My Approach
I'm Amber Shanahan, a counsellor offering trauma-informed, nervous-system-aware support.
My approach has been shaped over time through professional training, lived experience, and a deeper understanding of how stress, health, and adaptation influence our lives.
Earlier in my own life, I experienced ongoing health challenges that led me to explore many different approaches to healing. While some offered temporary relief, few created lasting change.
That experience was later followed by something far more confronting: my son's prolonged hospitalisation following medical errors. Coming that close to losing him fundamentally changed how I understood stress, safety, and the body's role in healing. It also marked a turning point in my life, leading me back to school in midlife and toward a deeper exploration of health and wellbeing.
I began by studying nutrition because I wanted to understand health at its roots. What I discovered was that physical and emotional health are deeply interconnected.
The more I learned, the clearer it became that our experiences, stress responses, and nervous system states can influence how we feel, how we relate, and how we experience ourselves in our bodies. Earlier life experiences, prolonged stress, and moments where we have felt unsafe can continue to shape our patterns of responding long after the original circumstances have passed.
This understanding naturally expanded my work beyond nutrition into integrative somatic approaches, trauma-informed and attachment-informed perspectives, and ultimately counselling.
Across each stage of this journey, one theme has remained consistent: many of the patterns people struggle with are meaningful adaptations shaped by their lived experiences. Rather than viewing these patterns as problems to eliminate, I approach them with curiosity, compassion, and respect for the role they may have once served.
My role is not to fix people. It is to offer a supportive space where people can better understand themselves, reconnect with their own capacity for healing, and gradually discover new possibilities for change.
Training & Education
The training listed here reflects the education most relevant to my current work in counselling and trauma-informed practice.
I am a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor Candidate (RTCc) with the Association of Cooperative Counselling Therapists (ACCT) and am currently working toward the Master Practitioner of Clinical Counselling (MPCC-P) designation with the Canadian Professional Counselling Association (CPCA), with supervised clinical hours in progress and ongoing professional development.
My broader holistic training includes:
Becoming a Spiritual Healing Practitioner Level I: The Essentials (in progress, 1-year program)
Registered Holistic Nutritionist (1,200 hours)
Certified Integrative Somatic Practitioner (60 hours)
Certified in Somatic EMDR Therapy (60 hours)
Certified Life Skills Coach (54 hours)
Vagal Toning to Embody Your Vibrant & Spiritual Self (20 hours)
Advanced Vagal Toning (25 hours)
Certified Trauma-Informed Coach (20 hours)
Soul Coach Immersion & Training (60 hours)
How This Shapes My Work
What ties my background together is a consistent interest in how people adapt to stress, relationships, and life experiences over time — and how those adaptations can continue to influence the way we move through the world. I’m especially mindful of how vulnerable it can feel to speak about experiences that haven’t always been named as trauma, but have still left a mark.
You don’t need a diagnosis or a particular story to work with me. What matters is what you’re noticing in yourself now, and what you’re hoping to understand or shift.
If you’re looking for counselling that honours both your lived experience and your body’s wisdom — without pathologizing or rushing the process — you’re welcome to reach out.