Uncommon Minds

Chasing the expectations that others have for us usually leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. True meaning in life comes from exploring who WE are and moving with purpose toward who WE want to be. Hi! I'm James and I have over 20 years of experience as a master's level Social Worker and have been licensed as an LICSW in Minnesota since 2007. I have lived and worked in the Rochester, MN area for 17 years. I work mostly IN PERSON at my office in a professional setting with clients who live in Southeast Minnesota. I currently work with clients age 16 and older, including all ages of adults. I currently have a waiting list for clients 18 and older and I am NO LONGER accepting age 16-17 to my waiting list. I believe in bringing out the positive attributes, goals, values and interests of each client rather than focusing on and reinforcing peoples' perceived deficits. I do not believe in "fixing" or "correcting" clients but in helping them heal wounds, and build and create satisfying, meaningful, enjoyable lives. Every human being is a true original and harnessing your originality is what makes you great. I work best with clients who are self motivated and have some idea as to why they are seeking therapy. I work best with clients who are actively seeking someone to talk to. I am not as effective working with people who are here because someone else thinks they should. That said, many of those who have court appointed counseling actually want the help, so I certainly can work with that! If you are here to refer someone else, please know that my best fit is with clients who actively seek out therapy, not those who are told they should. As a therapist, I draw from and have had training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Person Centered/Humanistic Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and a variety of other modalities. However, people are diverse! What therapy looks like is largely determined by you, the client. Cookie cutters are for cookies, not for therapy. What therapy will look like will be determined through a collaborative process between you, the client, and me. Over time, we will work at this with equal effort and I can adjust flexibly as needed! I strive to be fully present with who and where you are at each session and I believe this is more important than giving you "answers" or "advice". I will strive to speak to you with honesty, respect and sensitivity and listen to your perspective without preconceptions. James has a Masters Degree in Social Work from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a Bachelor or Arts from Grinnell College (home of self proclaimed weird folk and chronic over-thinkers) in Grinnell, Iowa. He is married, has two teenage sons and spends his free time playing guitar, creating and performing music as well as swimming, biking, running, cooking and using cookie cutters for their intended purpose! EFFECTIVE DATE 3/1/2024 This privacy policy (which I am required to post) explains how Uncommon Minds collects, uses and discloses personal information about clients or customers, prospective clients or customers, and visitors to our website. COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION: Information collected directly from you: We may collect information directly from you, for example through a web form, during registration, while setting up an account with us, when you contact us for customer support, etc. Personal information we collect directly from you may include first and last name, address, email address and or phone number. Information collected from your device— our website may use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixels and other technologies to collect certain information from you such as IP address, date and time of your visit, broker and operating system information, referring website address and information about how you interact with the website. IMPORTANT CONTACT INFORMATION: The provider's preferred method of contacting you is by email. However, by providing a telephone number and submitting the below form for contact, you are consenting to be contacted by SMS text message. Message & data rates may apply. You can reply STOP to opt-out of further messaging. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.