I’m the cofounder of the Institute for trauma informed relationships, the healthy relationship academy, & Alchemy of Love

I’m a licensed therapist and nationally recognized expert on trauma and relationships. I cofounded Alchemy of Love with the mission to help people heal their past wounds, reclaim their wholeness, and learn how to transform past pain into the seeds for future possibilities—possibilities that include the kind of loving, intimate relationship with self and others that every person deserves to have.

I pioneered the development of Trauma Informed Relationship Counseling for Individuals and Couples, a model of therapy designed to bridge the gap between cutting edge research on relational trauma and traditional models for relationship counseling. It’s the first comprehensive relationship counseling model that integrates a trauma informed approach to help both individuals and couples overcome relationship struggles and create more satisfying connections.

In 2008, I began my career working at one of only a handful of clinics in the United States that specialized in treating adopted children who’d experienced profound attachment trauma. As a trauma therapist, my role was to help these children learn how to trust again, so they could let down their guard enough to bond with their adoptive parents.

When I left this job to become a therapist at a holistic healing center, working with women and men with depression, anxiety, and run-of-the-mill relationship issues, I imagined that my specialized skill set for treating attachment trauma would no longer be needed.

What I actually discovered was the exact opposite.

To my surprise, the struggles my adult clients described in their romantic relationships were remarkably similar to what I’d witnessed at the trauma clinic. Nearly all my adult clients seemed to be carrying the same core wounds from childhood that I’d first seen in severely traumatized children.

Many of my clients reported having unremarkable childhoods, with seemingly-adequate parenting when they were young. And yet, they’d still grown up internalizing messages that created problems in their adult relationships.

This discovery showed me that as humans, we don’t have to experience severe Capital T Trauma to be wounded by painful childhood experiences. Things like a lack of parental attention, frequent criticism, parental detachment, or rejection of our authentic selves can affect us deeply in ways we carry with us into adulthood.

This realization—that nearly all of us have core wounds from childhood that interfere with our ability to create healthy, intimate relationships—shook my world and changed the course of my career.

The truth is: I’ve worked with hundreds of individuals and couples and I have yet to encounter anyone whose relationship problems in adulthood don’t have roots in childhood experiences.

In addition to my specialized training in attachment trauma, I also hold specialized training in the therapeutic use of writing for trauma recovery, emotional healing, and personal growth. As a trauma survivor myself as well as a therapist, I’m keenly aware of the healing power of telling our stories as well as the power of re-envisioning a new story for ourselves in the wake of trauma.

I’ve been featured in numerous publications, including Today, Oprah Daily, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, The Independent, Well + Good, Refinery29, Salon,  Women’s Health and many others. On the topic of relationships, I’ve been a contributing writer for Inc. and Fatherly. As a trauma expert, I’m a contributing author of the Clinical EFT Handbook, published in 2013.

In my spare time, I’m a mixed media artist. My artwork has been exhibited in numerous galleries around the United States and published in several journals and magazines. I’m also the co-creator of the Faces of the Divine Feminine Oracle, published in 2017. You can find my art at angelaamias.gallery.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, I now make my happy home in Cheyenne, Wyoming.