A natural approach for healing your
psyche, body, and relationships...
Hi, I'm Amanda, a Clinical Mind-Body Therapist and Trauma Specialist. I help people who were previously discouraged in years of unsuccessful therapy finally breakthrough and heal.
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I support the following groups:
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families and couples striving to break free from years of repetitive stress
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persons with trauma who've been discouraged by unsuccessful mainstream therapy
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persons with chronic medical conditions and illness who wish to reduce their symptoms and reclaim vitality
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persons trying to reinvent themselves amid midlife crisis or sickness
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In our work together, you'll be supported with clinically effective approaches to help you identify the origins of dysfunction and heal at the root.
Why am I struggling to heal
(even after years of treatment)?
If you've tried mainstream approaches to healing, but struggled to see results, this doesn't mean that you're helpless. It means that standardized treatment is falling short of meeting your needs.
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World leading trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shares openly about this, stating, ​"very little of what we have learned about the brain has made its way into psychiatry or psychotherapy ... except that we give people drugs, and these drugs don’t really train the brain to do things properly. They have a suppressant effect on our natural capacity to heal." ​
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Most of the people I serve have experienced that reality while struggling for years in unsuccessful treatment.
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In our work together, they got to experience the gift of healing trauma, relationship ruptures, and chronic illness and pain - naturally.
What does the science say about
the mind-body connection?
Finally. We’re living in a time in which peer reviewed science has proven significant connections between the state of the human psyche, the health of our physical body, and the patterns playing out in our relationships.
Meanwhile. The mainstream industry is struggling to integrate this research to target the root causes of debilitating stress, chronic pain, illness, and relationship rupture.
Most of the people I work with struggled for decades with these unwanted symptoms and came to me feeling discouraged after standardized approaches had offered them little to no relief.
Part of the problem is that institutional approaches prescribe homogenous, standardized treatment to dynamic and diverse human problems.​​​​​​​​​
What mind-body science is telling us...​
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In 2017, the World Health Organization announced depression as the leading cause of
ill health and disability worldwide.
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80% of visits to primary care doctors are stress related.​
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Suppression of emotions suppresses the immune system.
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Emotions are mental, physical, and chemical actions generated inside of your body, based on what you perceive and experience.
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Most persons with chronic health conditions, especially immune related, experienced a period of significant and unusual stress around 18 months to 2 years prior to the first symptoms.
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Isolating events, shock, unexpected change, and loss alter your brain's threat perception.
Your body responds chemically to this change, sometimes setting the stage for dis-ease.
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When we address the psyche and body as a unified whole, we see dramatic breakthroughs in longstanding symptoms related to relationship ruptures, trauma, and chronic illness and pain. ​​
How I support your healing...
Stress, and the problems it causes in our psyche, body, and relationships,
arise from the threats we perceive.
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The problem is, we don't always know when we're perceiving threats because these perceptions exist outside of our conscious awareness.
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In our sessions, you'll be supported with research-based, clinically effective, trauma-skilled approaches for improving the health of your psyche, body, and relationships...
You'll learn about how your brain and body have been changed by moments of unexpected change, isolation, and shock.
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You'll learn about how your culture and environment impact your symptoms
and what you can do to finally break free.
You'll learn about how your emotions and trauma are chemical reactions inside of you,
affecting your anatomy and physiology,
and steps you can take to undo the damage.
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You'll gain new understanding of your triggers, why they occur, and what you can do to improve your relationship with these chaotic occurrences.
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You'll gain awareness about how your hidden self-perceptions impact
your relationships and what you can do to
shift problematic relating and communication patterns.​
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You'll examine how your stress patterns have held you back from the experiences you long for, and you'll be guided to finally move forward with confidence.​​​
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You'll gain advanced trauma support skills that have helped people who were previously discouraged by decades of unsuccessful standardized treatment finally break free and heal.
You'll be guided with care and understanding by a practitioner with a history of success who has also personally healed from complex trauma and chronic illness.
You can have faith in the process as you receive a research-based, clinically effective, advanced trauma-skilled approach to healing longstanding stress patterns in your life.
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As a Clinical Mind-Body Therapist and Trauma Specialist, I operate independently from any institution so I can serve people who've struggled to see results within the limitations of
standardized treatment.
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My support is not a substitute for appropriate medical care,
and I do not diagnose or medically treat any illness.
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About Amanda
I'm a Clinical Mind-Body Therapist, Trauma Specialist, and Cross-cultural Educator.
While working in Chicago's health care sector, I observed the link between mental and physical health. I helped dialysis clinics improve patient outcomes by implementing mind-body education and depression management services. I was later discouraged by industry norms that prioritized profit over impact. I left in 2013 to volunteer in the Peace Corps in South Africa. ​
That's when I met David Patient, one of the first people to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Doctors told him he had 6 months to live, and there was nothing that could save him. But David pioneered his own holistic treatment plans and lived another 34 years. He co-authored the book, The Healer Inside You, and was my mentor from 2013-2017 until he passed away from other causes. While in South Africa, I trained with David and his colleague Neil Orr, a psycho-neuro immunologist, who were consultants to the United Nations.
I later entered a 10-year mentorship with a body-centered psychologist and studied with the world's leading experts on trauma in Dr. Bessel van der Kolk's Traumatic Stress Studies Certificate program. I stay up-to-date on the latest psych research by attending classes through the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine. I also complete ongoing courses with Pat Ogden's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute and offerings by Dr. Peter Levine.
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Personally, I've experienced my own suffering, and healed from adult onset asthma, IBS, and complex trauma. Because I know trauma and sickness intimately, I'm committed to helping people breakthrough - even when nothing else worked.​​ My clients have unlocked their healing pathway even after decades of being discouraged by unsuccessful conventional treatment.​ It's my honor to help people create new chapters of life in which their symptoms do not define them.
