Welcome to the Still Valley Blog!

I’ve been meaning to start a blog for, oh, about two years now.

I have a notes app full of half-written ideas, a folder on my desktop called “Blog Stuff” that I’ve procrastinated working on, and a very patient inner critic who has had a lot to say about why I haven’t done it yet. If you stick around, I’m sure we’ll talk about that inner critic. But today is not that day. Today is about getting started and saying, “Good enough is good enough.”

So here we are. Hi.

My name is Amanda. I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor and the founder of Still Valley Retreat. I’ve been doing this work since 2011 and find that sitting with people in their hardest, most tender moments is a unique privilege. One I feel genuinely honored to be trusted with.

I’m not entirely sure what that has to do with writing a blog, but I’m sure it will come full circle eventually. Things aren’t always clear in the moment, which is cliché, but also just true. I know leaning into that isn’t easy. It can be uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s a little scary.

But I’m doing it anyway.

I’m writing here because I want you to know me before you need me. Not the bio version of me. The real one. The one who has her own story, her own hard-won lessons, her own weird sense of humor that occasionally surprises people who expect therapists to be more… measured. More serious. More stiff.

I’ll get into all of that over time. There’s no rush. That’s sort of the whole philosophy around here.

What I can tell you now is this: everything I write here comes from a deep belief that the women who find their way here are not broken. They are carrying so much, for everyone around them, often at the expense of themselves.

Some posts will be clinical. Some may be a bit personal. Some will be both, which is sort of unavoidable when your professional expertise and your own story overlap. I make no promises about brevity.

But I do promise it will be honest. And I hope, every now and then, it’ll make you smile before it makes you think.

I’m really glad you found this.

With care (and finally, a published post),

Amanda