What happens when being the person who can handle everything becomes part of your identity?

My guest, Amanda Hill, knows that experience well.

Amanda is a licensed mental health counselor, nationally certified counselor, board-certified life coach, author, podcast host, and founder of Connections of Hope, a multi-location counseling practice in Indiana.

But long before she was running a growing mental health practice, Amanda was a newly divorced mother with two very young children, trying to figure out how to keep the bills paid and take care of her family.

On the outside, people saw someone who had it together.

On the inside, she was struggling.

Amanda describes herself as hyper-independent and shares how difficult it was for her to ask for help, even during periods when she barely had enough money to feed herself after feeding her children.

One of the parts of our conversation that stayed with me was what happened when Amanda finally did ask for help.

The person she was afraid to need, her dad, showed up.

And while that didn't immediately erase the shame she felt about needing support, over time it gave her a different experience of what it could mean to depend on someone.

We talk about that experience and so much more, including:

• Where hyper-independence can come from
• Why asking for help can feel like failure
• What Amanda learned from becoming a single mother
• The role her faith played during some of her hardest years
• Why hope doesn't always mean knowing how things will work out
• How our past experiences shape what our brain and nervous system predict will happen next
• The relationship between our thoughts and our physiology
• Why we can't simply “think positive” when our nervous system is in survival mode
• What happened when Amanda's daughter reached the same age Amanda was when she experienced a traumatic event
• Learning to approach activation with curiosity rather than fear
• Parenting, presence, perfectionism, and the impact of social media
• How Amanda's own experiences eventually informed the work she does today

We also talk about the name Connections of Hope, which feels especially meaningful after hearing Amanda's story.

The woman who once found it so difficult to let herself need other people ultimately built a practice centered around two things that became deeply important in her own life:

Connection and hope.

And maybe there's something in that for all of us.

Sometimes strength looks like figuring out the next step and continuing to move forward. And sometimes strength looks like allowing ourselves to say, “I can't do this by myself.”

Connect with Amanda Hill

Instagram: connectionsofhope4u 

Facebook: connectionsofhope

https://www.tiktok.com/@mentalhealthwithamanda1?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc;

You Tube: @mentalhealthwithamanda 

Podcast: 

https://open.spotify.com/show/48zMd4OwRLSx36vG3c4rg5?si=lMZPwXIdQ2ifma73Lhj0Rg; 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mental-health-with-amanda/id1885180390; 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-hill-4078b3126/

Amanda is the founder of Connections of Hope, LLC and author of Making Sense of Dysfunction. You can also find her podcast and YouTube channel, Mental Health with Amanda.

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Until next time.  Stay Curious.

You can find Jodi Silverman, LCSW at
www.therachihealing.com
www.journeywithkindredsouls.com

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