For Amanda, supporting and advocating for women and their well-being is more than a career; it is a calling. With over 15 years of experience in the social service sector, Amanda has dedicated herself to counselling survivors of abuse and trauma, facilitating group and individual mental health programming, and providing spaces and resources for women pursuing mental, emotional, and psychological wellness.

The brainchild of Amanda’s passion for women’s wellness is Heal Her Heart, a platform and community for women coping with trauma. Heal Her Heart began in 2016 as a space where women could safely and anonymously release the weight of their trauma through storytelling. It has since expanded into inclusive and empowering therapeutic programming, wellness workshops, individual counselling, and support groups all developed by Amanda herself.

Amanda’s deep empathy for those in need is a lifelong virtue. As a child, she was quick to speak up for others and volunteered with children with developmental disabilities. That affinity led Amanda to an early start in the social service sector when she began her first job with the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child at just 15. Before graduating high school, she also took on a role as a program facilitator with Project P.E.A.C.E., a community initiative focused on strengthening relations between youth and the Toronto Police Service.

It was also in high school that Amanda determined that her professional focus in social service would be on working with women living with trauma. After being assaulted as a teen, Amanda sought the support of a school guidance counsellor. The experience was tarnished by the counsellor’s cultural insensitivity and impersonal approach, which inspired Amanda’s commitment to ensuring female-identified survivors of abuse had access to support that honoured their needs.

With a diploma in Assaulted Women and Children’s Counselling from George Brown College and a degree in Women’s Studies from York University, Amanda has pursued that commitment in several roles throughout her career. Most notably, she has facilitated workshops on sexual health through Toronto Public Health, coordinated events with Arrive Alive, Drive Sober, and served as a crisis counsellor for an embodiment and healing through movement program by the organization, Pretty Wings.

But Amanda is proud to have been able to use those experiences to build an organization of her own to do her life’s work. She continues to serve a growing community of women through Heal Her Heart with a holistic, intersectional, and feminist approach to mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

When Amanda is not building her legacy as a healer of hearts, she enjoys losing herself in a good book, tuning into true crime podcasts and videos, relishing in the joy of sweet soca music, and spoiling her precious pups, Emma and Bentley.