Healing isn’t just about understanding what happened. It’s about helping your mind and body discover what comes next.
I’m Amanda M. Edwards, LPC, a therapist, educator, author, Mental Health Coordinator, Intimacy Coordinator/Director, and lifelong student of the many ways human beings heal.
For much of my career, I’ve been interested in the places where traditional talk therapy isn’t quite enough.
We can understand why we react the way we do. We can know that something happened a long time ago. We can recognize that we’re technically safe now. And yet our bodies may still brace, protect, shut down, over-function, disconnect, or prepare for something bad to happen.
That’s where much of my work lives.
I specialize in trauma, attachment, nervous system regulation, and healing-centered care, integrating evidence-informed psychotherapy with somatic, experiential, and nervous-system-based approaches.
My goal isn’t simply to help people cope better.
It’s to help create the conditions in which people can experience more safety, connection, agency, flexibility, and capacity for joy.
My Approach to Therapy
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado with extensive training and experience working with trauma across the lifespan.
My work draws from a range of approaches, including:
- EMDR and trauma-processing approaches
- attachment-focused therapy
- somatic and body-based interventions
- Polyvagal Theory and nervous system regulation
- mindfulness and meditation
- play-based and experiential therapy
- nervous-system-informed psychoeducation
- consent-forward and trauma-informed care
Rather than applying one technique to every person, I work collaboratively to understand what your particular nervous system has learned, how it has adapted, and what it might need now.
Sometimes that involves processing old experiences.
Sometimes it means learning to recognize activation before it becomes overwhelming.
Sometimes it’s understanding why relationships activate something much bigger than what’s happening in the moment.
Sometimes it’s learning how to rest.
And sometimes healing begins by discovering that the patterns you once needed for protection don’t have to run the rest of your life.
Nervous System & Polyvagal-Informed Work
One of the most significant evolutions in my work has been an increasing focus on the autonomic nervous system and the role that physiological safety plays in healing.
I incorporate Polyvagal Theory and nervous-system education throughout my work, helping clients better understand the shifts between connection, mobilization, overwhelm, and shutdown that can influence our thoughts, bodies, relationships, and behavior.
I am also a provider of the Safe and Sound Protocol™ (SSP) and Rest and Restore Protocol™ (RRP) through Unyte Health.
These sound-based listening programs provide another avenue for nervous system work, particularly when insight alone hasn’t been enough to create the change someone is looking for.
I offer SSP and RRP through a guided independent listening model, allowing clients to listen primarily from home while receiving individualized pacing, progress monitoring, and professional support throughout the process.
You do not need to be an ongoing psychotherapy client of mine to participate in SSP or RRP and you can be located anywhere on the planet!
Beyond the Therapy Room
My understanding of mental health has also been shaped by years of working beyond traditional clinical spaces.
I am a Mental Health Coordinator and Certified Intimacy Coordinator/Director, working at the intersection of mental health, storytelling, consent, and the creative arts.
I am the Co-Founder and President of the Association of Mental Health Coordinators (AMHC), an organization dedicated to developing the emerging field of Mental Health Coordination and creating safer, more sustainable approaches to creative work.
Through AMHC and independently, I provide education and consultation on topics including:
- psychological safety
- trauma-informed creative practice
- nervous system regulation
- consent and boundaries
- mental health representation
- psychological risk assessment
- crisis and concern navigation
- burnout prevention
- access and inclusion
- conflict navigation
- sustainable creative practice
This work has allowed me to collaborate with artists, educators, entertainment professionals, organizations, and productions interested in a deceptively simple question:
What would change if we considered people’s mental health before harm occurred rather than only responding afterward?
That question influences my clinical work, too.
Teaching & Education
I’m also an educator, bringing mental health, ethics, consent, psychological safety, and trauma-informed practices into the education of emerging and established creative professionals.
I regularly develop and facilitate workshops for mental health professionals, educators, entertainment professionals, artists, and organizations.
My teaching style is practical and human. I’m interested in taking concepts that can sound intimidating (trauma, Polyvagal Theory, attachment, consent, conflict, psychological safety, for example) and translating them into things people can actually recognize and use in their lives and work.
Because knowing the terminology is nice.
Knowing what to do when a nervous system is having a very human response is considerably more useful.
Writing & Research
Writing has been part of my professional life for many years.
My first book, 2 Under 2: Pregnancy and Parenthood, was published in 2013 and reached #2 in Amazon’s Parenting category. I later co-authored The Peachie Moms Guide to Body Love for Moms and have contributed writing on mental health, parenting, wellness, and related topics to online and print publications.
My current writing and research focus much more deeply on the intersection of trauma, nervous system regulation, attachment, mental health, and the creative process. My latest book, Mental Health Coordination for Stage and Screen, is establishing new standards of care across the entertainment industry.
I’m particularly interested in how we can move beyond merely being “trauma-informed” toward creating environments and practices that actively support healing, autonomy, connection, and sustainable participation.
The “High Vibrational” Part
High Vibrational Healing has evolved considerably since I first created it, but the name still represents something important to me.
I don’t believe mental health exists separately from the body.
I don’t believe healing has to fit neatly inside one theoretical orientation.
And I don’t believe we have to choose between science and the deeply human experiences of meaning, creativity, embodiment, intuition, and connection.
My practice has always made room for more than one way of understanding wellness.
Over the years, my training has included yoga, meditation, mindfulness, Reiki, energy work, and other holistic approaches alongside my clinical education and trauma training.
Today, I bring that same curiosity to increasingly sophisticated nervous-system and somatic work.
I’m interested in what helps people feel more fully present in their own lives, not simply less symptomatic.
What I Believe
I believe behavior makes sense when we understand the nervous system underneath it.
I believe coping mechanisms deserve curiosity before judgment.
I believe consent and agency are fundamental to healing.
I believe the body belongs in conversations about mental health.
I believe connection can be both a resource and a practice.
I believe rest is different from collapse.
I believe boundaries can protect relationships rather than destroy them.
I believe healing is rarely linear.
And I believe good therapy should ultimately help you need your therapist less, not more.
My job isn’t to become the expert on you.
It’s to bring everything I’ve learned about trauma, attachment, nervous systems, relationships, and healing into a collaborative relationship where you remain the expert on your own experience.
Working With Me
My traditional psychotherapy practice is intentionally small, and availability for new ongoing therapy clients may be limited.
I also offer Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and Rest and Restore Protocol (RRP) programs independently of ongoing psychotherapy, making nervous-system-focused support available to people who may already have a therapist or who aren’t looking for traditional weekly counseling.
If you’re interested in working together, you’re welcome to reach out.
We’ll start by figuring out what you’re looking for, what kind of support makes sense, and whether I’m the right person to provide it.
If you’re ready, so am I.
