Amanda Tarkington-Taylor (Her/She)

I use cognitive behavioral therapy a lot when I work with children and adolescents. Mainly, because they have a difficult time expressing their feelings.

I use emotionally focused therapy when working with couples who struggle with connecting with each other on a deeper level. I also use it sometimes when helping adolescents and parents connect with emotions.

My main goal as a therapist is to help all my clients be able to identify the issues they are having. Help them find out what is driving those issues and then from there help them find solutions to meet the goals they have for having and creating a better life together.

With family conflict I deal a lot with couples who became parents and how that changes their family dynamic. I help families who are split and how to help the children cope with that. Also, I help already split families learn how to create a new family dynamic that works from them.

Most of my marriage couples that I help struggle with communication and empathy for one another. So, I am always working with my couples to try and relate to one another. As well as stating what their issues are, then I have their partner repeat what they heard. Once they are able to do that. We then move toward empathizing and trying to relate to the emotions that their partner is feeling.

Most of relationship issues deal with understanding each other's feelings and thoughts. I also deal a lot with figuring out where the thoughts and feelings stem from. There is a lot of validating that happens when dealing with relationship issues.