Amber has worked in the field of international humanitarian response, development, disaster and community-based mental health, refugee mental health and torture treatment for over 30 years. She is an expert in the development and implementation of staff support programming for complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disaster response teams and has worked in Darfur (Sudan and Chad), Lebanon, Haiti, Kosovo, Indonesia, Rwanda, Palestine, El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Jordan, and teaches regularly in Haiti, Australia, Norway, and Lebanon. Some of the organizations she has worked for include: Save The Children, People in Aid, USAID, The Center for Victims of Torture, Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service, Lutheran Refugee Services and Medicin du Monde. A licensed mental health professional in two states, her professional profile includes public health, somatic psychology, counseling psychology, political science, dance movement therapy, deep tissue bodywork, cranial-sacral therapy, aromatherapy, shiatsu, hatha yoga, and a life long commitment to human rights and social change. Recognized as a pioneer in somatic psychology and trauma, she received the 2010 ADTA Outstanding Achievement Award for her global somatic psychology and movement therapy work with survivors of displacement, violence, war, torture and natural disasters. In 2006 she initiated New Mexico’s Refugee Mental Health program, the first of its kind in the U.S., which she directed for over 7 years.
