We’ve Been Covered
Get to know Amanda. . .
My story is the search for human truths. It starts in pharma-sales where I skyrocketed from recent college grad to managing a multi-million dollar territory in less than a year. I leapfrogged from sales to tech, loving the fast pace and constant novelty and began taking leadership roles to build companies from practically nothing to millions in revenue. My external success came at the cost of internal conflict. I was living in dissonance, perpetuating trauma and nursing my own, which required a huge amount of energy.
Now that I had ‘earned’ the title of leader, I didn’t want to perpetuate the bad habits of the leadership models I saw around me and began studying alternative models like regenerative & feminist business principles, indigenous movements, mythology, polyvagal theory, neuroscience, and nonviolent communication.
I brought these principles into my work, to the teams I managed, even to my relationships, politics and morality. This is probably the part where you expect me to tell you that all my dreams came true and that now I can share with you the secret to life! Unfortunately, that's not exactly how it works . . .
But I do feel a peace that is unshakable in the face of great tumult and tragedy and I do feel a confidence and authenticity that feels like freedom.
And that feels radical. And I want all that for you.
About My Work . . .
Certifications
M.A. Social Entrepreneurship & Social Change
Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA
Certificate: Healing the Herd: Connection-Focused Therapy
Polyvagal Equine Institute
Working Creatively with Conflict
Center for Understanding in Conflict
Weaving Togetherness: Supporting Liberation while Facilitating Conflict Processes,
Center for Nonviolent Communication
Convergent Facilitation,
Verene Nicolas
Trauma Informed Foundations
Softpath Healing Institute
Philosophy
I draw from wisdom that sits at the intersection of spirit and science. I root that practical wisdom in Decolonized Nonviolent Communication. This is how we put Empathic Leadership, or Empathic Embodiment into practice.
For a healing or embodiment practice to be sustainable, it must be rooted in collective liberation and it must strive to interrogate and dismantle the structures that contribute to oppression. I hold a framework that is anti-racist, trauma informed, inclusive of the environment-as-stakeholder, and willing to sit objectively with the needs and feeling at hand - in non-judgement.
Why I do this work
We owe it to each other to be our best selves
I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect life will continue to get more difficult in the Anthropocene. Technology brings us up close and personal with the realities of life outside our silos and with how we affect one another and the planet. It also has us further apart than ever before.
We can no longer ignore inequities and unsustainable paradigms. And we can no longer ignore how those paradigms shape our internal realities, as well. Decolonizing your mind, your habits and yes, even your work and leadership and how you talk to your family may be the most powerful work we can do to affect the world we live in. I don't know how to stop multiple concurrent genocides or the glut of pollution but I do know how to stop othering, judgment, dissonance, and disconnection.
