AMBER HUGHES COUNSELING
Your Body, Your Story
Somatic Experiencing Therapy
after feeling disconnected for so long
my mind and body are finally
coming back to each other
home body
rupi kaur
MY APPROACH
I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Washington. I am also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner . I work primarily with trauma. I am trained in a wide variety of areas, however my technique is heavily rooted in relational/psychodynamic theory. This means that the therapeutic relationship that forms between us will serve as our guiding force. I take a somatic approach to healing; I believe that the mind and body are one entity and must be treated together. I treat trauma by working with the nervous system directly, to help clients regulate and restore nervous system equilibrium. I have completed a three year training program with Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing International. Therefore, I am inclined to take a slow and steady approach to experiencing our sensations and understanding our nervous systems’ role in our healing journey.
My work also incorporates attachment theory, internal family systems (IFS), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT--with a focus on mindfulness).
I am passionate about helping people connect to their inner strength, beauty, and goodness, which means I will have a bias toward kindness and self-compassion. I will encourage this not just in relationship to your mind and heart, but also to your body.
I am committed to the work of dismantling structures and systems of power and oppression. As as a straight, white, cis woman, I am aware of my power and privilege and believe that it is important to look at these categories together to understand how our identities shape our experience in the world as well as our mental health.
I hope that through our work together, we will find the ways that we have been shaped by these systems and will work to redeem our stories, our bodies, our minds, and our hearts from injustice and violence.
I believe we all long to be truly seen, felt, and loved. As a therapist, my goal is to provide a safe and inviting space for you to explore your past, present, and future selves. My hope is that through our time together, you will feel heard, understood, and cared for.
We will together build a relationship that fosters integration, honesty, and respect.
I deeply value humor, playfulness, and our bodies' ability to know and teach us about ourselves.
GET TO KNOW ME
Hi, I'm so glad you're here. It is an honor that you would consider me as a potential therapist.
I grew up in Seattle, the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people who are still here, honoring and bringing light to their ancient heritage.
I have a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology.
I identify as a straight, white, cis-gendered, able-bodied female living with an invisible illness.
I aim to spend my free time experiencing rest and pleasure. More than anything, I love playing outside, near the water and the trees. I also pursue my hobbies. I am an actor, poet and playwright. I play and explore various outlets for using drama/theatre in therapeutic spaces. My love for and experience of art greatly influence who I am and who I am becoming.
In therapy, as in theatre, we bear witness to the transformative healing power of story. As a theatre artist I create and collaborate with others. Similarly, as a therapist, I am not an observer to another’s story–I am a participant. Together, we gather and organize data and bring a client’s story into the world. We try to make sense of our character—our histories, our desires, and what motivates us. We bear our most vulnerable parts as we cling to the hope that something will begin to make sense, a story will emerge, and we will understand ourselves better. Just like a good play, therapy brings us right up to the core of who we are–it asks us to really look at ourselves, question ourselves, and ultimately embrace our many flaws and what makes us beautifully human. It will be an honor to collaborate with you as we pursue the goodness, the peace, and the power that exists within us and between us.
I am passionate about social justice/advocacy and am committed to dismantling systems of oppression. I believe that the work we do to bring awareness and thoughtfulness to our unconscious behaviors, biases, and beliefs about ourselves and others is a part of this process. I believe that whiteness, especially in a culture dominated by white supremacy, is a category and a lens that we greatly need to consider as we seek healing.
I pursued training and certification through The Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute. Through my study and my own somatic therapy, I am becoming more and more familiar with the effects of chronic stress and trauma on the nervous system and I am passionate about helping others connect to their life force and experience freedom from trauma symptoms.
I work as a teaching assistant with Somatic Experiencing International and have been in several teaching roles at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, both as a facilitator and as adjunct faculty.
I am an SEP and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Washington (#LH61013659).
My Office Mates
Most days, I bring my two sweet dogs into the office with me. During Covid-19 work from home days, they became accustomed to being near me while I worked. I decided to make this a permanent part of my life. My dogs will provide you with lots of love and snuggles, and other days, they will provide you with lots of space.
If the dogs are an issue for you, I do have the option to put them on my balcony/deck space and depending on the time of our session, I have a different office room I can put them in while we meet.
