Jim’s Story: The Cleveland Years

I was born and raised in middle class, inner city Cleveland. A few years ago, our childhood home (7 of us lived in a Cape Cod bungalow) sold for $18,000. I sensed at a very early age that my life was going to be different.  I had the wanderlust, the curiosity, I wanted to see the world, I wanted to ask questions that adults did not want me to ask. They made that clear, but they never said why. You may have your own version of such beginnings…

Over the early years, I was on unemployment and food stamps, I worked at McDonalds, in factories, as a playground instructor, on truck docks, in a place called Asbestos Products (seriously), in a dye house (no doubt toxic as hell.) Those jobs taught me that 1) I could do those jobs, no problem, and 2) there was no way in hell I was going to do those jobs for the rest of my life.

So although an uninspired high school student (2.43 GPA), I knew I had to go to College and/or find another path. I had some dark moments, I have to tell you…Quite a few of them…I truly could not see how I was going to fit into the world. It kind of sucked to be me a fair percentage of the time.

Travel and Graduate School

Fast forward a little: In between all of those crummy jobs, I ended up traveling a lot, Europe, Morocco, out west, out New England way,  and eventually worked my way to a BA in English at Ohio State. I went to grad school in English/Irish Lit, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, but did not care for teaching (I was only 24 or so, and I sucked at it), so I retained Literature as my lifelong passion, but decided it would not become my career. To this day, I still read Shakespeare, Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Kerouac, Melville, Joan Didion, The Beats, and so on…Literature is one of my true passions…

Eventually, by what at that time felt like a  fluke (of course it wasn’t), I looked into Psychology, and everything kind of worked out, though at that time I did not know how or why. I got my PhD in Counseling Psychology from the third-ranked program in the country at that time, The Ohio State University. It took seven years, and I learned a lot…

 All through my education, traveling was still a part of my life, my identity. It’s probably not a coincidence that one of the most influential novels for me in my teenage years was Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road.” Still love that book. It jump-started my own life on the road…

Life as a  Maverick

I have lived in many states, literally dozens of houses or apartments, and pretty much pursued what my heart wanted, even when it turned out to be a bad idea. I have been a University Psychologist, fallen on my face a million times, been President of a graduate school for Therapists, made really stupid mistakes, became a private practitioner, lost track of what I was supposed to be doing on the planet, at times was kind of a jackass, went into tremendous debt, served as a Professor for many online Universities, worked my way out of debt by working a million jobs at once, the whole nine yards. I just couldn’t do it the way I was told to do it. I just never really worked that way…I wonder if you relate at all to that…?

Helping Others

All along my circuitous and scenic career path, being of service to others has been an overarching theme. That is where I am now, providing services as a Therapist and Life Coach. For the past twenty or so years, people have been seeking me out, whether as a therapist, coach, or mentor, largely because I was seen as doing things my own way, and I am not afraid to break rules along the way. You know, once people get used to the idea that you are not here to live up to their expectations, they kind of drop it. They think “Oh, that’s just Jim being Jim”, and I have come to really like that. Maybe you have had that experience. Or are looking forward to it…

If any of this resonates for you, it may be worthwhile talking about working together. I have spent six decades negotiating a world that was not particularly made for people like me, and I have gotten pretty good at it. Maybe that is where you find yourself sometimes…

   So, yeah–married, no kids, play guitar, love to travel (I think I mentioned that like 5 times), write a fair amount (working on a couple books that may or may not ever really become books–we will see), enjoy photography, like to stay fit, go to the gym, and going to enjoy living in Hawai’i for a while…(Yes, it really IS paradise in a lot of ways, in case you were wondering…) I also spend time in Santa Fe. And San Francisco, whenever I can…

–Jim

Feel free to email me at jamesmicknolan@gmail.com, or text me at 505-699-7616