Amanda Singh Bans

Amanda Singh Bans (she/her) is a queer-mixed ciswoman of color currently residing on the ceded lands of the Multnomah, Clackamas, Molalla, Kathlamet, Tumwater, Watala bands of the Chinook, and the Tualitin Kalapuya tribes known currently as Portland, Oregon. Amanda’s ancestors come from the Punjab state of northern India, the municipality of Zacatecas in Mexico, Germany, and England. She and her partner are raising their two black sons, a tremendous responsibility in an era fraught with racism and anti-blackness. Amanda is currently a practicing relational therapist and specializes in working with culturally dislocated people of color with trauma histories. Her background and training include working with survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual trauma, and narcissistic abuse, as well as adults who experienced abuse as children, racial trauma. She works with clients diagnosed Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Her practice incorporates elements of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), Anti-Oppressive Practice, and attachment theory. Amanda is currently actively undergoing training to become a Level 1 certified Ecotherapist through the Earthbody Institute’s Ecotherapy Training for BIPOC professionals. In her consulting work, Amanda’s approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion centers the lives and voices of people of color and their intersectional identities in understanding the extent of how racial (and other forms of) trauma has impacted them to guide organizational change efforts. She invites conversation on what and how safety can be co-created, both on an interpersonal level and on a systemic level, and what is needed for individual and collective healing.