Out and About
Hello! My name is Amanda, and I am a professor of sociology. I earned my doctorate in 2011 and have now been studying authenticity, social psychology, and identity development for 15 years.
Tidal Creations came out of a desire to connect the dots between my own personal experiences and my professional work as a PhD.
The Tidal Creations Philosophy
The Tidal Creations (KIND) approach is unique in its balance of focusing on positives and the future, while giving credence to meaning-making and addressing what led us to this point (wherever that point may be).
I uniquely engage a sociological approach to “get us out of our own heads”—emphasizing the broader social and cultural context—to help us learn about what shaped our own experiences, and perhaps more importantly, how we perceive, make sense, and judge those experiences. By contextualizing our perspectives, we can take a step back, in order to take steps forward.
The premise of KINDness: center transformation itself.
Rather than potentially holding ourselves back waiting for transformation to occur, or striving after a moving target, we can explore what transformation really “is”—what it means and where the ideas come from. Transformation becomes a resource, rather than a destination.
The KIND approach offers a structured, yet flexible and creative, framework to integrate this process of learning and creation. It offers unique guidance for identifying both what is holding you or your team back (sticking points) and your pull—the thing that truly makes you “tick.” We use the term “pull” because we do not want to get stuck on one formal definition of “purpose,” which can be a barrier in and of itself. This also helps to overcome explicit and unconscious barriers (obstacles) we face in all types of shapes: expectations, values, commitments, the success trap, and the other array of “should’s” that accumulated over time.
This approach arose through my research based in social psychology and interactionism, the sociology of culture, and identity construction. This was combined with over a decade’s worth of research on self-help, authenticity, and narratives (how we make sense of and frame ourselves/experiences).
The whole philosophy is to put you back in the driver’s seat, balancing the human, intuitive side of a sense of “purpose” driving transformation with tangible, practical prioritizing. I have adopted sociological perspectives to help agentically treat your life or organizational purpose (and/or brand) as a story, enabling you to more effectively:
Reclaim your voice that may have been lost or diminished over time
Escape from ties that have kept you anchored to old forms of expression or projects that no longer excite you
Develop a story surrounding what you truly want to offer inspiration and guidance
Empower new forms of self-expression for both creation and promotion
Determine what rituals help you to work at your highest (and most enjoyable) level, based on an understanding of your belief system