Amy White

Amy’s Story

I am a therapist who provides telehealth sessions through Modern Psychiatry’s Florida office. I'm a huge believer that we all act according to our unique story. People do the best they can with the skills, the knowledge and the resources they have. The hope is that those resources, skills and knowledge grow, so that somebody's best gets to look different.

“I tell my patients that all the time because I’m big on empowering people.” Strength Based therapy, for example, is a primary focus of mine. This therapy focuses on the best qualities within a person ... looks at their internal strength. An individual can use that internal strength as a resource for themselves. They can even draw from external supports and strengths which are dependent on their connections with others. “It’s a solutions-focused way of looking at things.”

My attraction to the mental health field began when I was still in school and worked as a volunteer for the Domestic Violence Response Team. “I loved being part of providing education [to domestic violence victims] and empowering them.”

That desire to educate and empower stuck and became the focus of my college studies and my profession. I choose to look through the lens of positivity. Everybody has struggles and goals – and everyone expresses these things differently. “My goal is to talk clients through that and help them understand what makes them the way they are. When they unpack these things – and they can – they rewire certain behaviors and do things differently.”

Change is possible with self-awareness, willingness and consistency. “I tell my patients that it’s my hope that one day I don't see them because things are in a better place for them. I want to educate and empower people to understand that they can control their experience.”

That said, there are a lot of asterisks in mental health. Sometimes there are issues like hormones that create things that are a lot more out of a client’s control. Still, it’s important for clients to be aware of what their experience is. It's important for them to understand triggers. It's important to understand signs and symptoms physiologically so that they can manage the symptoms, even if the underlying cause may be something that warrants medication. But when it comes to anxiety, I want to help clients gain the ability to manage thoughts in a different way ... to teach skills to be able to alleviate symptoms, so that the symptoms become more manageable, no matter the mental health diagnosis.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, another type of psychotherapy or talk therapy that I also use with my clients, is based on the idea that our thoughts, our feelings and our behaviors are all interconnected. If we change the way we feel about something, then it can change our behavior about something. Also, if we change the way we think about something, then it can change the way we feel about something. “I’m a big believer in that. Choosing to see things positively or as positively as possible, can help the way we feel, therefore help the way we behave. And all of that is interconnected.”

Life is a matter of perspective. There's a side of me that is lighthearted when appropriate so that things are not having doom and gloom all the time. Looking through the lens of positivity ... even making light of things, but not in a way that minimizes people ... allows for a different perspective.

I am always there to explore things with my clients. There's not a right or wrong; it's always what is in the best interest of someone's mental health. “And mental health should be our number one priority. Showing up happy and healthy in all areas of life starts with positive mental health.”