About Focused Path Integrative Health
Amber’s Work
It is no accident that I am here as your guide. I have had many journeys in the dark night of the soul and felt stronger every time I emerged. I did my work via psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, depth psychology and shadow work, body work and movement practices, transformational coaching and spiritual-wisdom practices, along with support from friends and family. But mostly during a life transition, it is a solo journey accompanied by “the other.”
I initially would fight these “crises,” really a term for avoiding grief – not wanting to descend into the depths – but every time the spiral of the journey has brought me closer to my true Self. It is in this space that I have devoted my life’s work.
Prior to creating this website, I stayed anonymous and had a thriving psychotherapy and integrative psychiatric private practice exclusively from referral sources. I had no website, no blog, no social media involvement in my business. I enjoyed my therapy practice and yet I have been called to do more. To take up my full expression as I always encouraged my clients to do so. There was a limiting belief that a good therapist isn’t really seen beyond what the client sees in the analytical space. My over-identification with being a boots-on-the-ground helper, led me to not show up in the larger media world so that my clients could imagine (or ask) all they wanted. I believe that part of myself was essential to my work. It is very meaningful work. Yet it also was me playing small. It was me obeying rules that no longer served me as I wanted to expand my reach vs. stay strictly in clinical care.
I never wanted to be stuck in the confines of medical care. Yet, I loved psychotherapy and creating my practice was a dream come true. However by waiting for the “right time” to expand and change my business, I ignored all of the visions I wanted to pursue and I ended up burning out. Not because I didn’t love the field, but rather because I was restricting my growth to the defined rules that had led to my success. I also limited my capacity to keep on evolving because I was so loyal to the psychotherapy field and patient care. And waiting for the clinical world to slow down, when we are in the height of a mental health crisis, was an exercise in futility. So the season of “just” being a therapist and nurse practitioner has ended.
I believe in getting my ideas and creations out into the world. Just as I believe in supporting others to do the same. I believe in every last piece of me being fully expressed so that I am fully nourished and can continue my life’s work of helping high-achieving women, helping professionals and entrepreneurs break out of their perfectionistic, societal and self-imposed identity prisons. To mentor and support them as they create sustainable, holistic and uniquely customized well-being with both inner and outer freedom, vitality and abundance. I have worked in the field of eating disorders without an eating disorder history of my own. Yet I know full well the lack of nourishment that drives the symptoms of soul hunger. Paying attention to our desires and needs is essential as we transform into our more united, whole Selves. For the clients I support, this often means there is simultaneous shedding and expanding of their identities and true self.
I know that my work is extending past the confines of traditional medical care. I have always viewed myself as a midwife to stories and a modern-day medicine woman. I believe in using all the modalities in our human capacity to heal and thrive. I believe the medical world is in a crisis and as the system breaks, I am embracing a new paradigm of supporting others without the medical model that no longer is effective for thriving. My clients don’t want to settle for just getting back to baseline, they are relentless in their desire to experience freedom, harmony, love and abundance while being true to themselves and their true vocation. The custom experience that we create together relies on the client embracing their sovereign and warrior energy and dedicating space, time and energy to their inner work. What occurs on the inside always manifests on the outside. I know my investment in my higher self will be paramount in helping you invest in yourself. Can’t wait to meet ALL of you.
Lance’s Work
At the age of 25 I was facing debilitating pain that was destroying my ability to thrive and any sense of possibilities for a different future. I had been suffering with chronic pain for years prior that culminated into a disfigured posture and the inability to freely move and function. At this point surgery seemed to be the only remaining option for my survival. Under the knife I went. After being berated in recovery by my neurosurgeon, I realized I was facing a long and embattled recovery.
During this time, I remembered a chat with a friend who attended a school that forever changed his life. It rekindled an interest in an alternative healing modality that I had many years prior. In the winter of 1996, I attended this school, and it too forever changed the direction of my life. That school was the Florida School of Massage Therapy. This experience is what truly reopened my senses and the real possibility of a different future. My recovery shifted from an embattled to an empowered one. Even though that was over 20 years ago, I still feel a deep sense of gratitude and joy for the time I spent there.
Over these 20 plus years, I have come to understand how my experience in that recovery room affected my outlook, and in turn how that affected how I experience myself. I carried my neurosurgeon’s beliefs (about my body) with me everywhere. I was “damaged,” “had to be careful,” I was “never going to be the same,” and had the back of an “80-year-old.” I embodied those beliefs to my detriment.
