Amy Saunier
I’m a warm, compassionate and down to earth therapist, who believes healing happens through genuine connection. With more than 20 years of experience in the mental health field, I bring both clinical knowledge and a deeply human approach to our work together. I’m thoughtful and intuitive but I also love humor and believe some of the most meaningful moments in therapy happen when we can laugh together, even while doing difficult work. My approaches, are collaborative, trauma-informed, and rooted in curiosity rather than judgment. I help clients recognize patterns, understand themselves more deeply, strengthen boundaries, reconnect with their own voice and begin trusting themselves again. I especially enjoy helping people move beyond simply understanding why they feel the way they do and toward creating meaningful change in their lives. My own life has taught me that growth is rarely neat or linear. I value, authenticity, resilience, compassion, and the courage it takes to begin again and again. My hope is that therapy feels like a place where you can exhale, be fully yourself, and know that you don’t have to have everything figured out all at once.
First session
I work exclusively with individual clients, which allows our sessions to be completely focused on you! Your experiences, your goals, and what you hope to gain from therapy. During our first session, my priority is helping you feel comfortable, understood, and never judged. We’ll talk about what brought you to therapy, what has been happening in your life, and what you would most like to change. I ask questions and stay, actively engaged, but there is no expectation that you share everything at once. We’ll move at a pace that feels right for you. I also want you to begin recognizing your strengths from the very beginning. Even when life feels overwhelming, there are often skills, resilience, and wisdom already present that we can build upon. My hope is that you leave your first session feeling a little lighter, more hopeful, and genuinely glad you came; with a sense that you were heard, that there is a path forward, and that you have someone walking alongside you as you begin.
Strengths
My approach to therapy is energetic, collaborative, and highly engaged. I’m not typically a therapist who sits quietly and simply observes. I asked thoughtful questions, notice patterns (very quickly) offer different perspectives, and gently challenge clients when I believe there may be something important worth exploring. I also love making therapy practical and memorable. I use imagery, metaphors, creative exercises, therapeutic tools, and easy to apply strategies that clients can carry with them outside of our session. I believe insight is powerful, but it becomes even more meaningful when we know what to do with it. My own life experiences have also taught me the value of curiosity, resilience, humor, and learning to see ourselves with greater compassion. I bring that humanity into the therapy room. Sessions with me tend to feel like a genuine conversation. We may explore something deeply, emotional, identify an unexpected connection, practice a new skill or even find ourselves laughing together. My goal is for you to leave feeling seen, heard and understood not only by me, but by yourself, too. You’ll also gain a ton of useful and practical tools to use in everyday life.
Ideal clients
My ideal client is someone who is ready to understand themselves on a deeper level and build a stronger more trusting relationship with themselves. I especially enjoy working with college-age adults, navigating the transition into adulthood, the uncertainty, excitement, identity exploration, relationships, and big decisions that can make the stage of life feel both empowering and overwhelming. I also feel deeply connected to supporting women navigating major life, transitions, including divorce, difficult custody situations, relationship changes, or healing after emotionally harmful or narcissistic relationship dynamics. Much of my work centers around rebuilding self-esteem, strengthening boundaries, developing confidence and learning to trust your own perceptions and decisions again. I particularly enjoy working with clients who may have been in therapy before and feel ready to go deeper. You might already have insight into your patterns and understand why you do certain things but now you’re asking what do I do with what I know. I love to help clients move from insight into meaningful change, reconnect with parts of themselves, they may have lost along the way and create a life that feels increasingly authentic, grounded, and their own.
Origin story
What drew me more deeply into this work was experiencing how powerful healing can be when we approach ourselves with curiosity instead of criticism. As I began intentionally incorporating shadow work and inner child healing into my own daily life, I became much more aligned with my values and more compassionate towards the parts of myself I once thought needed to be “fixed”. One of the biggest shifts for me was learning to see many of our struggles, not as character flaws, but as places where we may need healing, understanding, or a skill we were never taught. Instead of asking “what’s wrong with me?” I became interested in asking “what happened here? What is this trying to tell me and what skill can I build?” That perspective transformed the way I understood growth and strengthened the kind of therapist I wanted to be. I love helping clients uncover the deeper roots of their patterns while learning practical skills that allow them to live more intentionally, authentically, and in alignment with who they are becoming.
Ongoing work together
Our ongoing work is collaborative, intentional, and designed to grow with you. As we build trust, we’ll begin connecting patterns between your past and present, exploring the deeper roots of your responses, and identifying practical tools and skills that support the person you’re becoming. Each session builds on what we’ve already discovered. We may use inner-child work, explore different parts of yourself, challenge, old beliefs, practice boundaries, strengthen self trust, or find creative ways to apply what you’re learning to everyday life. I often use questions, imagery, metaphors, and practical exercises to help insights become something you can actually use outside of therapy. Progress doesn’t always look like having fewer difficult emotions. Sometimes it looks like recognizing a pattern sooner, recovering more quickly, setting a boundary without abandoning yourself, responding differently to an old trigger, or making a decision with greater confidence. Overtime, my hope is that you notice yourself growing in confidence and self trust because your voice feels stronger, you’re in greater alignment with your values, and you’re trusting your intuition.
Treatment methods
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-informed care means I approach you with curiosity and compassion rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?” together, we might instead explore, “What happened, how did you learn to protect yourself, and what do you need now?” I understand that behavior such as people pleasing, shutting down, overthinking, avoiding conflict, or needing reassurance may have developed as ways of feeling safe or getting through difficult experiences. Rather than treating those responses as character flaws, we work to understand them, and decide whether they are still serving you. I am mindful of creating a space where you have choice, feel respected, and never have to disclose more than you’re ready to share. From there, we can build practical skills for feeling more grounded, setting boundaries, trusting yourself, and responding to life from the present rather than automatically reacting from past experiences.
Location
Virtual sessions
Identifies as
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Serves
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Licensed in
- PennsylvaniaLicense PC007886