About

Dr. Kelly A. James, LPC, National Certified Counselor, brings a background of psychology and mental health clinical experience having worked in the field, in a variety of positions, since 1997.  She focuses her research, presentations, and training interests on the neurobiology of trauma, how trauma impacts the individual, and play therapy with an emphasis on parenting skills. She is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, a Child and Adolescent Trauma Professional, a Registered Play Therapist – Supervisor (ret). Dr. James has presented on play therapy and trauma related issues on the local, state, regional, national, and international level since 2004. In 2019, James was recognized as the Top Mental Health Care Professional of the Year by the International Association of Top Professionals and was named the Alumnus of the Year 2021 by Regent University.

Additionally, she is a Certified Life Coach, Certified Professional Coach, Certified Emotion Code and Body Code Practitioner, PSYCH-K trained, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) trained, and working on an Internal Family Systems program. Apart from her full-time position at Yorkville University, she has a private practice and is an Affiliate Faculty for a counselor training program in Reggello, Italy where she teaches on play therapy and trauma.

Dr. James and her colleague, Susan Bachmann, co-authored a book on trauma, Why Aren’t You Over This By Now? How Trauma Messes You Up and What To Do About It.  The book is intended for individuals who have experience prolonged, overwhelming, and/or unpredictable events that can be stored in the body system as a traumatic memory, and then how to heal the memory, so that it no longer negatively impacts the person. Dr. James had a national radio show by the same title with a broadcast company in New York. Currently, James and another colleague, Janice Ross, started a YouTube channel called Janice and Kelly LifeTalk, @janiceandkellylifetalk, where they share on a variety of topics to help people create the lives they want. Our motivation was that we both have decades of experience and we wanted to share that experience. James said she likes learning to do new things, so she is teaching herself how to edit videos for the YouTube channel.

Dr. James was fortunate to work as a Clinical Supervisor for the children’s program at Green Country Behavioral Health in collaboration with Dr. Bruce Perry, Senior Fellow, Child Trauma Academy in Houston. Dr. Perry is the world-renowned child trauma professional, and his model is the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT), which helps clinicians understand how trauma impacts brain development and how to grow the brain up after traumatic experiences. Dr. James’ responsibility was to design and oversee implementation of the NMT in the head start classrooms.

Dr. James earned her B. S. in Psychology from the University of Arkansas, graduating summa cum laude, two master’s degrees from Oral Roberts University - M.A. in Christian Counseling – Licensed Professional Counseling and a M.A. in Christian Counseling – Marriage and Family Therapy, graduating with high honors, and a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. James loves to read, spend time with friends and family, traveling, especially to Italy where she spends the month of May each year. She has two children James and Kaitlin, with three grandchildren, Cloey, Audrey, and Addison.