Amanda Voelker
Background
Amanda Voelker is a psychotherapist trained in psychodynamic and trauma-informed approaches. She is currently based in Madrid, Spain, where she is pursuing her PhD. Prior to this, she spent five years in Cairo, working primarily with LGBTQ+ individuals, providing therapy to marginalized populations, and contributing to the development of a psychosocial department at Refuge Egypt, an organization serving refugees from across continental Africa.
Her clinical and research interests center on questions of agency, subjectivity, and psychological life within restrictive social and cultural systems. Drawing on her experience living and working across the United States, China, Italy, Egypt, and Spain, her work explores how therapeutic practice can support individuals navigating complex sociopolitical constraints.
CV
159260.pdf
Research summary
- Subject formation, authority, and the emergence of agency within highly structured social, cultural, and ideological systems
- Religious contexts, including Mormonism, as sites of identity formation, regulation, and negotiation
- The psychological and relational impacts of restrictive environments on identity, desire, and autonomy
- Writing as a method of inquiry, including autoethnographic and creative-critical practices as modes of knowledge production
- Methodological approaches to questions of subjectivity, language, and psychic life based on the theory of Kristeva