LCSW, 13 years of experience
Frequently rebooked
Hello and welcome! I’m Amber Benamou, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist. I’ve spent the past 13 years working in the mental health field, supporting adults, children, and families in a variety of settings, which has given me a broad perspective on helping people from all walks of life. I’m passionate about supporting each person’s unique journey and helping them build the skills and confidence to navigate life’s challenges.
In our first session, my goal is to build rapport and create a welcoming space where you feel comfortable and safe. I’ll ask questions to get to know you and understand your experiences. Together, we’ll explore the challenges you’re facing and what you hope to achieve in therapy, which will help me create a personalized plan for our future sessions.
I genuinely care about the people I work with—this isn’t just a job for me. I enjoy getting to know each person and feel grateful that my clients trust me enough to let me be part of their journey. I strive to bring my authentic self to every session, and when appropriate, I like to sprinkle in a bit of humor to keep things light. In therapy, my goal is to help you build coping skills, manage stress, and feel your best. We’ll explore your thoughts, values, and try practical tools—like solution-focused strategies, CBT, and mindfulness—to see what works for you. Together, we’ll identify what’s helping, what’s not, and what you need to feel more balanced, confident, and in control of your life.
I work with young adults and adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who are navigating anxiety, depression, self-esteem, parenting, self-care, family conflicts, and stress. I also provide a supportive, safe space for parents of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a treatment method that helps a person become more aware of their own thoughts and how those thoughts affect them. We learn the connection between our thoughts, our feelings and our responses/behaviors. Our thoughts can be very powerful in either improving or exacerbating symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicidal ideations, chronic pain, etc.
Solution Focused Therapy helps clients work on positive change by constructing solutions rather than focusing on the problems themselves. Solution-Focused Therapy is a powerful tool to help you discover your strengths and create lasting change. At Seaside, we’ll create a clear, actionable plan with small steps you can complete in your everyday life to build momentum toward positive, sustainable change.
Trauma is anything someone has experienced that has been incredibly stressful, scary or life-threatening, i.e. sexual assault, grief, natural disasters, domestic violence, all forms of abuse, bullying, etc. I have been trained to see things through a "trauma lens", meaning that core beliefs, behaviors and thought patterns can stem from the trauma we have experienced in our lives. Specifically I have additional training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Do not ask the question, "What is wrong about this person?" but rather, "What happened to them"?
3 ratings with written reviews
April 11, 2025
Her empathetic and practical approach to improvement has been absolutely invaluable to me. She offers a variety of potential solutions until we find one that works, and she’s supportive through both successes and setbacks - I tend to be nervous about admitting I haven’t really improved, but she makes it easy to talk about why that might be and what we could do to change it. She’s a really great listener, and she’s very warm and friendly. In particular, she was very understanding of how hard it can be to take care of work and responsibilities, which is what I came to her needing the most help with. While she does sometimes have to reschedule last-minute, she has also been flexible with me when I had last-minute conflicts, and she makes great efforts to reschedule as soon as possible. Working with her over a period of several months has helped me completely turn around my relationship with myself and my work!
February 13, 2025
Great first session! Very attentive and genuine, asked good questions :)
February 7, 2025
Excellent quality, and we tested out a new AI transcribing feature. It asks for your consent, and gives you a pause button if there is something you do not want the AI to transcribe. It sounds like a very useful tool for my therapist and it was nice to see how it worked on the client-side, and how much control I was able to have over it.