SEQUOIA PDX

“There are losses that rearrange the world. Deaths that change the way you see everything, grief that tears everything down. Pain that transports you to an entirely different universe, even while everyone else thinks nothing has really changed.”

— Megan Devine

It's OK That You're Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand

Grief Educator and Training Consultant

Amy Berman, Ph.D., HSP Licensed Clinical Psychologist EMDRIA EMDR Certified Therapist EMDRIA EMDR Approved Consultant Certified David Kessler Grief Therapist ASCH Certified Practitioner Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology APIT#13933

Contact information Tel. 503-482-2800 Click To Send A Secure Message

Dr. Amy Berman is a credentialed National Register Health Service Psychologist and an independently licensed psychologist in the states of Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Maryland and is also APIT credentialed to practice telepsychology under the authority of PSYPACT in participating states. She has been working in the mental health field since 2000 and has been providing psychotherapy services via telemental health since 2015.

Dr. Berman specializes in evidence-based psychotherapies and mindfulness, somatic and attachment focused work. Her areas of expertise include working with individuals with chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal relationship concerns, and those who have experienced psychological trauma, grief and loss.

Dr. Berman is an EMDRIA EMDR Certified Therapist and EMDRIA EMDR Approved Consultant, with a specialty in EMDR therapy for grief and loss, attachment work and complex trauma.

Her advanced professional training includes an American Psychological Association (APA) accredited doctoral residency in psychology at the Portland VA Health Care System (HCS), including clinical rotations with the VA/OHSU Palliative Care Team and the VA PTSD clinic. She received advanced specialty training in PTSD/trauma through an APA-accredited postdoctoral fellowship program at the Maryland VA HCS in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (Ph.D.) from Tennessee State University, a Master of Arts in Education Policy from University of Maryland College Park, and an advanced graduate certificate in Working with Survivors of Violence, Torture, and Trauma from the Department of Psychology at University of Maryland College Park. She completed her earlier clinical training at the Vanderbilt Medical Center with the Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project, and the Vanderbilt University Department of Psychiatry and Vanderbilt Psychological & Counseling Center. Dr. Berman’s prior professional work experience includes longstanding service as a PTSD Clinical Team specialty provider with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She served as a clinical partner with The Headstrong Project, a non-profit mental health organization providing barrier-free and stigma-free PTSD treatment to our veterans, service members, and family connected to their care.

Dr. Berman offers mindfulness, somatic and depth work to promote profound psychological healing, growth and transformation. She is a Certified Grief Therapist trained by world-renowned grief and loss expert, David Kessler, with a specialization in traumatic grief and loss. She has advanced specialty training in the treatment of trauma/PTSD using the evidence-based gold standard therapies for PTSD: EMDR therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, and Written Exposure Therapy.

Dr. Berman is an EMDR International Association EMDR Certified Therapist and EMDR Approved Consultant with extensive advanced training in EMDR therapy for grief and Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR therapy (SAFE EMDR), which brings in transformational aspects of body centered psychotherapies while maintaining fidelity to the EMDR therapy model. She is a professional member of Postpartum Support International (PSI) and received advanced specialty training in perinatal mental health in her path towards PSI Certification in Perinatal Mental Health. She is also a Hakomi Level I trained somatic therapy provider and continues in her advanced professional Hakomi training with the Hakomi Institute of the Pacific Northwest. As a HeartMath® Certified Practitioner, she also provides heart rate variability biofeedback training for stress, anxiety and self-regulation, which can be offered as part of EMDR therapy to assist with preparation for trauma reprocessing.

Dr. Berman is well versed in working with ego state interventions and Internal Family Systems, commonly known as “parts work,” and has participated in advanced EMDR consultation training with parts work expert, Robin Shapiro, LICSW. Her advanced clinical training also includes the art of EMDR work for profound grief, complex trauma and dissociation with esteemed EMDR practitioners Dr. Roger Solomon and Dr. Kathleen Martin through the EMDR Institute. She completed her advanced consultation training for EMDR Approved Consultant status with seasoned consultants from the Institute for Creative Mindfulness.

In addition, Dr. Berman is a professional member of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), an ASCH Certified Clinical Hypnosis Practitioner and a Registered Hypnotherapist in the state of Washington, with advanced specialty training in the application of clinical hypnosis within psychotherapy. She has served as Vice President on the Executive Board of the Oregon Society of Clinical Hypnosis, an ASCH component society. She is also a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD trained provider. She is an LGBTQ+ ally and a COVID-conscious therapist.

She enjoys restoring her spirit by hiking a quiet trail in the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. After her son’s death, she took up the art of metalsmithing as an outlet for her grief. And she continues to appreciate the meditative aspects of being seated at a work bench, setting a beautiful stone.