How One Woman Is Advocating for Women Navigating through the Psychological Effects of Breast Implants, A Founder’s Story with Dr. Amanda Savage Brown

Dr. Amanda Savage Brown is a torchbearer for women navigating the psychosocial impacts of breast implants. She draws from her diverse background in women’s health that began while earning a Ph.D. in genetics, continued as an officer in the United States Public Health Service, and flourished as a clinical psychotherapist. She uses only evidence-based approaches to help women reclaim their lives through mindful self-acceptance and values-guided change. In 2018, Dr. Savage Brown’s personal life and professional expertise aligned as she moved through her breast implant removal journey, recovered from disabling pain she didn’t realize was related to her breast implants and witnessed countless women struggling with the deeply felt, yet poorly supported, mental, emotional, and social aspects of breast implant removal. To address the unmet psychosocial needs of women whose lives are touched by breast implants, Dr. Savage Brown created Breast Implant Through Explant (BRITETM) Inner Healing. It provides a skills-based approach for women to bring their whole self forward while coming to terms with getting more than they bargained for from breast implants, choosing to replace or remove them, and adjusting to their post-explant chest. It’s the foundation for her forthcoming self-help book, Busting Free, anticipated summer of 2022.

I was the youngest of four siblings. My family moved to Orlando in the early 1980s and I felt like the luckiest girl alive. It seemed like a magical place to me with its palm trees, access to the beach and theme parks, and year-round sunshine. My family’s home was the place where everyone wanted to hang out–not because it was fancy–but because it was filled with energetic love, fun, and connection. For example, my father is a huge Star Wars fan and our family room’s walls were adorned with several posters from the original three movies. We listened to music together, watched movies, and had cook-outs. As a result of how much I cherished the closeness of my family while growing up, I grew into a woman who values meaningful connection and who knows the value of a strong community.

I’m what’s known as a therapist-author entrepreneur because my personal and professional life merged in 2018 during my breast implant removal journey. I witnessed countless women facing explant without appropriate support for their inner journey. I knew the most effective way to help them was by writing the first-of-its-kind, science-based, self-help book–rather than limiting myself only to one-on-one work. So I translated the evidence-based approaches used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and in my private psychotherapy practice for women, to create an inner healing program for anyone whose life journey includes breast implants. I call it Breast Implant Through Explant (BRITE™) Inner Healing. It helps women find their way before, during, and long after breast implant removal and learn inner skills to live the rest of their life with self-acceptance, no matter how their body changes over time and despite the social expectations for how it ought to appear. Honestly, I had no idea what was involved in writing a book, but I am committed to getting this help to the women who need it, so my author entrepreneur efforts are my current focus.

Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing. To me, that means practicing psychological flexibility, being willing to be wrong, taking feedback, and always pursuing your heartfelt values.