About
Meet Amanda
I
The Calling
I came to this work as an artist: an actress, a writer, a storyteller. I know what it is to feel everything, to carry it gracefully on stage and on the page, and to keep showing up when it counts. I also know the cost of holding it all in.
II
The Descent
Beneath the capable surface, there was a racing heart and a restlessness I couldn’t name. Instead of fighting it, I followed it, all the way into a PhD in Humanistic Psychology with a focus on creativity. My dissertation, The Magic of Anxiety, is a heuristic self-search inquiry: I was both the researcher and the sole participant, turning toward my own anxiety as the question and the guide. What it showed me is that what I held in didn’t disappear. It waited. And when I finally listened, it pointed me toward my most authentic, creative, and alive self.
III
The Return
Now I bring that medicine back as a somatic, trauma-informed coach for creative, sensitive souls moving through anxiety, life transitions, perfectionism and people-pleasing, creative blocks, and gentle wellness change. My work weaves together my doctoral research, my training in trauma-informed coaching and integrative nutrition, and my life as a performer and storyteller.
Your story isn’t finished. Let’s listen to what it’s asking of you.
Begin your coaching inquiry →Amanda Beck, PhD, INHC
Writing and Research
Writing has always been another way I tell the truth, through fiction, scripts, and research alike. It began with turning my vocabulary homework into stories, and led all the way to a dissertation on the magic of anxiety.
Doctoral dissertation
The Magic of Anxiety
The Alchemical, Transpersonal Process of Realizing the Authentic, Creative Self: A Heuristic Self-Search Inquiry
Through a deep inquiry into my own lived experience of anxiety and panic, this research explores anxiety not as pathology, but as a calling back to the authentic self. At its heart is one idea: anxiety is repressed authenticity, and creativity is expressed authenticity.
Read on ProQuest →Education
PhD in Psychology, Creativity Studies
Saybrook University
2025
MA in Psychology, Creativity Studies
Saybrook University
2023
BA in English, Creative Writing
University of Central Florida
2018, Magna Cum Laude
Selected Presentations
Wild Inner Child: Archetypes and Mental Well-Being in the Entertainment Industry
Workshop with Whitney Jenkins
Saybrook University, 2023
Entertaining the Light: The Starving Artist Archetype and Mental Well-Being in the Entertainment Industry
Guest presentation with Whitney Jenkins
Saybrook University, 2023
Fall in love with the beauty of transformation.
Begin your coaching inquiry →