ABOUT SOMATIC EXPERIENCING®
If you're looking for something that goes beyond the limits of traditional talk therapy, consider Somatic Experiencing.
Originating in indigenous healing practices and formally developed by Peter Levine, SE helps us slowly develop a capacity to address the root cause of our trauma symptoms.
When we feel stuck in old patterns and ways of responding, this somatic work can help our system release survival energy that is stuck in the body and thus, find freedom from dissociation and dysregulation.
Somatic Experiencing will help you tolerate suppressed emotion and difficult bodily sensations.
MY SERVICES
all services based in somatic, relational
and anti-oppression frameworks
INDIVIDUAL SOMATIC EXPERIENCING THERAPY
Space for you to reflect, explore, learn and heal.
Areas of Focus:
Pregnancy and postpartum support
Grief and loss
Anxiety
Depression
Auto-immune disease and chronic illness
Family of Origin
Birth and early childhood trauma
PTSD/Complex-PTSD
First responders and other health-care professionals
Abuse and trauma: religious, sexual, emotional, spiritual, and racial
Addiction
Gender and sexual identity exploration
Racial identity and healing from the impacts of racism, whiteness, and white supremacy.
COUPLES, FAMILY AND RELATIONAL THERAPY
We are relational creatures.
In this space, you can help identify and break out of painful cycles in your intimate relationships. You will learn to hold space for your own nervous system, your attachment style and experiences in with your family of origin. Together, we will also identify the impacts of culture, society and oppression on your relational system.
SOMATIC CONSULTATION FOR DIRECTORS AND ACTORS
Support your process to bring life into your characters and the text
Connect to your most authentic self, explore your innate nervous system responses and how they may be blocking you from full presence and embodiment
Explore compassion and vulnerability as you explore and move
Witness your own creative process
Structured space for curiosity
SOMATIC COACHING
Get the tools, resources, and care that you need to be successful and experience joy and pleasure
Learn to understand your bodies' wisdom and communication about emotions, needs and intuition
Move toward embodiment, out of stuck-ness and rigidity in your system and move more toward flow and flexibility
WALK AND TALK THERAPY
Engage your body, connect to nature, and tend to your mental health simultaneously
Nature offers healing and regulation
All walk and talk session
take place in the
Des Moines Marina District
FEES AND PAYMENT
COST
Individual 50 minute session: 175
Couples 50 minutes session : 215
I also offer a limited number of reduced fee slots, so please feel free to inquire about the availability of those openings.
I encourage people to think of therapy as an investment. An investment in your self and your own healing and journey toward wholeness: a very worthwhile investment. My job is to support your investment in your own healing by continuing to stay engaged with ongoing training and professional development. My session fee allows me to pay myself a living wage, run a small business, and pay for professional trainings and resources.
CONSULTATION
I always offer free 20 minute consultations. This allows for us to go over your hopes for therapy, to address any questions/concerns you may have about me or about beginning the therapy process, and to see if we might be a good fit for working together.
INSURANCE
If you have health insurance, I can provide you with a monthly receipt that you can submit to your insurance provider for reimbursement. Because I am "out of network," your insurance will reimburse at a rate dependent upon your out of network benefits. You will want to check with your insurance provider about their coverage for out of network, behavioral health licensed mental health associates. In most cases, once your out of network deductible is met, insurance covers the majority of my fee.
I would recommend that you call your insurance company and ask them the following questions:
Does my plan cover out of network providers?
What is the out of network reimbursement rate for the CPT code 90837/-95?
What is the out of network reimbursement rate for the CPT code 90837/-95?
PAYMENT OPTIONS
I accept cash, checks, and debit/credit, and FSA/HSA. I can accept PayPal.
The easiest and preferred method is to save your card on file so I can run the card after each session.
Clients have the right to a good faith estimate of costs for therapy services. This will
be provided to new clients during the initial intake session and once per year ongoing.
CONNECT WITH ME
I provide IN-PERSON sessions
I always offer video sessions held over a
HIPAA compliant Telehealth platform
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My current hours, by appointment only, are on Sundays-Wednesdays before 5pm.
Des Moines, Washington
