Amy Garis
Clinical Counsellor, Parramatta & Norwest
Couples, Trauma, Women
M Counselling
Amy is passionate about journeying alongside individuals and couples as they pursue healing and restoration. Her greatest desire is for people to experience “shalom” in their lives; “peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquillity”. She helps clients recognise their personal strengths, increase their resilience and provide scaffolding for change.
Areas of Counselling Practice
- Couples counselling
- Affairs and working to rebuild trust
- Conflict management
- Boundary Setting
- Trauma
- Grief and loss
- Emotional, physical & sexual abuse
- Adult survivors of child sexual abuse
- Adult mental health issues
- Anxiety and stress management
- Family-of-origin issues & attachment
- Cross-cultural transitions
- Boundary setting
- Communication
- Reconciliation
- Debriefing and life transition
- Women’s issues
- Addictive behaviour
- Work related issues
- Student issues
Educational and Professional Experience
Amy has held various roles professionally, including working in a safe house for pregnant women as a birth mother counsellor and advocate, facilitating crisis response debriefing seminars for missionaries working in frontline nations, facilitating 6-month training programs with a focus on spiritual formation and aid work, and leading a team focused on ministry to those facing exploitation (i.e. human trafficking, slavery, refugees, prostitution).
Amy moved from Perth to Sydney in 2020 to complete a Master of Counselling Degree, with specialisations in Trauma counselling and Couples Therapy. Amy has counted it a privilege to work with Bridges over the last 3 years as she has shifted professionally to a more formal context for counselling.
Faith-based Experience
Amy initially became drawn to counselling as a profession in the context of working as a full time missionary. During that time she had the opportunity to lead and journey alongside hundreds of individuals from around the world in their pursuit of restoration, spiritual formation and growth. Amy feels privileged to have helped people from many different nations, cultural and faith backgrounds, and so she works hard to honour each individual’s belief system.
Counselling Style
- Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Client-Centred
- Psychodynamic
- Intuitive and compassionate
- Warm and engaging
- Non-judgmental and strengths-based
- Mindfulness, breath work
- Confidentiality and privacy will be maintained at all times
