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meet amanda

I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (MN LIC #03307) dedicated to supporting children, adolescents, and families in building meaningful skills for emotional regulation, connection, and resilience. I hold a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Viterbo University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus on Child Advocacy. I have experience working in a variety of complex settings and situations, including outpatient therapy, schools, in-home services, and social services systems. 

My approach is compassionate, strengths-based, and highly relational. I believe that healing and growth happen within safe, attuned relationships, and I strive to create a therapeutic space where clients feel understood, supported, and empowered.

I have extensive experience working with children navigating ADHD, anxiety, depression, autism, trauma, emotional-behavioral challenges, and complex family dynamics, including foster care and adoption. I specialize in helping clients build emotional awareness, improve self-regulation, and strengthen relationships at home and in school. I also work closely with caregivers, offering practical tools and guidance to support consistency, connection, and long-term success.

My therapeutic style is interactive, creative, and tailored to each child’s developmental needs. I integrate evidence-based and relationship-focused approaches, including Play Therapy, Developmental Repair, Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Conscious Discipline®. I am also trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Motivational Interviewing, and Organizational Skills Training. I incorporate principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) when appropriate to support skill-building and behavior change.

I am especially passionate about helping children who struggle with emotional regulation, transitions, and behavioral responses to stress, and supporting caregivers in becoming confident, effective co-regulators for their children. I believe that progress happens through connection, patience, and collaboration. My goal is to help families feel supported, capable, and equipped with tools that create lasting change both inside and outside of therapy.

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Amanda Sargent, MS, LPCC 

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License and Education

Professional Clinical Counselor

 

Minnesota Lic #3307 
 

Master of Science 

Mental Health Counseling 

Viterbo University (Graduated in 2019)

Bachelor of arts
Psychology | child advocacy
Winona State University (Graduated in 2016)

Other certifications and training

  • Attachment Bio-Behavioral Catch-Up(ABC):  ABC is an evidence-based intervention for newborns to children up to four years old and their parents. The intervention is family based and designed to support caregivers who are parenting young children with early adversity such as medical issues, trauma histories, and/or child protection involvement. It is also designed to serve children who have families struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders. For more information on ABC, please see http://www.abcintervention.org

  • PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION THERAPY (PCIT): Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a training program that teaches strategies to parents looking for tools to positively manage their child's behavioral and emotional functioning through the improvement of parenting skills and the reduction of externalizing behaviors in the child. For more information, visit: https://www.pcit.org/

  • DIRFloortime:DIRFLOORTIME is a comprehensive, evidence-based, therapy approach, for guiding intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental challenges. DIR stands for the Developmental, Individual-differences, & Relationship-based model.

  • Play Therapy: Play therapy is a form of psychotherapy and can be effective in helping children through emotional and mental issues. Children often use play to express themselves and navigate the world.

  • Developmental Repair: the intentional and practiced stance that allows adults to remain active regulating partners for children who are unable to sustain adequate self- regulation and self- organization in the face of distress. 

  • Conscious Discipline®: Conscious Discipline® is an adult-first technique that “addresses adult self-regulation and skill sets first to empower adults to model, teach, and live the skills and ideals they want children to acquire.” It is meant to demonstrate—for children—healthy ways to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to deal with conflict and difficult situations.

  • Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP): Child-Parent Psychotherapy helps enhance the caregiver-child relationship and teaches parents strategies for decreasing problems within the relationship.

  • Applied Behavioral Analysis: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding behavior. ABA refers to a set of principles that focus on how behaviors change, or are affected by the environment, as well as how learning takes place. The term behavior refers to skills and actions needed to talk, play, and live. 

  • Internal Family Systems: Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an approach to psychotherapy that identifies and addresses multiple sub-personalities or families within each person’s mental system.  IFS focuses on healing the wounded parts and restoring mental balance and harmony by changing the dynamics that create discord among the sub-personalities and the Self.

  • Organizational Skills Training: an effective, evidence-based program designed to support children, teens, and their families in developing essential skill sets related to executive functioning.

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of mental health problems. CBT places an emphasis on helping individuals develop skills and capacities to change their own thinking, problematic emotions, and behavior. This may be done through exercises in the session as well as “homework” exercises outside of sessions to develop coping skills.

  • TRAUMA FOCUSED - COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (TF-CBT): Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based talk therapy for children and adolescents who have experienced trauma, involving their non-offending caregivers. Therapists provide individual and family sessions to teach stress-reduction, coping skills, and how to process the traumatic event by changing negative thoughts and behaviors related to the trauma. The goal is to reduce trauma-related distress, improve emotional regulation, and help the child develop a sense of safety and adaptive social skills

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): DBT is a treatment intervention that combines both psychotherapy and skills training to help adolescents and adults to enhance their own capacities. Focus areas include mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotional regulation

  • Rogerian-Person Centered Therapy: a client-based form of therapy that empowers the client to take ownership of their mental well-being. It shifts the focus from the mental health professional to the client and allows them to have control of the therapeutic process. Person-centered therapy provides a safe space for clients to become more self-aware and find their own solutions.

  • Motivational Interviewing: Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change. Motivational interviewing is a person-centered counseling style for addressing the common problem of ambivalence about change.

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