Wellness for Modern Minds
Telehealth Counseling Serving California, Colorado, and Illinois
Mood Issues
If you’re feeling down, unmotivated, worried, or perhaps emotions cycle all over the place, therapy can help find the patterns and build new ones. Therapy is a safe place to process painful experiences. Learn to regulate your body from stressed to rest. Reprogram unhelpful thinking styles and break limiting beliefs. Therapy helps you move through challenging emotions to live the life you value.
Neurodivergent Care
Healing, for the neurodivergent mind, doesn’t come from learning how to look “normal.” It comes from finally being allowed to be yourself. You are not too much, you are not broken, and you don’t need to be “fixed.” In neurodivergent-affirming care, we reject the idea that ADHD and autism are pathologies to be overcome.
My practice is built on a foundation of neurodivergent-affirming care, offering a space where the constant pressure to mask, perform, and suppress your instincts can finally be released. Work with a therapist with lived experience who can see your ADHD or autistic or other traits as integral parts of your identity, not errors to be corrected. We will slow down to understand your sensory world, honor your need for autonomy, and navigate executive functioning challenges with self-compassion rather than self-criticism. Here, we don’t measure progress by how well you blend in, but by how deeply you reconnect with your own mind, body, and inherent worth.
Trauma and Recovery
Surviving trauma can feel like life has fallen to pieces. Therapy cannot erase trauma but creates a safe place to decrease painful feelings. Learn healthy coping strategies to reduce the severity and frequency of triggers. Therapy can guide a person to recovery and finding inner strength. Integrating piece after piece from surviving to thriving. Incorporating eye based models can resolve issues rapidly as compared to talking alone. Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) EMDR and Brainspotting are designed to resolved unprocessed memories by targeting the brain’s innate healing system. This accelerates healing and brain growth.
Hello! I’m James
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
I’m a clinical social worker first and grew in my career working with communities experiencing systemic oppression and layers of trauma. I believe that as we embark on our healing journey, it ripples into the communities around us and changes the world.
My interests overlap my love for therapy. I’m an avid plant lover and much like my work, I love to witness growth. I’m a baby yogi and believe that movement is medicine. I love gaming and know that we also can level up our lives. As a film buff, we can also become the heroes in our stories.
My Expertise
Emotional Regulation
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Every day we are bombarded with hundreds of emotionally provoking stimuli. They can leave us feeling down or on edge. Our flight or flight system gets activated often requiring a response. Learn to slow down between feeling and reaction to choose the action which best serves you.
Thought Reprogramming
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That inner critic can be loud sometimes. Our minds are a super computer and often the default programming leans towards negative thinking. Learn to notice the patterns and stories your mind tells you. Challenges these thoughts and create the narative you want to tell yourself.
Psychedelic Safety & Integration
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Many people use substances in their pursuit of happiness. You may find yourself wanting to be safer or exploring reducing or stopping use. With the advances in research and pending decriminalization, you might also be exploring psychedelic medicine for you own healing. Therapy is a place to plan safer & habits as well as a place to process and integrate non-ordinary experiences you may have had.
Mindfulness & Mental Flexibility
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Develop the ability to continue moving towards your goals despite the challenges and difficulties life throws at you. Learn skills that equip you to tap into the power of the present moment. We often spend much of our energy trying to avoid experiencing our emotions whereas to move through them we must fully feel.
Goal Manifesting
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Imagine a future where the problem that has you looking at this sentence has gone away. What is a day in that life like? Set a direction and we can determine what steps to take, little by little, to manifest it into reality. Therapy helps turn your dreams into goals. We’ll break goals into actions. Step by step, you’ll start building momentum forward.
Interpersonal Attachment
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Therapy creates a safe place where we can be secure to be ourselves. The therapeutic dynamic reveals blind spots, repeating patterns, and mirrors how we show up in relationship with others and our self. Over time therapy helps not just achieve healthier relationships with others but ultimately builds a secure relationship with our own self.
Peak Performance & ADHD Support
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Are you living with ADHD? Maybe it’s simply you can manage to keep focus with so many distractions at hand. Those deadlines are approaching and those all nighters just aren’t healthy anymore. Therapy can equip you with the skills and strategies to start making progress on those things you want to do.
Parts Work (Internal Family Systems)
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In a typical IFS therapy session, we don’t focus on “fixing” you. Instead, we facilitate a dialogue between your Self and your Parts.
1. Unblending: We gently help you separate from a part so you aren’t totally consumed by it. Instead of saying “I am angry,” we shift to “A part of me is angry.” This small shift creates space and perspective.
2. Getting to Know the Part: From the curious and compassionate energy of your Self, we get to know the part. We ask it questions:
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“Why are you so hard on me?”
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“What are you afraid would happen if you didn’t do your job?”
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“How old do you think I am?”
Often, we discover that the part is stuck in a past traumatic event, trying to protect you from a danger that no longer exists.
3. Healing the Exile: Once the Protector parts (Managers/Firefighters) trust that you (the Self) are strong enough to handle it, they allow you to access the vulnerable Exile. In the safe presence of your Self, you can witness the pain the Exile has been carrying. You can reparent it, sooth it, and release the burdens it has held for decades.
4. Unburdening: When an Exile is healed, it no longer needs to be locked away. It transforms into a positive quality like lightness, playfulness, or connection. Freed from their extreme roles, the Protector parts can also relax and take on healthier, more supportive roles.
LGBTQ+ Inclusive
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Wherever you are on the beautiful spectrum of human experience, therapy is a safe place to be yourself. Coping with discrimination and oppression, coming out and becoming your “authentic”self in the face of societal pressures can lead to higher levels of depression, anxiety, substance use, and other mental health concerns for LGBTQ+ community. Our practice is sex postitive, affirming, and inclusive of all lifestyles including nonmonogamous, poly, and kinky folx.
My Approach & Values
I’m a modern minded therapist and nerd out over keeping up with growing knowledge in the field. I love the creative challenge of therapy more. I love integrating these theories and teaching them in a way that connects with your story, interests, and experiences. I’m pretty down to earth, keep things real, and can also use some colorful language (if that’s your preference.)
I am a social justice advocate and BIPOC ally. I believe the broken systems we deal with have a great impact on our mental health. I am part of the LGBTQ+ community, sex positive and love working with non-monogamous, poly, and kinky folx. I believe in decolonizing therapy, honoring the traditions where this legacy came from, and separating healing from capitalism.
Contact Me
Ask a question or book an appointment below. For emergencies call a trusted support, crisis line, 911, or visit your nearest hospital.
(424) 284-9325
California (Los Angeles) and Illinois (Chicago) Virtual Video Sessions
james@solsticementalhealth.com
