About Amber and Important FAQs

Amber of AmberNicholeCounseling; a woman with dark brown eyes, soft smile, purple curled hair.

As a fellow human:

I live in a life turned upside-down, inside-out and backwards as a trauma survivor (abandonment, relational, religious, and sexual trauma) and an advanced stage cancer survivor.

I grieve. Deeply. And I live in the both/and. My grief and trauma have made me both soft and hard. Both kind and fierce. Both chill and wild.

I live changed because of what changes me.

I'm living in a ‘me’ that has always been but is now also radically different. 

And because of what I've seen and endured, I am passionate about companioning others through their upside-down, inside-out, backwards life-changing experiences.

As a counselor and coach:

All of the things that make me human…AND:

I am firmly rooted in the concept of being responsible to others and not for them. This allows me to hold space free of judgement and full of curiosity and compassion.

I believe in the power of kindness, not niceness. Kindness means that I am willing to challenge my clients through gentleness and directness. Being ‘nice’ can be enabling to the very thing we are trying to work on.

I am constantly learning. I engage in professional development and work to stay current and relevant. I also believe my clients can teach me so much, so I come ready to be changed by them as much as I can provide expertise for them to change, too.

And… I love coffee, doggos, purple hair, and tattoos. :)
💙

  • Who in the world am I? Ah, that is the great puzzle.

    Alice
    (Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass)

  • I used to think healing meant forgetting, but now I know it means remembering without drowning, revisiting the ruins without needing to rebuild them, walking past the wreckage and still choosing to plant something beautiful where the fire once was.

    r.m. drake

  • Sometimes the "either/or" feels easier. More stable. More predictable. But, there is a whole other world in the "both/and." Two things can be true at the same time. And there is a lot of grace there.

    @thepurposedsailor

  • Empathy isn't actually about walking in someone else's shoes. It's not even about taking their shoes from them. It is about asking them how they feel in their own shoes.

    @thepurposedsailor

 FAQs

  • I use a person-centered, multi-dimensional, trauma-informed, shame-sensitive, immediacy-guided approach to offer the best care for each individual client. I always consider the “whole-ness” of each person - their backgrounds, needs, and goals in addition to their biological, psychological, emotional, relational, and spiritual development in my care for and of them.

    You can read in detail on my Services page what my specialties and modalities are.
    Specialties:
    Grief, Trauma, Identity, Anxiety
    Modalities:
    Somatic/Body-Based, Neuropsychology, Grief/Trauma Theory, StoryWork/Narrative

  • Yes!

    Diversity: I welcome all body sizes, abilities, races, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, and spirituality practices.

    Confidentiality: What said in sessions is held as privileged and protected health information. I protect the privacy of all of my clients. The only times I have to break confidentiality is for reportable child abuse, imminent threats to self and others, and current gun laws require me to alert authorities if you own guns, don’t store them appropriately, and are a threat to mass safety.
    *My Telehealth platform is HIPAA compliant and sessions are never recorded.

    Boundaries: This is absolutely all about you and us working together towards your goals, desires, and wellness. In that, research shows that healing comes in healthy human connecting so I believe in the use of counselors’ (very) limited self-disclosure — parts of their stories that relate to, connect with, or offer learned insights/perspectives. It makes this work feel rich and collaborative through shared vulnerability and trust.
    It is also important to note that being trauma-informed means that there are important ways to navigate trauma story and it doesn’t always mean that re-telling the trauma is required to heal from it.

  • I have a BS in Psychology, an MA in Counseling, an LPC awarded via the Center for Credentialing and Education and the Department of Regulatory Agencies of Colorado, a BCC awarded by the Center for Credentialing and Education and the Institute for Life Coach Training.

    I have been in clinically supervised mental health practice since 2010.

    LPC.0019520
    BCC 4617

  • I do not bill insurance for services. I am a private pay practice.
    *My standard rate is $120/hr but I also offer Pay-What-You-Can services (without requiring proof of financials) because I believe in everyone having equitable access to mental health care.

    Why don’t I take insurance?

    I don’t want to be burdened by the bureaucracy and red tape that comes with the insurance industry. Insurance companies require diagnoses to be on file and I believe that requirement can be detrimental to the overall care of human beings.
    *We can discuss diagnoses together if that would be helpful for you separate of insurance requirements.

  • Services are provided via Telehealth using Doxy.me which is a HIPAA compliant virtual platform created specifically for medial and mental health professionals.

    You will get a link to my virtual room once we schedule a consultation/session. All you need is to be in your own fully confidential space, have a device with a browser and stable internet connection, and not be driving.
    *No app downloads required.

  • Not necessarily but let me explain:

    As far as frequency goes, I find at the start of a counseling/coaching relationship, once a week is a pretty standard practice. At some point, depending on the client and what we’re working on, session frequency may change to every other week or monthly.

    As for duration of therapy, there are seasons of counseling and there are seasons of not. We will work on a ‘counseling roadmap’ of sorts to maintain some loose structure and work toward a time when it feels right to end a season of counseling.
    *You are always welcome back if a new season is needed.

  • The Purposed Sailor, LLC is where my private practice started and now it’s evolved to AmberNicholeCounseling.com. I want to honor my beginnings by keeping this important entity as something to always come home to.

    I love the metaphor of the ocean (obviously, haha!) and all that it can symbolize for our lives. The open waters, both exhilaratingly adventurous and devastatingly stormy, are uncharted and unpredictable……just.like.life. And then of course there are the meanings of the anchor or traveling, drifting at sea, feeling overtaken by the water, bailing out the boat, barely getting by, and sometimes smooth sailing.

    Hence, The Purposed Sailor….as it can take a purposed sailor to navigate the seas. It doesn’t always have to be an expert…or maybe there is an expert sailor on board helping teach the purposed sailor how to do it.

    The metaphor can go on and on and on….

    But, that is “TPS” (and if you look closely to my logo, you’ll see a “t” a “p” and an “s”! :)

Questions?

I’d love to hear from you!

I’ll be glad to hear from you!
You can expect a response within 2 business days.

If you are experiencing a medical or psychological/psychiatric emergency, dial 911 or 988 immediately.