Approach
"I enjoy bringing humor into sessions, experiential techniques, exploring existential realms and different philosophies for how to live a fulfilled and enriched existence."
I come from a long line of teachers and I love to share knowledge and wisdom. We wouldn’t go out to sea without navigation skills and we can’t have “good” mental health or healthy relationships without understanding how our brains and minds function and how relational systems operate. A huge portion of my approach is teaching! In order to nurture our brains we need to understand how the brain works!
In the last ten-fifteen years, Neuroscience has been able to inform the psychology community in an unprecedented way and I love to share this knowledge and teach techniques for how to integrate knowledge in a somatic way; bringing our top knowledge down into our bodies, especially learning how to regulate our nervous systems. Our minds generate an enormous amount of thinking and are stimulated in a massive way in today’s world. Developing a healthy relationship with our minds is critical, while also understanding childhood wounds and neural pathways that developed, and integrating a new way of being with all the parts of ourselves and others.
On a similar note, our EMOTIONS have been sidelined by some science communities and there is much to learn about emotional health and learning to be with sensations in our bodies and learning why our EMOTIONS even exist! I love to explore this realm and teach ways of being connected to our emotions and being connected to our bodies.
Attachment work and Trauma healing are pillars in my practice. These two life experiences play a significant role in how our minds think and how our brains, nervous system, and bodies function. Together we will create a road map of how life experiences, attachment, and trauma lead to core psychological wounds and we will develop a natural approach to heal. Developing awareness allows us to heal and create connections we long for.
One thing I know for sure is I am fulfilling my life’s purpose! I hit the lottery when it comes to my profession. I enjoy bringing humor into sessions, experiential techniques, exploring existential realms and different philosophies for how to live a fulfilled and enriched existence. These techniques are all nature's medicine! I am heart centered, compassionate, enthusiastic, curious, and real. I love to share the wisdom of the psychological sciences! Together we will learn to be in acceptance of our humanness, learn to have a healthy relationship with ourselves and others; learn to be with the natural rhythms of our developmental processes and allow the natural process of healing to occur as we mature, develop, and metamorphosize into our full expression of self. We will return to wholeness!!
Just as a tree naturally grows, in therapy we learn practices to heal and support various aspects of our development. Through insight, compassion, awareness, empathy, curiosity, just a few of nature’s remedies, we can learn to be intentionally aligned with the process of healing.
About Me
Amy Fritsch, MS, LMFT
I was born a cautious adventurer and seeker. I grew up in athletics and spending time in nature. I attended school for my bachelor’s degree at Purdue University in Indiana, on a full ride swimming scholarship.
There I was introduced to systems theory in a family studies class and I was immediately hooked. It was like a light turned on and all of a sudden I could understand humans and how we develop. From there, I spent time in Colorado learning to snowboard and working in social services in a beautiful program called Headstart. I was exposed to many different cultures and loved the mountains.
Since Purdue, I knew I would pursue a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, the discipline within human psychology that views the self and the family as a system with guiding principles. The first principle being that we are not linear. We do not progress in a line, but rather in a circular motion of growth and progression, like a spiraling upward.
Next, the system of self and the family has degrees of rigidity or flexibility and both are highly organized. The system of self and the family is defined by boundaries, sometimes too loose and sometimes too firm, and behaviors of individuals cannot be understood in isolation from the family and cultural systems in which we belong.
In Colorado, I applied to many graduate programs offering this discipline because I knew this was my path. The University of Kentucky conducted in-person interviews first, and I was accepted. Leaving Colorado, I moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and pursued my master’s degree where I took a deep dive into therapy and understanding individuals and family systems.
Internal Family Systems/Parts work was just emerging as a therapeutic technique and theory! My journey took a slight turn after graduate school, and I spent twelve years working for the county government in Child Abuse and Neglect. While the work was difficult and challenging in many ways, I became deeply aware of trauma and the impact trauma has on our lives.
I also worked as a supervisor and enjoyed teaching and watching junior social workers learn how to get the system of child welfare to move, a very complex system. During this time, I began my personal journey of becoming a mother and made a bold move when my children were quite young, and the secondary trauma was becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
My partner and I, along with our two babies, jumped in our VW bus and began a 6-month journey west to explore the national parks and find a place where we wanted to live with our children. It wasn’t long after driving into Bellingham and seeing several VW Vanagons that we knew we were home.
It took a couple of years to stabilize after the adventure, prepare ourselves professionally for the move, and move our family from Ohio to Washington. During this time, we were cultivating our family, parenting young children, and I was introduced to Conscious Parenting, which deepened my love for psychology and healing work.
Conscious parenting recognizes that as we become parents, we realize the challenges of raising a human and begin to understand the implications of our parents’ influence on the development of self and begin the journey of healing. While it seems Conscious Parenting might be tricks and tips for parenting our children, it’s really about going inward and healing our own selves.
Since moving here 6 years ago, we’ve become rooted in the community, the land, and have found our place. I’ve continued to cultivate the craft of therapy and deepen my understanding of psychology and human development.
