Amanda Buckman

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About: 

Amanda is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a mother of 4, plus 2 children from a blended partnership.  She is a Silicon Valley native and currently working towards the completion of her doctoral degree in counseling education and supervision. Amanda specializes in working with couples and individuals who want to strengthen their lives and relationships through positive communication, conflict management, and improvement in intimacy as well as self-care, so they are able to continue to care for others.

 

Using a non-judgmental, strength-based approach, Amanda guides couples in finding solutions to problems, while also maintaining a safe and supportive space where couples can communicate safely and openly about the fears that paralyze them, such as fear of loss, disappointment, rejection, and loss of self.

 

Blended Families

A blended family can be both a rewarding and challenging experience.  While you and your new spouse may be ready to make this transition, your children may resist the change, causing frustration for you as the parent. Amanda helps blended family couples approach their new parenting experience with open communication, mutual respect, compassion, and love.  She works with individuals, couples, and the family system as a whole to develop the new stepparent-stepchild bond and form an affectionate and successful blended family.

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Co-Parenting

After 5 years of co-parenting with her ex-husband, she understands the difficulties and emotional turmoil that arise for individuals when co-parenting with an ex-spouse.

Using tools specifically tailored for co-parenting, she has helped guide parents through the rough waters and creates a child-centered co-parenting and conflict management plan for your unique situation .

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Affair Recovery

Infidelity can cause heartache and damage trust in a relationship. Amanda works with couples effected by infidelity using the PACT method (psychobiological approach to couple therapy).  This method guides the couple through three phases where they address the trauma the injured client has experienced, encourage the offending partner to provide the betrayed with support needed to correct the injury, and third, the couple works together to create new rules and a new relationship contact to use going forwards. Amanda also uses this process to teach couples to have a greater awareness of how their behavior affects their partner and increase sensitivity and empathy towards each other.

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Neurodiverse Couples

Amanda has worked closely with both adults and children on the spectrum. She understands both the strengths and challenges presented by neurodiversity. She has a passion for helping couples build a bridge across their differences so that they can start experiencing each other in new ways.

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First Responder Support

As a former police officer and ex-spouse of a military veteran and first responder, she has a unique perspective and understanding of the relationship and social issues that affect this population. Marriage to a first responder is not easy, and can be demanding and challenging due to the unique demands that these occupations put on the first responder, such as irregular work schedules, time away from the family, and work related trauma experienced by the first responder and its effects on their family.  Amanda believes intentional focus by first responders and their spouses on their relationship is critical to their continued connection and ability to support others. She teaches the couples how to constructively communicate about the stressors they are experiencing as well as help the first responders safely open up about their trauma, a difficult but necessary step towards healing. 

 

Major Life Transition

The birth of a first child, buying a new home, or start or loss of a career are examples of major life transitions. These can be stressful times in most marriages, leading one or both partners towards experiencing anxiety and depression.  A struggling partner may use negative coping strategies, such as alcohol, video gaming, and porn addiction to provide temporary relief from stress, however in the long run, these strategies are damaging to the relationship.  Amanda helps couples work through these transitions and find healthy coping skills that relieve anxiety and increase motivation. 

 

Specialties:

•    Addictions
•    Affair Recovery
•    Anger Management
•    Blended Family
•    Borderline Personality
•    Couples relationships
•    Family Conflict
•    Goal attainment
•    Life Transitions
•    Men’s issues
•    Premarital counseling
•    Parenting/ Co-parenting
•    Parent-Adolescent conflict
•    Sex Therapy/ Sexuality

 

Clients: 

Couples and families, adults, adolescents, first responders, men, individuals questioning or exploring their sexual identities.

 

Modalities:

•    Coaching
•    Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
•    Gottman Method
•    Internal Family Systems (IFS)
•    Solution Focused Brief (SFBT)
•    Strength-Based
•    Structural Family Therapy

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License:

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT #150002

Supervised by Dr. Harry Motro, LMFT #53452

Employed by New Path Couples Therapy Inc.

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Contact:

abuckman.therapy@gmail.com

Phone: (415) 805-6759