Amy Anderson, LCSW

Home
United States
San Diego, CA
Amy Anderson, LCSW

Trauma therapist who specializes with couples who have experienced ADHD/OCD/CPTSD symptoms and/or professional burnout.

I offer services in person in San Diego, CA for walk n talk and in office; telehealth for California & Pennsylvania residents.

02/25/2026

When stress is high and schedules are full, boundaries can blur. Conversations become reactive. Small bids for connection get missed. Protective parts take over. And distance grows quietly.

This week’s blog explores an integrative framework for strengthening connection through:

• Gottman’s bids for connection
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) self-leadership
• DBT-informed grounding before difficult conversations

Boundaries in relationships aren’t about building walls. They’re about knowing which part of you is speaking, regulating before responding, and engaging from intention rather than reactivity.

Self-leadership creates space for partnership.

Read the full article at the link in bio.

If you’re a high-performing couple in San Diego looking to deepen connection with a structured, trauma-informed approach, I offer therapy through Amy Anderson Therapy.

02/23/2026

When trauma and betrayal intersect, repair requires careful pacing. Safety and stabilization must come before deep disclosure or problem-solving. The attachment injury has to be addressed directly, not bypassed.

Healing in these cases involves attending to both layers: the relational rupture and the developmental wound it reopened.

If you’re navigating infidelity in the context of childhood trauma, trauma-informed couples therapy can help create the structure and safety necessary for meaningful repair.

I provide couples therapy in San Diego, CA for partners working through betrayal, attachment injury, and complex trauma.

02/20/2026

Couples often describe their struggles as communication problems.

They’ll say they keep having the same argument. That conversations escalate quickly. That one of them feels unheard, or the other feels criticized.

Sometimes the issue is communication.

But often, what’s creating the friction is a difference in values that hasn’t been fully named.

When those differences remain implicit, the conflict tends to focus on tone, timing, or delivery. It feels like someone isn’t listening. Or someone is being too reactive. Or someone is avoiding the real issue.

But underneath, each partner is often operating from a coherent internal logic, shaped by family history, culture, identity, and lived experience.

Value incongruence isn’t always obvious. It rarely announces itself clearly. More often, it shows up as circular conversations and a growing sense of misalignment that’s hard to articulate.

02/18/2026

Difficulty with focus, forgetfulness, emotional reactivity, zoning out, or struggling to follow through can have multiple roots. Neurodivergence shapes the way the brain processes attention, stimulation, and regulation. Emotional neglect shapes the way we learned to respond to our own needs and feelings.

From the outside, those patterns can overlap.

The difference isn’t always obvious, especially if you grew up in an environment where emotions weren’t noticed, supported, or responded to consistently.

Understanding where a pattern comes from matters. Not for labeling, but for treatment. ADHD and emotional neglect require different kinds of support, and sometimes they coexist in ways that are easy to miss.

I wrote a new blog post exploring how to think about these differences with more clarity and less self-blame.

02/16/2026

When alcohol, chemicals, or compounds have been part of a relationship for a long time, they’ve likely shaped more than just behavior. They may have influenced tone, timing, and the emotional distance between partners.

It’s also common for older resentments or unresolved grief to come forward during this period, not necessarily because something new is happening, but because there is less distance from what has already been there.

For some couples, this shift brings clarity. For others, it feels destabilizing before anything begins to settle. The communication itself hasn’t necessarily worsened. The emotional landscape has changed, and the relationship often needs time to adjust to that change.

If you’re navigating this in your relationship, couples therapy can offer a space to slow it down and understand what’s happening between you. I provide couples therapy in San Diego, CA for partners working through recovery and communication changes.

02/14/2026

For many neurodivergent couples, intimacy builds through shared focus, structure, and experience, not necessarily through long, emotionally intense conversations across a dinner table.

Trying something new together. Solving a problem side by side. Learning how the other person thinks under pressure.
Sharing stories about where you come from and what shaped you.