Though I have always trusted my intuition working with the body, many years ago I took a course that changed the direction of my work. I came to understand that as a bodyworker – not only was I working with subtle energies of the living body – I was also working directly with and influencing the nervous system. I finally realized how the trauma of my surgery affected my state of being. That, in conjunction with working with people who also were affected by various traumatic experiences, led me to explore Somatic Experiencing. Some of the most profound experiences occur within the delicate complexities of a subtle touch. I welcome you to my practice, “where all of you is welcome.”
About Amber Pena Posey
Amber is first and foremost a human who loves to dive into the deep. She’s often scared to death when she does so, but always brings up a treasure. She is a writer who had rarely given herself time to write (until recently). She creates a space for you to explore your life. She is alongside of you while you sit, stand up, walk, dance, run, cry, howl, laugh, sing and curse. As you grieve and as you rise. She is a modern-day medicine woman and midwife to your stories. Storytelling is medicine. Claiming your story is the exact recipe to create the most amazing, nourishing, tasty meal of your life. (Metaphors with food come up a lot because she works with hungry souls). Working in eating disorders has taught her that the hunger of every last person on this earth is to be seen and understood as their true selves. She has also felt her own pain and seen the pain of her many beautiful clients who wait on life or others to be fully seen. She knows that many have a “waiting disorder,” and that life truly starts when you shed what is no longer necessary and take up space. She had her own story of starvation, though it wasn’t literal, and thanks the synchronicity of life for allowing her to nourish herself in every way possible, rather than maintain the diet of American culture focused on performance, productivity and perfectionism. Her old self would have started this bio with her credentials and never would have said she is a writer who rarely writes. But the joy of her own intense crucible experience says, “Lead with truth. Writers always tell what the rest of the world cannot. You have always been honest in the therapy room, be honest on the written page.”
The training and experience: Amber graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in English Literature and then embarked on her desire to explore psychotherapy and integrative health. She completed her graduate nursing work in both family and psychiatric nurse practitioner programs again at the University of Florida. She has worked in general psychiatry and specialized in the fields of obesity and eating disorders, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and women’s mental health care, particularly tied to the hormonal changes associated with life transition. She has trained in functional medicine (IFM), integrative medicine, Pilates, CBRT (Compassion-Based Resilience Training) and has been immersed in her own psychoanalytic work and in supervision for psychodynamic therapy since 2009.
She has worked in the nursing field since 2005 and has practiced psychotherapy since 2009. She has been a transformative coach focused on vitality and preventing burnout through bespoke work that emphasizes an empowered, embodied, creative and sustainable life and business for high-achieving entrepreneurs since 2020. No matter the goal, from a patient’s health to an entrepreneur’s sustainable purpose, passion and profits, active participation to claim your desires is paramount. She encourages her clients to know thyself as the first step. With inner work, one’s outer health, wealth, relationships and creative expression expands beyond survival into truly living and thriving… The best medicine.
About Lance Posey
I have been a bodyworker since 1997. Over these years my work has evolved and been influenced by the many trainings, seminars, workshops, events, clients and personal self-explorations. Some of these include Ortho-Bionomy, Somatic Experiencing, neuromuscular therapy, structural integration, trigger point therapy, connective tissue therapy, energy healing, active isolated stretching, neuro-lymphatics, Pilates, pain neuroscience, mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques and compassion-based resilience training (CBRT).
I have come to understand how everything we have ever experienced in our entire lives affects how we present today, in our body-minds. I combine many modalities with education and active participation into sessions to facilitate ease and the possibility of an improved sense of self and well-being. I may challenge you to look at yourself, your perceptions and your beliefs about what makes you… You. I am a guide, an assistant to your compassionate objective self-realization. I am honored to be able to do this work.
Client Experiences
“Amber is an invaluable resource if you are considering private practice, looking to grow your practice or looking for ways to enhance your creative potential in your business. She makes an effort to know you personally and to understand your vision for your life. She helped me find alignment and get clear on how I wanted my life to look like and offered helpful suggestions and guidance in navigating what can feel like an overwhelming process. Her energy and enthusiasm and belief in the power of living a more meaningful life where work is creative and enriching is contagious. I would highly recommend her services if you are on the fence about starting your own practice or have already taken the steps and could use some inspiration!”
