It took a suicidal crisis as a college sophomore and a bipolar diagnosis during grad school for Amanda to truly understand just how isolating it can be to struggle with your mental health.

She now combines her lived experience with her counseling degree and dynamic storytelling abilities to normalize there are things we can all do to help support one another with everything from stress to a mental health condition, as well as help end suicide.

Through thought leadership to media projects, speaking engagements, and written publications, Amanda's authenticity, knowledge, and candor help audiences better understand a range of topics in the mental health space. Her subspecialties include suicide prevention and domestic violence awareness.

She spent four years working for South Carolina’s chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness and has shared her story with over 10,000 middle, high school, and college students.

Now, her mental health advocacy work includes freelance writing and keynote speaking as well as multiple journalistic endeavors on national and local levels. Most recently, she appeared in a segment about mental health and domestic violence for NBC’s Today Show. She specializes in topics including the impact of social supports on suicide prevention, destigmatizing the need for mental health support and treatment, and bolstering individual wellness in high-pressure fields like healthcare and education.

She is a sought-after speaker for students of all ages, clinicians, and clinicians-in-training and has keynoted for South Carolina’s Zero Suicide Institute, James Madison University’s Department of Nursing, and MUSC’s Department of Psychiatry. 

Amanda's writing has been featured by Mental Health on The Mighty, the Child Mind Institute and the One Love Foundation.

Her full collection of essays is available at helloamandaphillips.com/blog.