Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Katherine E. James.
Hi Dr. James, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Loving relationship are my greatest treasure. I am privileged to be married to my high school sweetheart for 40 years, have one son by birth, a daughter in love and an amazing network of family and friends. I love well and am well loved.
Most days my heart’s sentiment and verbal expression is “I love this life of mine”. I live a life intentionally loving me first, God and others. I’m grateful for a life’s intent that every Soul knows Love and know that they are loved.
My family’s value of children is the shero of my life’s story…
Mine is not the story of major personal woe, drug use, molestation, abuse, or abandonment.
My past struggle was growing up feeling disempowered by the broader (louder) messages that glaringly failed to include those like me in its many forms of broadcast.
In my neighborhood, we primarily grew up below the poverty line. Those who didn’t live in this economic reality, as my family did, seemed to live fairytales, the kind of life that seemed out of reach to me and those like me. I believed that kind of life was impossible for us. It certainly felt that way to me.
The broader messages didn’t show me or people like me; they didn’t show people who resembled those in my neighborhood (at least not in a way that led to hope). The messages that fit our realities came in packages like “Good Times,” the sitcom which depicted the Evans family that never, EVER got anywhere. They couldn’t escape the imprisonment of poverty, no matter how talented, kind, determined, or resourceful they were. Their story was an indictment of poverty. Of all the messages I could most resonate with, it was the theme of “Good Times.” They were disempowered (unable to make a significant enough difference to change their life circumstances). I felt disempowered (unable to make a significant, lasting difference in my life’s circumstances).
The irony was in the name of the show. After watching “Good Times,” I was often left with the feeling that the Evans’ story was my lot in life—always struggling, never going to really make it out of this place, this state, and not having the connections, ideas, or power to change—feeling disempowered.
It was the broader messages received from shows like “Good Times,” from TV, magazines, mass media in general, and life experiences that seemed to seep into my subconscious and led to a victim mentality state of feeling powerlessness. The confirming evidence was EVERYWHERE, yet unconscious and unmonitored, but not totally unchecked.
Also ubiquitous was the palpable love of my family. My familial childhood experience was matriarchal (grandmother, mother, and my mother’s 7 sisters – my aunties). All but one lived within the city. The vicinity closeness led to growing up in an amazing extended family experience of cousins upon cousins. At one point, our family filled an entire small apartment building, which allowed for the children to always have someone to care for them. Throughout my childhood, I felt a sense of belonging and loved.
Although I had the experience of feeling limited and powerless from the outside world, my inside world’s (family) love condition buffered sufficient to make strides away from those self-limiting messages towards empowerment, self-love, and a life of service.
SERVICE
I am blessed beyond measure to serve from my soul. I serve or have served in the following capacities:
Professor
19 years (2002 – 2021) instructed college and university students. I was privileged to teach at Wayne County Community College District, Spring Arbor University, and Ashland Theological Seminary. Teaching more than 300 courses and hundreds of students during my tenure.
Pastor
33 years’ service in leadership at Shiloh Deliverance Church International
Licensed Professional Counselor
21 years’ service of private practice
Counselor Educator (18 years)
Counselor Supervisor (13 years)
*President, Michigan Mental Health Counselors Association (2020 – 2023)
*Received “Counselor of the Year” award June 2022 (American Mental Health Counselors Association)
Author
Self-Love: A Gift You Give Yourself (published October 2016)
*Freedom is Our Birthright (published February 2023)
Speaker
Serve as a transformational speaker using an inspirational platform
*Weekly Facebook live 5:40 am
Dr. Katherine E. James YouTube Channel
Personal Development
*Launched a personal development service in 2020
TV Show Host
*March 17, 2023, Launched For the Love of It a weekly Broadcast on WHPR TV 33 designed for the sole purpose of adding more love into the world (access the live stream Fridays 11:30 am – noon at 313watkins.com).
Each role is informed by my life’s intention to help each soul to know Love and know that they are loved. This intention is anchored in Luke 10:27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind and thy neighbor as thyself.
Loving ourselves is not a luxury; it is an imperative if we are to live as our highest, fullest, and truest version. My precious moments are utilized towards helping to make this a reality for as many as possible.
I invite you to notice the asterisks; these represent movement after gaining awareness of message of scarcity playing in my subconscious. In February 2020, I began severing connections to scarcity’s presence and influence in my life.
Considering all that was accomplished with scarcity playing in my subconscious, I sometimes wonder about the possibilities that scarcity did not allow me to believe for. And yet, more days than not from the depths of my soul, proceeds this cry, “I love this life of mine.” For this truth, I am grateful.
My daily lived experience…
Poppa (God) and I are in this co-creative life dance, where we intentionally meet in prayer and meditation. In this space, I receive that which isn’t available for me at the conscious level; then, I am intentional about being in inspired actions towards the fulfillment of divine imaginations. Service ensues from this daily lived experience.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The subconscious beliefs that there isn’t enough for my dreams to come true and there is nothing I can do about it was my biggest struggle. Since discovering this message in February 2020, I have relentlessly pursued and achieved levels of freedom from this limiting belief. Because I own the truth that emotional and psychological freedom is my birthright.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Dr. Katherine E. James, PLLC.?
I am privileged to serve as a Midwife for the Soul.
It is my life’s intent for every Soul to know Love and know that they are loved. I employ my gifts of teaching, preaching, professional counseling, coaching, speaking, writing, conference development, and hosting, Self-love Queen’s Adventure (retreat) hosting, as well as skills of leadership, instructional design (course development), and the transformational power of presence to help others accept, value and embrace themselves, as they currently are, while embracing an activating awareness of the need to continually change towards their next best version.
Self-love is the primary tool employed to manifest the end goal of service while living as one’s highest, fullest, and truest version.
Adding more love into all spaces is the underlying intention of all endeavors of Dr. Katherine E. James, PLLC. This intention is anchored in Luke 10:27, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself.
How do you define success?
Waking up most days with an authentic soul’s cry that says, “I love this life of mine.” Then answering that soul’s cry by serving towards ours and others’ highest good. The key to it all is the anchor of Self-love.
A life of success is represented by soul contentment and an eagerness for more that is answered with inspired actions.
Contact Info:
- Email: selflove@drkatherineejames
- Website: drkatherineejames.com
- Instagram: @drkathyej
- Facebook: @drkatherinejames
- Youtube: @drkatherineejames
Image Credits
Dr. Joy P. Creel