–Coaching client, Kimberly Teitelbaum
MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, ANP-BC, a psychiatric nurse practitioner who tripled her income in less than a year and is expanding her practice with student interns
“Lance provided an invaluable component to the retreat experience for my clients. Retreat participants were wildly satisfied with the somatic support to shift their energy and drop into a sense of embodied wealth. Not only does Lance offer the magic of touch but a gentle, grounding and empowering energy. Highly recommend his unique blend of massage, somatic experiencing and energy work for both individuals and group experiences.”
–Lanie Smith
Creative “Multi-preneur” Mentor and Guide
“Amber masterfully pinpointed the way my old money story and dependence patterns, which I thought I’d resolved, were playing out in my new business. Based on her guidance I was able to course correct quickly, rather than remaining stuck and avoiding the problem. I would turn to Amber again in a heartbeat if my money story rears its head again – but she’s so expert at her craft that I don’t think it will.
My advice: work with Amber. Your future self will thank you.”
–Laser coaching client, Elizabeth Hughes
MD, inventor and coach
“Amber is energetic, enthusiastic and always looking to learn and grow in her field. She collaborates with other team members closely while demonstrating her passion in working with her clients. There have been countless times mutual clients have expressed their gratitude about Amber’s care. She really takes the time to get to know her clients in a therapeutic, compassionate way to promote emotional healing and wellness.”
–Christine Quintana
MA, LPC, CEDS, psychotherapist and Eating Disorder Expert
“Having an energy reading from Lance was such an empowering experience. You can tell from the moment you begin interacting with him that he is different, that he draws his wisdom from a deeper source. He approaches with such reverence for how he is about to interact with you, and creates an aura of calm. Lance told me about what he was reading in my energy, helped me see a much bigger way to harness it, and how to get out of my own way in doing so. It was an incredible experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Lance again. It would make me very happy if everyone had the opportunity to gain from Lance what I did.”
–Carrie Burggraf
MS, PA-C, CMC, Physician Assistant and sales expert
“From day one, Amber saw my potential and drive to be the leader of my life by owning my own business, and she was not quiet about it. Amber lifted me up, highlighted my attributes and also focused on the necessary improvements that needed to be made in my mindset to make this massive shift in my life. She identified and helped me work through my fears and doubts. She guided me to a place where I felt more comfortable stepping into the unknown of owning a business. I felt like I had a companion taking this leap with me! At only 5 months into owning my own business, I have already at least matched my salaried income (it’s a fantastic start) and landed new projects with large companies. I highly recommend Amber for coaching you into the life you want to live. Life is too short to live in a mundane bubble, just keeping your head above water day-by-day. Amber has really guided me to jump up and ride the waves with enthusiasm and success in my life.”
–Coaching client, Melissa Bloom
MS, LD, RD, CEDRD, a Registered Dietitian and Eating Disorder Expert who has more than doubled her income in less than a year and is expanding her practice with multiple employees
“Amber has an inner wisdom that shines through in her coaching. She was a guide in my personal quest to find direction in my life and career. I have done years of therapy diving into my past, but Amber gave me tools that empowered me to believe in myself and take charge of creating the future that I wanted. She helped me to find the bridge that has led me from feeling stuck in my current circumstances to where I want to go. She was attentive and accessible, and it was apparent that she truly cared about my journey. I highly recommend Amber for anyone looking to grow and feel more empowered to create their ideal life!”
–Coaching client, Kasey Brandt
MSN, PNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, Ed.D. student
“Lance was a surprise gift I received at a retreat held in Sedona, Arizona. I had no idea in advance he’d be there and I definitely was not familiar with many of his skills. I was fortunate to work with him twice over the 4 days. In our first session, I asked to focus on being able to express myself more courageously and fully. After our session, I returned to the participants of the retreat in an activity where I did indeed speak up for more of what I wanted, set stronger boundaries, and expressed myself truthfully. In our second session, one day later, Lance felt that I needed body work and made that the focus. He helped relieve some back and knee pain. I felt loose and relaxed. Later that night, we sang karaoke, and I found myself feeling energetic, dancing and moving my body freely and not worried about what others thought about me. I felt free. I highly recommend working with Lance. He is a deep listener, a sweet soul, and a loving touch. He’s also a great hugger!”