Amanda Blain

Amanda Blain is a Clinical Mind-Body Therapist, Stress and Trauma Specialist, Cross-cultural Educator, and budding herbalist. While working in Chicago’s health care sector, she observed the link between mental and physical health. She helped dialysis clinics improve patient outcomes by implementing mind-body education and depression management services. She was later discouraged by industry norms that prioritized profit over impact, and left in 2013 to volunteer in the Peace Corps in South Africa.

That’s when Amanda met David Patient, one of the first people to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Doctors told him he had 6 months to live, and there were no effective drug therapies at the time. But David pioneered his own holistic treatment plans and lived another 34 years. He co-authored the book, The Healer Inside You, and was Amanda’s mentor from 2013-2017 until he passed away from other causes. While in South Africa, Amanda participated in a 1-year training program with David and Neil Orr, a psycho-neuro immunologist, who both worked as United Nations consultants.

Afterwards, Amanda moved to Colorado to mentor with a body-centered psychotherapist and studied with the world’s leading experts on trauma in Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s Traumatic Stress Studies Certificate program.

Personally, she has endured and transcended her own suffering, healing naturally from adult onset asthma, IBS, adverse childhood events, and complex trauma. That journey brought her into an embodied understanding of the scientifically known link between mind & body. Because Amanda knows disorder and dis-ease intimately, and because she’s experienced the miracle of natural healing, she has a passion for helping people finally breakthrough when nothing else seemed to work.

Her bio-psycho-social approach to healing has resulted in transformation even for people who were previously discouraged by decades of unsuccessful mainstream therapy.

Today, Amanda lives on Lake Atitlàn in Guatemala with her partner Dain, where they’re collaborating with indigenous Mayan neighbors to create a regenerative homestead and eco-conscious social business.