Hi I am Amberlea, a Licensed Professional Counselor practicing in Austin, Texas.

This moment, right now, is your first step toward healing.
I welcome you to this new beginning.  

​Psychotherapy and spirituality are two pieces of a fundamental process of creating wholeness. It is the process of deep healing, awakening, and integration- becoming fully human, fully alive, fully here.  

 

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy gives us tools to understand the personality traits that develop in our early lives. These traits were helpful to us as young people but can become outdated and unhelpful as we grow and mature. These old patterns of behavior can create anxiety, procrastination, depression, unhealthy coping skills, communication problems, and relationship issues. 

 

Psychotherapy gives us a way to understand the lens we see the world through, consisting of belief systems and the stories or narratives we tell about our lives, most of which we learned from our families, our tribes, and society. For example, we may have been brought up and taught to turn away from certain emotions, to sedate them, to get away from them, to numb ourselves from them, distract ourselves as pleasurably as we can from them. When we separate ourselves from emotions or thoughts that are part of our human experience, they become shadows of the unconscious. 

 

Shadow Work

Psychotherapy offers us shadow work. The shadow is the container for what we’ve disowned and rejected in ourselves and want to keep in the dark. It is a big part of us and to leave it unattended and unexamined is to leave our selves partial, divided, far from whole. Our tendency regarding our shadow is to fuse with it, get lost in its contents, or to avoid it, but the real work is to become intimate with our shadow, intimate with what’s in our shadow, all of it. It asks for courage and it deepens our courage. It’s an absolutely worthwhile path because to undergo it whole-heartedly leads us into a rare wholeness of being. 

 

Spirituality

Spirituality offers us the ability to cultivate intimacy and loving kindness with all that we are. It teaches us to nurture and develop the inner observer, present moment awareness, non-judgment, and heart-centered thinking. Cultivating intimacy with all that we are- light and dark, everything, high and low, superficial and deep. 

 

Spiritual traditions, however, tend to leave out shadow work, and there is a lot of shadow work that comes up through spiritual practice; most of which is rooted in psychological and emotional domains. 

 

The most common shadow of spirituality is spiritual bypassing. Spiritual bypassing is the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with relationship issues, emotional pain, and so on.  There is a lot of avoidance in it. Wherever you find spirituality, you find spiritual bypassing. We all have a spiritual bypasser in us, so it's important to approach this whole topic with compassion, even as we go for needed changes. If we get caught up in spiritual bypassing, it keeps us divided, somewhat anemic, cut off from the deeper reaches of life. 

 

Explore

We will explore thinking patterns, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic work, relationships, the inner critic, the observer, self-compassion, emotional work, present moment awareness, mindfulness, shadow work, cultivating consciousness, myths, dream work, visualization, imagery, intuition and insight, archetypes, sacred ceremony & ritual, spiritual bypassing, metaphor, rhythms, seasons, elements, animal and plant allies, movement, sound and nature as an ally to health. 

 

We will focus on your experience in the present moment. The focus on the here and now does not exclude or deny past events or future possibilities; in fact, the past and future are intricately linked to our present experience. The idea is to avoid dwelling on the past or anxiously anticipating the future. Experiences of the past may be addressed in therapy sessions, but we will focus on exploring what factors made a particular memory come up in this moment, or how the present moment is impacted by experiences of the past. We will also explore the way thoughts and emotions are experienced in the body. 

 

A Sanctuary For You

I create a healing space for you to explore your deepest inner self. An environment, which allows you to claim your gifts and create a path to your highest passions and most joyful sense of being in the world. I have an exceptional knack for knowing what blocks a person must dissolve in order to be able to step into and embrace the life that is waiting for you. 

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By embarking on this journey into the self, we find the freedom and courage to engage with ourselves, others and life in meaningful and honest ways. This gives us the ability to connect with the world from a place of joy, and to feel incredible in our own bodies. 
 

Intuition

When our mind, body, and spirit are in balance and integrated, we have access to our wise inner guidance system… INTUITION. Our intuition is the part of us that clearly knows what paths we must take to feel fully alive and to find a sense of purpose in our lives.

 

When our intuitive voice is inaudible or muffled, we have difficulty making decisions, our minds are in a constant state of anxious chatter, and we live out emotional stories that create drama in our lives. We feel hopeless, confused, lonely, worried, unsure, lost, and unhappy.
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In our work, I will help you tune into your intuition. I listen to the deeper meaning rooted in your inner guidance system. Together we can untangle the web and free your intuitive voice from a whisper into a clear song of confidence enhancing your ability to move forward confidently.  

 

Dis-Ease

Disease begins from a place of Dis-Ease. The process begins with signals and signs within our emotional bodies and these, if not addressed, progress into a state of fatigue or mental and physical illness. Our mental states have a profound impact on our physical health and life experience. The mind, body, and spirit are connected; when one piece is out of balance, the whole system is affected.

 

Many of our thoughts and emotions are driven by long-forgotten memories that we have turned into the stories of our lives. Taking this journey of self-discovery can uncover what parts of your self, need to be brought into balance and integrated to create flow.

 

About Me

I am fascinated by the way the mind and body work together to create our human experience. I employ science and art, the brain and the nervous system, the ego and the soul, wisdom traditions from the east and the west, the feminine and the masculine, shadow work and awareness practices… We begin to feel grounded when these things come together to create balance and integration in our lives.

I subscribe to a holistic perspective on therapy, taking into account the many facets that make up our lives: mental, emotional, interpersonal, spiritual, relational, health, and the physical body. I assimilate the field of positive psychology, which enhances the importance of those strengths, values, talents, and virtues that enable individuals to thrive. Combining these systems considers the whole person, empowering you to better understand the complexity of your lives, learning to cope with stressors and relate to others more purposefully and effectively.

 

I work with an incredibly varied group of people in my practice, from adolescents to seniors, as well as with a broad range of psychological distress levels, ranging from chronic diagnoses to extremely gifted and highly functioning individuals. I have specific experience working with highly creative, intuitive, sensitive, empathic, and spiritual individuals. I also have an extensive background working with people affected by mood disorders (i.e. depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc.), substance abuse, post-traumatic stress, childhood and adult trauma, grief and loss, and parenting issues.

I have been trained in Trauma Informed Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Somatic Work, Gestalt Therapy, Imago Couples Therapy, Gottman Couples Therapy, Positive Psychology, Buddhist Psychology, Gene Keys, Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Mindfulness Therapy, Addiction and Recovery, The Enneagram, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Thought Field Therapy, Childhood Traumatic Grief, Spiritual Wisdom with Shamanic Journeys, Comprehensive Energy Psychology, and Brain-Based Strategies for Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Anxiety, ADHD, Depression, Emotion Regulation, Executive Function, and other challenging behaviors. 

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My Teachers + Guides + Gurus + Sages + Advisors + Mentors

 

 

Archetypes & Myths from across the multiverse

Women Shaman from across the world

Carl Gustav Jung

Joseph Campbell

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Eckhart Tolle

Caroline Myss

Richard Rudd

Angeles Arrien