Clinical hypnosis therapy is a legitimate, evidence-based tool used by licensed clinicians to support healing from trauma, anxiety, and chronic pain. Seattle therapist James Nole, LMHC, explains what clinical hypnosis is, how it differs from stage hypnosis, and who it can help. Offering in-person sessions in Pioneer Square and telehealth throughout Washington State.

Most couples don't come to therapy because they stopped loving each other — they come because they feel stuck. In this post, Seattle couples therapist James Nole, LMHC, introduces PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy), a research-backed model developed by Dr. Stan Tatkin that goes beyond communication skills to address what's actually happening in your nervous system during conflict. If you and your partner keep having the same fight, this is worth reading.

Kendrick Lamar's Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is more than an album — it's a portrait of a person doing the hard work of healing. Seattle trauma therapist and musician James Nole breaks down how Kendrick navigates intergenerational trauma, a savior complex, shame, infidelity, and ultimately, the radical choice to prioritize himself over the weight of everyone else's expectations. If you've ever felt the pull between caring for others and caring for yourself, this album — and this post — will speak to you.

Another in my psychoanalytic blg series. This one discusses displacement, both inside and outside of analytic psychotherapy.

Here is the newest blog in my defining psychoanalytic terms series. This one follows up my post on identification, honing in on idealization, and its role and some dynamics in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

Check out the third installment in my defining psychoanalytic terms series of blogs. This one focuses on reaction formation, how you might spot it, and how it sometimes shows up in therapy.

When emotions feel too overwhelming to face, the mind finds clever ways to sidestep them. Two of the most common — and most misunderstood — are intellectualization and rationalization. In this post, Seattle trauma therapist James Nole, LMHC, breaks down how these defense mechanisms work, why trauma survivors and high-functioning thinkers are especially prone to them, and what it actually takes to move from understanding your pain to feeling and healing it.

Here is the first in my series where I define psychoanalytic terms for anyone inter4sted. I hope that is informative, and please let me know if you found it helpful. My understanding of these concepts is also evolving, thus this may be subject to updates or further entries to clarify or change.

Why forced gratitude is not a healthy emotional or mental health practice.

Here is the newest blog in my series on psychoanalytic terms and phrases. This one is all about identification, and how it shows up in our lives and in psychotherapy.

This post focuses on transference in psychotherapy, and is the newest installment in my psychoanalytic terms series.

Here is the integration paper that I composed for my Master’s degree. This is the Master’s Thesis of our existential and phenomenological psychology program at Seattle University. It focuses on the role and nature of hope and hopelessness in psychotherapy.

You may be familiar with dissociation, but the word has a specific meaning in the field of psychotherapy. Here is an article on what dissociation is from the perspective of a therapist who focuses on trauma.

Here I discuss the importance of Courageous Speech and Disciplined Spontaneity in therapy.

Repetition is an important aspect in therapy, and is a part of the process of working through to healing.

Here is an important aspect of therapy, worth exploring.

Both the past and present are important aspects of exploration in therapy. Here is a blog post focusing on both and how they show up, and how they are held in the therapeutic space.

Here I focus on deep listening and affective attainment in therapy.

Here is why intent is important in psychotherapy for both the therapist and patient.