I’m Rita and I’m glad you’re here! As a therapist and mentor, I love and specialize in working with adolescents, young adults, artists, creatives, and new mothers to uncover their motivations, passions, and internal voices. I have advanced training in and specialize in PTSD, Developmental Trauma, and Attachment. Trauma can create global effects on the mind and body, and I work hard, alongside my clients, to remove trauma blocks from their path, in order to clear the way towards the life that they have dreamed for themselves. As a late Gen X’er, I unabashedly love Millennials and Gen Z. I believe both of these generations have talents and strengths not yet fully recognized and embraced by society at large, and I love being a part of helping to change the world by uncovering these gifts, for all to see. I also feel a strong kinship towards my own generation and the unique challenges we have faced on the way to adulthood, and the ones we have faced once we got here. It hasn’t always been easy for us.
I practice therapy and mentoring online. To read about the difference in the two clients services see my Services page. Working online eliminates the need for missed appointments due to travel, weather, childcare demands, and many illnesses. I am a licensed clinical social worker, school social worker, and learning and behavior specialist. I am also a wife and mother of 3 children. I have worked with youth and adults, professionally, since 2005. I have extensive experience in schools and communities, working with folks living with learning, behavior, emotional, and mental difficulties. Prior to becoming a social worker, I worked as special education teacher, a land and water management police officer, a licensed beautician, and a film production worker. I pull from all these professional and personal experiences to support my mentoring clients. I focus my work with therapy clients on using established evidence based treatments.
I have supported teens and young adults as they navigate high school, college, the workforce, and independence. I have supported new mothers as they accepted their changing identity and found their compass in parenthood. I have supported adults as they weathered all manner of traumatic transitions and developmental growth experiences. I have helped my clients to improve their relationships with friends, siblings, parents, romantic partners, colleagues and bosses. I have assisted my clients as they stepped out of old patterns of self-sabotage, negative self-talk, and relational difficulties, and into the lives and relationships they envisioned for themselves. I have taught my clients techniques to manage high cycles of creativity and explosive growth, as well as, low cycles of anxiety and depression. I have guided my clients towards a life of healthy boundaries and radical self-care. I have helped clients through existential crises, and questions of meaning and spirituality.
Whether a therapy or mentoring client, I encourage my clients to adopt a life affirming worldview, that acknowledges suffering, tolerates uncertainty, and cultivates gratitude and resilience. I have shown them the healing power in forming intimate and enduring bonds with others. I encourage my clients to fully embrace themselves, warts and all, and then share their beautiful and imperfect selves with the world, as they seek authentic connection.
In therapy, I work from a trauma and attachment focused lens, although, I use a variety of evidenced based practices to reach my therapy clients. Depending on the needs of my client, I may pull from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Strengths Based Therapy, Mindfulness, Somatic Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy, Harm Reduction, and Depth Psychology. When appropriate and requested, I will also investigate issues of spirituality with clients and support their spiritual development in a manner respectful of their belief systems.
Email me at ritathelcsw@gmail.com to schedule your free 15 min phone consultation and to set up your first appointment.
RoseRita W. James, LCSW, LBS1, MSW, MA