Connie St. James, LMFT

Connie St. James brings a long history of training and varied professional experience to her work with people who feel overwhelmed by life decisions, relationships, career shifts, aging, or the stress and anxiety that accompany those changes. She focuses on helping clients navigate relationship concerns, motivation and self-esteem challenges, confidence issues, and coping with life transitions, drawing on both formal education and decades of life experience.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State University, Northridge in 1987 and a Master of Arts in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy in 1989 from California Family Study Center, now known as Phillips Graduate University. After completing a 3,000-hour internship that included placements in a psychiatric hospital, a drug and alcohol treatment program, and a facility for abused children, she passed state written and oral examinations and received her California license as a marriage and family therapist in 1992.

During her early clinical career she maintained a small private practice in West Los Angeles, then in Palm Desert where she also facilitated hospital groups addressing major depression. Later moves led to a period in Santa Barbara during which she changed her license status to inactive to support her husband’s work. After relocating to Auburn in Northern California she spent more than twenty years working in real estate while continuing to apply counseling skills in personal and professional relationships and through her own experience with aging.

Now in what she describes as her winter years, Connie has a renewed desire to support people seeking positive change. She combines a person centered stance with cognitive and behavioral approaches, working patiently and without judgment to help clients clarify their stories, identify feelings and unhelpful thoughts or behaviors, and set goals. Her practice emphasizes understanding emotions, thoughts, and actions so clients can recognize patterns that contribute to dissatisfaction and build clearer pathways forward.