Author profile

Julie Cobalt, MA, Attorney at law

Mediator, Conflict Coach, Attorney, Educator Julie Cobalt is a conflict resolution expert, mediator, and attorney who helps individuals and families navigate high-emotion conflict with clarity, calm, and practical support.

My Top Specialities and Expertise

Mediation & Dispute Resolution
Family & Relationship Conflict
Communication & Conflict Coaching

About Julie

Julie Cobalt is a mediator, conflict coach, and U.S.-trained attorney with more than 25 years of experience helping individuals and families navigate high-emotion and relational conflict. Her work focuses on divorce and separation, co-parenting challenges, family estrangement, communication breakdowns, and the practical and emotional complexities that arise during major life transitions.

Julie’s approach is emotionally attuned, grounded, and steady. She supports clients who feel overwhelmed, stuck, or burdened by long-standing relationship patterns, helping them move from reactivity into clarity and practical action. Her work blends decades of mediation practice with her background in law, curriculum design, mediation training, and conflict coaching.

Her perspective is also shaped by extensive cross-cultural experience, including years living in Belgium, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates. This global lens informs her work with expatriate families and individuals navigating cultural adaptation and communication across differences.

Julie’s writing on conflict, communication, emotional resilience, and intercultural understanding has been featured in Mediate.com, the Kluwer Mediation Blog, Training Industry, the CPR Institute, the San Diego Union-Tribune, Elephant Journal, and PositivePsychology.com. She divides her time between Dubai and San Diego and works with clients internationally.

I believe every conflict holds the possibility for clarity, connection, and meaningful change. Conflict is rarely neat or comfortable. It is messy and deeply human, and even with experience and skills, I still get reactive, overwhelmed, or shut down at times. What matters is not avoiding conflict but trusting that repair is possible.

My hope is that people learn to meet difficult moments with openness and curiosity, and to reflect on their values and goals before they respond. Conflict may take us off course, but it does not need to derail us. There is always another moment when we can return to each other with understanding, honesty, and a willingness to try again.

Work Experience

Mediator
Conflict Coach and Mediator in private practice (Dubai and San Diego)
Attorney in private civil practice
Adjunct Professor of Mediation
Educator and curriculum developer for conflict-resolution organizations
Workshops and trainings delivered for universities, corporations, government agencies, and community groups
Presenter on emotional regulation, divorce and separation, estrangement, and communication skills