Meet James

A smiling man with tattoos on his arms stands outdoors in a grassy park with trees in the background.

I’m James. I’m was born in Kansas City and it’s the only place I’ve ever called home. I grew up in this area, went to college at William Jewell (in Liberty, MO) and to graduate school at UMKC (go roos). The more people I meet the more I come to realize the way the communities I grew up in shaped me. I’ve been steeped in Kansas City, for better or worse, my whole life. Now I live and work in the KC area, trying to help the people around me find healing and wholeness.

I’ve spent time about half of my career in private practice but, as evidenced by the fact that I practice in two locations (Kansas City and Leawood), I crave variety. So I’ve bounced around to a few different practice settings, usually with a couple of different gigs at a time. I’ve worked in a hospital emergency department, helping folks get connected with acute care. I’ve worked with intensive outpatient groups, support groups, psychoeducational groups, and psychotherapy groups, and addiction recovery groups. I’ve done non-profit case management and taught psychology to undergrads. I’ve worked as a Director of Counseling for a large community organization, and I’ve served on the leadership team of the Johnson County Suicide Prevention Coalition.

No matter what I’ve done vocationally, the things that light up my heart have remained the same. I LOVE seeing people become the truest expression of who they are. Every one of us, regardless of our age or station in life, deserves to be that version of ourselves as much of the time as we can manage. And that’s what I’m here to help with.

FAQs

A smiling man with a beard and tattoos, wearing a backward cap and an orange shirt, sitting on a boat with a small curly-haired dog wearing a pink harness. The man has his arm resting on the boat's side and is looking at the dog.

  • My tattoos are an ongoing passion project in finding ways to artistically display my core values. There are still a handful I’d like to get in the coming years.

    I have four forearm-length illustrations: waves (symbolizing flow), flower (symbolizing growth), clouds (symbolizing freedom), and a cairn of stones (symbolizing balance).

    Connecting these pieces are illustrations of strands of DNA, which symbolize the interconnectedness of all life.

    Finally, my first two tattoos. On my left arm, the words “for the girls,” reminder of my commitment to my wife and daughters. On my right arm, the words “Christ in you.” This one is harder to explain, but it’s an idea that the divine resides in all things, including me.

    My newest tattoos, and the most self-explanatory, are the ones on my fingers, which say “JUST LOVE.”

    Except for the words (which are in my wife’s handwriting), all the designs are the original art of the tattoo artist Bob Rodriguez, who works out of Exile Tattoo in Kansas City, Missouri.

  • April 2026

    Hobbies
    In addition to standup and DnD, I’m spending a little more time fishing with my kids at a park near our house.

    Books
    I just finished When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin Yalom. It’s a “teaching novel” that imagines Josef Breuer (one of Freud’s mentors) working with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in a sort of proto-therapeutic context. It’s a gripping narrative, but the novel’s main thrust is to demonstrate some of the core tenets of existential therapy.

    I’m currently reading Grendel by John Gardner, which centers the experience of Grendel (the monster from the epic Old English poem Beowulf) to elucidate existential philosophy, particularly Jean-Paul Sartre’s work in Being and Nothingness.

  • What a great question. This list is fluid, but many of the books on here have been on here for years.

    Existential Psychotherapy by Irvin Yalom
    THE text outlining the therapeutic perspective that guides my work. The summary: the facts of existence are hard ones, and authenticity is how we face them well.

    Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
    A beautiful case for embracing our finitude.

    Say What You Mean by Oren Jay Sofer
    A mindfulness-based primer on non-violent communication.

    The Moral Animal by Robert Wright
    A discussion of ethics from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.

    How to be Perfect by Michael Shur
    A hilarious and practical explanation of person-level ethics from the creator of The Good Place.

    Honorable Mentions
    Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre
    The Will to Change by Bell Hooks
    Deeper Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman
    The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir