About Amanda
I’m a queer, neurodivergent therapist and Certified Sex Educator through Everyone Deserves Sex Ed (EDSE) offering virtual therapy across California for older teens, emerging adults, and adults. Before becoming a therapist, I worked in the arts and museums after completing a Master’s degree in art history. My backgrounds in art, queer community organizing, and sexual health education continues to shape how I think about care, identity, creativity, and belonging.
I’m especially interested in how relationships, family histories, labor, culture, and systems of survival shape emotional life across generations—and how those experiences can live in the body and in relationships without always being named. As a queer, neurodivergent therapist, I also bring lived understanding of masking, difference, overwhelm, and the importance of spaces where people can exhale and feel more fully themselves.
I work with people navigating trauma, anxiety, identity development, burnout, relationship difficulties, sexuality and gender exploration, religious harm, family rejection, and relational trauma. I especially enjoy working with queer and LGBTQ+ folks, neurodivergent people, and those looking for therapy that feels collaborative, affirming, and grounded in context rather than judgment.
My Approach
My approach is warm, relational, collaborative, and trauma-informed. I understand distress as something shaped by relationships, environments, systems, and survival rather than as personal failure or defect.
I pay attention to how people adapt to the worlds they move through and how those survival strategies can later become painful, exhausting, or limiting. I believe people make sense in context, and that healing often begins through self-understanding, curiosity, and relationships where you feel more understood than evaluated.
My work is grounded in relational, systemic, and de-colonial perspectives. I approach sexuality and relationships through consent, meaning, and context rather than pathology, and I value creating space where people can show up more fully as themselves.
Areas of Focus
- Trauma and complex trauma
- LGBTQ+ identity and relationships
- Neurodivergence, masking, and overwhelm
- Anxiety and burnout
- Religious trauma and shame
- Sexuality and gender exploration
- Family rejection and relational wounds
- Life transitions and identity development
- Sex and intimacy
- Relationship dynamics and communication
Education
Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, MFT (2025)
Palo Alto University | Palo Alto, CA
Everyone Deserves Sex Ed. (EDSE) Certified Sex Educator (2021)
Comprehensive, justice-oriented training in human sexuality using an intersectional lens, centering empathy, inclusive language, and the impact of power and privilege on identity.
Master of Arts in Art History (2015)
George Washington University | Washington, DC
Bachelor of Arts in Art History & Sociology (2011)
Maryville College | Maryville, TN
Clinical & Professional Counseling Experience
Practicum Therapist
The Diversity Center of Santa Cruz | Sept 2024 – Aug 2025
Deliver affirming therapy for LGBTQIA2+ and neurodivergent adults, integrating narrative, expressive, and somatic practices.
Conduct clinical assessments, develop treatment plans, and maintain thorough documentation.
Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to create trauma-informed, culturally responsive programming.
Engage in weekly supervision and reflective consultation to strengthen clinical skill, ethical practice, and professional alignment.
Group Facilitation & Community Programming
NeuroQueer Adult Support Group — Designed and facilitated an 8-week telehealth support group for LGBTQIA2+ neurodivergent adults focused on identity exploration, nervous-system regulation, and community belonging.
Queer Grief Collective — Co-created and co-facilitated two 10-week closed groups for LGBTQIA2+ adults navigating diverse forms of grief, integrating expressive arts, narrative practices, and somatic tools; culminated in a collective “Grief Tree” ritual.
Winter Wellness Workshop — Developed and led a 90-minute seasonal workshop for older LGBTQIA2+ adults blending psychoeducation on nervous-system care with creative practices and resource-sharing to reduce winter isolation.
Managing Anxiety in Uncertain Times — Facilitated a 75-minute workshop for LGBTQIA2+ adults using Narrative Therapy and Liberation Psychology to explore anxiety, agency, and collective care through a “Spheres of Control, Influence, and Resistance” mapping activity.
Co-Organizer & Presenter
Commitment to Counseling Virtual Symposium | Spring 2025
Affirming Therapy for Neurodivergent Adults: A Call for Inclusive Practice in Counselor Education
- Co-organized a session for a program-wide virtual symposium open to counseling students and alumni, supporting planning, coordination, and peer collaboration for an event centered on professional engagement, advocacy, and counseling scholarship.
- Designed and delivered a professional presentation on affirming therapy for neurodivergent adults, examining systemic barriers to care and offering inclusive, evidence-informed clinical and counselor-education practices.
- Developed visually accessible, neurodiversity-affirming presentation materials integrating education, narrative, and advocacy to model inclusive and ethically responsive counseling practice.
Additional Professional Experience
Manager of Digital Strategy
San José Museum of Art | 2019 – 2024
- Led cross-departmental initiatives integrating art, education, and technology with a focus on accessibility and inclusion.
- Directed strategic communications aligned with anti-oppressive, trauma-informed values to increase equitable access to cultural resources.
Podcast Co-Host & Producer
History is Gay Podcast | 2020 – 2022
- Researched, co-produced, and hosted episodes highlighting marginalized queer histories to support inclusive public education and community storytelling.