Those moments often reveal more than a perfectly planned evening ever could.

When you’re navigating a board game together, experimenting with clay in a pottery class, or exploring a piece of your cultural history, you’re not just going on a date. You’re observing how you function as a team. How you handle frustration. How you encourage each other. How you recover from small missteps.

Intimacy doesn’t always look romantic. Sometimes it looks collaborative. Sometimes it looks curious. Sometimes it looks playful.

02/11/2026

Meet Orion! 🐶

Our newest team member at Amy Anderson Therapy, and yes, he’s officially certified in cuddle sessions. 🤍

02/09/2026

Valentine’s Day can feel complicated in blended families.

When you’re co-parenting, navigating multiple households, honoring different cultures or traditions, or holding loyalty to children from previous relationships, love doesn’t always fit into a heart-shaped box.

For many blended families, Valentine’s Day brings up:
• divided schedules and shared custody realities
• guilt about where time, attention, or money goes
• kids’ school Valentine’s parties, class lists, and invitations
• questions about who attends which events, and with whom
• children adjusting to new partners or family structures
• cultural differences around romance, affection, or celebration
• the pressure to “make it special” while managing real life

If Valentine’s Day feels heavy, tense, or emotionally layered this year, that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything the wrong way. It means you’re navigating real relationships, real families, and real transitions.

02/06/2026

Almost every couple says, “we need to work on our communication.”

But communication isn’t just talking more.
It’s not winning arguments or “being right”.

Real communication is feeling safe enough to be honest without bracing for impact.

It’s being able to name what’s happening inside you before it turns into distance, defensiveness, or shutdown. It is about knowing how to listen when your partner is overwhelmed, and how to speak when you are.

02/04/2026

If you’re navigating step-parenting, co-parenting, or building a non-traditional family and wondering “Why does this feel so complicated even when we love each other?”, this one’s for you.

Read more on the blog at www.amyandersontherapy.com or click the link in my bio! 📖

02/02/2026

San Diego has powerful, community-rooted resources created by and for the Black community, spaces focused on healing, advocacy, and connection.

If you’re looking for culturally responsive mental health support, community care, or places that truly understand the lived experience of being Black in this world, these are a few meaningful resources worth knowing about.

Saving this, sharing it, or simply knowing these resources exist can matter more than we realize.

01/30/2026

Let’s talk about the quiet pressure of January.

The bills, the budgets, the inbox full of “Tax Season Reminders.”
And beneath it all… the deeper question:

Where is my money actually going? And does it reflect what I care about?

Because what we spend on; time, energy, or money, often reveals what we value… or what we’ve been taught to value, even if it no longer fits.

This is your gentle check-in:
– Are your spending habits aligned with your current season of life?
– Do your expenses support your well-being, or someone else’s expectations?
– What do you want to prioritize in 2026?

Address

2525 Camino Del Rio S
San Diego, CA
92108

Telephone

(619) 597-1505

Website

http://Www.amyandersontherapy.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Amy Anderson, LCSW posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Amy Anderson, LCSW:

Shortcuts

Want your practice to be the top-listed Clinic in San Diego?

Breathe. It’s going to be ok.

Hello and thank you for checking out my page! I’m excited to offer clinical counseling services aimed to help you reduce distress surrounding life transitions (divorce/separation, relocation, new job or career path, new relationship, generational changes, etc.), anxiety, depression, substance abuse, relationship turbulence, and preparing and planning for healthier future life changes. I use Solution Focused, Strength Based, Trauma Informed therapeutic approaches that are also rooted in Positive Psychology and Cognitive Behavioral frameworks to help my clients achieve the life satisfaction they are looking for.

I offer these services in Central San Diego in Mission Valley on Tuesdays on a part time basis. I also offer Clinical Supervision for new and aspiring therapists who are pursing licensure in the state of California. I offer a weekly clinical supervision group as well as individual supervision appointments. Please feel free to give me a call or message me here if you have any further questions or would like to schedule a session!