Dr. Amanda Akers

Dr. Akers works to build a strong therapeutic relationship with clients, so that together she and her clients can uncover the deeper patterns shaping the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that are causing and maintaining their problems in living. She utilizes psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy, which focus on gaining insight into the origins of issues instead of focusing only on symptom relief.

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Dr. Akers says, "My approach to therapy is like the difference between whacking the top off the weed in your garden versus lifting out the weeds for good by the root. I help clients understand, love, and accept themselves more, as well as strengthen their relationships with others and enjoy their lives more fully." Many clients have shared that her approach to therapy is exactly what they have been looking for and were hoping therapy would be like.

 

Dr. Akers has successfully helped clients experiencing:

• Depression and low self-worth

• Adult Children Of Dysfunctional Families (including adult children of parents who struggled with addiction, anger, anxiety, depression, narcissism/Borderline Personality Disorder, and emotional issues)

• Gifted/highly intelligent adults

• Highly Sensitive People

• High functioning personality disorders

• Adults in recovery from addiction

• Anxiety (including perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive tendencies) 

• Trauma (including dissociation, self-worth issues and other consequences of traumatic experiences, abuse, and/or neglect)

• Stress and adjustment difficulties

• Relationship problems, including sexual issues

• Conflicts related to religion or spirituality

• Family concerns

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Dr. Akers also enjoys working with couples to repair ruptures and betrayals (including infidelity), improve communication, increase sexual and nonsexual intimacy, navigate conflict, rebuild trust, and strengthen their love and bond. With couples, she uses psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches as well as Gottman methods.

 

She says, “I find meaning and purpose in building trusting relationships with clients, which facilitate their ability to explore and understand themselves and others more deeply. When they can safely be vulnerable and open, they feel better, strengthen their bonds and intimacy with others, and more thoroughly enjoy their lives. The insight gained together leads to positive and lasting change in their lives. I cannot think of anything more important or that I would rather be doing than helping change lives for the better everyday.”

 

Like all Best Life clinicians, Dr. Akers is an LGBTQ+ ally and is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment for all clients.

 

Some books Dr. Akers enjoys related to therapy are Schopenhauer's Porcupines: Intimacy and Its Dilemmas by Deborah Anna Luepnitz, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom, and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy by Nancy McWilliams (the last two are favorites of Dr. Whiten's as well!).

 

Outside of work, Dr. Akers is the proud mother of two successful young women, and has personal experience with divorce, remarriage, and blended families. She is happily married to her college sweetheart, and she lives in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Morehead, Kentucky. In her free time, she loves to hike, run, picnic, travel, and spend time enjoying the forest from her back porch. She also has a podcast with her husband called, “A Preacher and a Therapist Walk into a Bar…”

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