CLINICAL PRACTITIONER

Amanda specializes in providing individual therapy to military service members and their families, parents, and women who are struggling with depression, anxiety, adjustment issues, medication management, marital stress, parenting, and pregnancy related issues. 

As a Social Worker, Amanda is committed to working with clients who have barriers to accessing the traditional ‘in office’ model of care.  In order to overcome barriers such as childcare and transportation, she has provided services in clients’ homes, and currently specializes in telemedicine.  Providing therapeutic services in a client’s natural environment improves access to care and can be of real benefit to people who struggle leaving their homes due mental health issues, live in remote areas, or have demanding schedules, as well as the barriers discussed above. 

Amanda began providing individual therapeutic services in 2002, at the University of California San Diego, where she received extensive training via a National Institute of Health research study promoting healthy behaviors in change resistant populations.  Since then she has focused on understanding client’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors through a stage of change model and has successfully used motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral, psychodynamic and mindfulness techniques in empowering clients to facilitate personal change and goal attainment.   She has a nurturing, person-centered approach that values each individual’s unique decision making process.

At the Armed Services YMCA, Amanda spent over 8 years innovating and providing services to promote the wellbeing of military families. Here she saw the effect of ongoing transition and separation on families, and became an expert in military culture, lifestyle and families in transition. She led a team of social workers in designing a system of service delivery that was tailored to honor and meet individual family member needs, and promote the growth of positive coping skills. This effort was recognized within the YMCA community with the presentation of Annie E. Casey Foundation, Family Strengthening Award.

Amanda received her Master of Social Work at San Diego State University, and her Bachelor of Arts in European History, and Russian and Soviet Studies at the University of California San Diego.  She became licensed to practice privately in California in 2013.