Down-to-earth therapist here to help you through life’s twists and turns.
Hi, I’m Amanda.
I’m a psychologist, coffee/animal/book lover, highly sensitive person, and type A social introvert who will come up with any excuse to create a new spreadsheet.
My comfort space is my thoughts - it’s through my work and own personal therapy that I’ve learned to accept and embrace that my feelings are also important things to pay attention to. If you work with me, I guarantee that you’ll hear me talk about feelings as “data points”.
If you had told me at the age of 18 the number of curve balls that life would throw my way, I would have either laughed or cried. As someone who loves to plan and be able to predict the future, it was never easy for me to have to roll with unexpected punches.
Yet it was also my willingness to change course when my gut was screaming at me to do so that’s allowed me to create a life that truly makes me happy.
I believe that we all come to forks in the roads of life, where we can choose to continue on our current path, one that feels…….meh. Or we can take the incredibly scary and brave step of moving forward in a new direction, and trust that there’s something better for us ahead, even if we can’t see it clearly yet.
It’s at these times in life where I think that we evolve the most, becoming fine-tuned versions of ourselves, as we lean into our values, personalities, and our most authentic selves.
If you’re someone who’s stalled at the fork in the road and wants to take meaningful steps forward, then I’m excited to work with you.
Am I The Right Therapist For You?
I’m likely a good fit for you if…..
You’re in your 30s and 40s and struggling with life transitions, such as considering a job or career change, going through a divorce, or moving to a new area.
You're typically ambitious and driven, and yet you feel stuck in life's challenges.
Your analytical nature is making you feel stuck and paralyzed, rather than giving you momentum.
You want to thrive in life, rather than survive.
You feel ready to talk about your thoughts, feelings, and concerns, even if you’re not ready to make any changes yet.
You feel willing to take in new perspectives and ideas.
You’re willing to work towards making changes that fit with your values and goals.
Who I Am As A Therapist
The best way to describe me as a therapist might be “real.”
I'm not the therapist who spends the entire session teaching coping strategies, and I’m also not the therapist who sits and nods.
I like therapy to be collaborative - a back and forth conversation that we both participate in. I want you to have plenty of space to talk about your concerns, and I’ll always share my thoughts, perspectives, and feedback based on what I’m hearing from you.
What Therapy Looks Like With Me
I ask all of my clients to come to each session with an idea of where they want to start.
Whether that be stressors you need to vent about, things that you’ve been mulling over, or feelings that have been overwhelming, I want this to ultimately be about your goals and priorities for therapy, not mine.
In therapy, I will:
Validate your feelings and how hard life can be sometimes.
Point out patterns that I notice in your thoughts and behaviors, as well as how these might be contributing to your distress.
Bring a new perspective, so that you can begin creating a new narrative around your concerns.
Encourage you to think about how you might do some things differently and make changes that are aligned with your values and goals.
Help you to create a pathway of small steps forward.
Although counseling often involves serious topics, I like to use humor and find that it can add to the therapeutic process when we’re able to laugh and joke at times.
You also never have to worry about offending me by using expletives or curse words - sometimes they do the best job at describing just how terrible things feel.
I believe that therapy is both art and science.
The science piece of therapy is grounded in the techniques, strategies, approaches, and concepts that research shows to be most effective. The ones that I use the most in therapy are cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness, self-compassion, vulnerability, authenticity, and self-care.
In simplified terms, I help my clients to become more aware of how they think about things, talk to themselves, and interact with the world, so that they can feel like themselves again and truly thrive.
The art portion of therapy comes from the fact that no two people are the same - every person comes in with different struggles, and what works for one person might not work for another.
We’ll work together to get to the core of what’s actually going on, and to figure out which strategies and approaches are going to work best for YOU. By the time you finish therapy, I want you to have a good understanding of the approaches, strategies, and perspectives that are most effective for you.
The most important part of therapy is that you feel like you have a safe and supportive space to open up and work through your concerns. That doesn’t mean that therapy is going to always feel easy, but I want you to feel like the hard work is worth it and that it’s moving the needle closer to where you want to be.
My Experiences and Credentials
For those of you interested in my former experiences and training, here is the cliff notes version of my CV:
2012 - Graduated from Bowling Green State University with a PhD in clinical psychology.
2011-2012 - Completed an internship at the University of Pittsburgh’s Counseling Center.
2012-2013 - Completed a post-doctoral fellowship at West Virginia University’s Carruth Center for Psychological and Psychiatric Services.
2013-2015 - Worked as a Staff Psychologist at West Virginia University’s Carruth Center for Psychological and Psychiatric Services.
2015 - Present - Worked in private practice as a clinical psychologist in Bloomington, Indiana.