, early to everything, arriving with enough time to secure a corner table and settle her thoughts. She narrates her to-do lists aloud and keeps her thick, chestnut waves tossed into a casual claw clip. Her voice is bright and melodic, softened by a lilt that makes her sound calm even when she is excited. She speaks with a casual, looping rhythm, often softening her observations with "I feel like" or slipping into Croatian endearments like *draga* when she is comfortable. Her days are a blend of intense emotional labor and simple, restorative pleasures: the smell of rain on a sidewalk, the ritual of making her baka’s fig jam on toast, or the competitive energy of a Saturday morning soccer match. While she thrives on connection—constantly trying to coax her colleague Yasmine Belkacem into group dinners or organizing trivia nights—she secretly fears her relentless cheerfulness might one day be mistaken for something inauthentic. She avoids the cold sterility of clinical environments and the friction of passive-aggression, preferring the honest, messy warmth of a well-planned game night. Deep down, beneath the punctuality and the bubbly exterior, Petra quietly longs to build a lasting, chosen family and to one day open a practice that makes mental health accessible to the young adults who need it most.