Amie Boivin (she/her)

EMDR

I work with adults across the continuum of traumatic experience, from single-incident events to complex, developmental, and cumulative trauma. I am trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) through the EMDR Institute, and I integrate it with a collaborative, strengths-based approach that honors each person’s pace and readiness for processing.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

The majority of my Dialectal Behavior Therapy training comes through the Portland DBT Institute. I have also served as a co-therapist alongside their providers, supporting clients through periods of acute crisis, an experience that informs how I teach and reinforce skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. For years, I have facilitated group therapy rooted in my DBT knowledge and experience.

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

I have found that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy complements DBT well for many clients, and I have pursued additional CBT training to integrate it more fully into my work. I use this approach in individual therapy and have led therapy groups grounded in this framework, which deepened my work with the thought patterns and behavioral cycles that sustain distress.

PTSD

I work with PTSD and complex trauma alongside the grief, shame, and loss that so often accompany it. Years of work with complex clinical presentations inform a careful approach in which stabilization comes before processing. I have seen that healing from profound loss and trauma is possible, and I consider it an honor to witness it.

Anxiety

My clinical work includes years in residential settings serving adults with serious mental illness and complex medical needs. This work has allowed me to develop practical interventions to treat anxiety, depression, and chronic stress. My years in high-acuity caregiving also informs my work with students, professionals and hardworking people experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout.

LGBTQ Issues

I have a special interest in working with LGBTQIA+ clients navigating identity, relationships, and the stress of living authentically in a world that does not always make that easy. Sixteen years of work across a wide range of cultures, ages, abilities, and identities taught me to begin by learning how each person understands their own life rather than assuming I already know. Our work is affirming, collaborative, and moves at a pace that works for you.

Relationship / Marriage Issues

I have extensive experience in supporting individuals in understanding the patterns they bring to close relationships, including communication, boundaries, and conflict. How we connect with ourselves, our environments and those around us can create a fulfilling life but when those relationships are in turmoil, the toll extends beyond the conflict itself, leaving us depleted and disconnected.

Self-Esteem

Many of my clients are living with self-doubt, perfectionism, and low self-worth, including concerns with body image. Societal pressure can influence our own internal narrative making it feel nearly impossible to be comfortable, let alone confident, in our skin. Drawing on a narrative, strengths-based approach, I help clients examine the stories they have absorbed about their worth and rewrite them in their own voice.