Amanda Taylor Patterson
Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate, LMHCA
Trauma-informed therapy in Fishers, Indiana for children, teens, adults, and couples specializing in trauma, ADHD, anxiety, grief, life transitions, identity development, emotional regulation, and relationship healing.
The Wounded Healer
My path to becoming a therapist was anything but linear. Before entering the counseling field, I was an artist, an educator, and a human being trying to make sense of the experiences that shape who we become. My background in Studio Art and Art History taught me to look beneath the surface, find meaning in complexity and nuance, and recognize that there is often more to a story than what first meets the eye. Those lessons followed me into my work alongside survivors of sexual and domestic violence, my years as an early childhood educator, and eventually, my work as a therapist.
But my understanding of healing comes from more than my education and professional experience. I've experienced profound suffering myself, and I know what it's like to be on the other side of the therapeutic relationship: to need help making sense of difficult things and to hope someone can hold your hope in responsible hands when the light at the end of the tunnel feels dim. My faith in Christ has profoundly shaped how I understand this work and the responsibility I feel to steward it well. I believe the comfort we receive through our own struggles is meant to become a gift we then extend to others. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1, God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others.
This is at the heart of the wounded healer philosophy that guides me: while hurt people hurt people, healed people have the capacity to heal people. I don't believe our wounds disqualify us from wholeness. Rather, when we have the space to work through our pain and make meaning of our experiences, what we’ve lived through can deepen our capacity for empathy, compassion, and attunement to the suffering of others. Healing isn't about pretending our pain never happened. It's about learning to understand our stories with compassion, loosening the grip of the patterns that once helped us survive, and making room for who we are beneath them. My hope is to offer you that kind of space: one where you feel deeply seen, gently challenged, and supported as you uncover, embrace, and more authentically become yourself.
It would be an honor to walk alongside you.
Contact Amanda Taylor Patterson for a free 15-minute consultation.
Attunement • Authenticity • Actualization
My Process
-
Our conversation is an opportunity to see whether we feel like a good fit. You can share as much or as little feels comfortable, ask questions, and get a sense of what working together might look like. I’ll begin getting to know you, understanding why you’re seeking therapy, and explaining my approach, process, and what you can expect from working together. My goal is for you to leave feeling not only heard, but informed and empowered to decide whether we are the right fit.
-
We’ll begin making sense of the experiences, relationships, and patterns that have shaped you. Rather than reducing your story to a diagnosis or symptom, we’ll consider the whole person and the context in which your ways of coping developed. Using the historical lens of Psychodynamic Therapy, we’ll explore how family, early relationships, and the roles you learned within those systems shaped the way you came to understand yourself, others, and the world around you. Together, we’ll begin distinguishing what is truly yours from what you learned to become in order to belong, connect, or stay safe.
-
Insight matters, but it is not where our work ends. Once we understand the “Why,” we can begin translating insight into meaningful change in the here and now. This is where DBT offers practical, skills-based tools for navigating emotions, relationships, and everyday life. Together, we’ll identify meaningful goals and develop individualized strategies such as mindfulness, radical acceptance, opposite action, nervous system regulation, distress tolerance, and dialectical thinking. As protective patterns become more conscious and flexible, we can create greater congruence between what you understand, what you value, and how you actually live and respond.
-
The goal of therapy is not to become someone new. It is to create enough freedom to live more authentically yourself. As you develop greater self-awareness, self-acceptance, and adaptive ways of moving through the world, there is more room for clarity, congruence, intention, and an authentic expression of self to emerge.
Come As You AreIn-Person Sessions
I offer 1-hour sessions for individuals, couples, and families at my office, located Lotus Group in Fishers, IN.
11950 Fishers Crossing Dr
Fishers, IN 46038
-
Trauma & Relationship Healing
-
Neurodivergence & Emotional Regulation
-
Identity, Development & Life Transitions
-
Child, Adolescent & Family Systems Work
-
Couples & Relationship Work
Get StartedCreating a Space to Heal, Grow, and Fully Be Yourself
No matter where you are in your journey, you don't have to face it alone. Together, we'll create a path toward healing that honors your story, your strengths, and the life you hope to build.