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Angela Amias, LCSW, is a relationship therapist and nationally-recognized relationship expert. With Daniel Boscaljon, she the creator of the Five Relationship Archetypes and the founder of the Institute for Trauma Informed Relationships, which provides clinical education and training to therapists wishing to integrate a trauma informed perspective into their work with individuals and couples. She cofounded Alchemy of Love to help those with painful childhood experiences learn how to have deeply fulfilling romantic relationships.

Angela developed the Trauma Informed Relationship Counseling for Individuals and Couples model of relationship therapy 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.

Angela got her start as a therapist working at one of only a handful of clinics in the United States that specialized in treating profound attachment trauma in adopted children. As a trauma focused family therapist, Angela’s role was to help adoptive parents understand the inner world of their wounded child, while she also helped the children in  her care learn how to trust again, so they could get close to their adoptive parents.

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

What she actually discovered was the exact opposite. 

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

This was true despite the fact that many of her 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 convinced Angela that people con’t have to experience severe Capital T Trauma to be wounded by painful childhood experiences. Things like frequent criticism, parental unpredictability, a lack of positive attention, or a sense that our authentic selves aren’t lovable all affect us deeply … in ways that we carry with us into our adult relationships. 

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

The truth is: in Angela’s work with hundreds of individuals and couples, she has yet to encounter anyone whose relationship problems in adulthood don’t have roots in childhood experiences.

This insight led Angela to pioneer the development of Trauma Informed Relationship Counseling for Individuals and Couples, which helps clients understand the connection between their childhood experiences, what they learned about relationships as a result of those experiences, and the issues they’re currently experiencing in their relationships. 

It was her work with hundreds of individuals and couples that informed the creation of the Five Relationship Archetypes. This model reflects the five key ways that childhood relational trauma impacts adult intimate relationships, based on the messages we internalize as children about ourselves and how we need to behave in relationships with others. With Daniel Boscaljon, Angela also developed the Relationship Yes! Test as a simple, five question assessment to help people measure the health of their intimate relationship. 

In an effort to understand intimate relationships from all angles, Angela has trained and practiced as a discernment counselor, helping couples on the brink of divorce to decide whether to separate or try to heal their relationship. She’s also a certified divorce mediator. 

Angela holds additional training in therapeutic writing and journaling as tools for trauma recovery, emotional healing, and personal growth. She uses these tools to help transform past pain into the seeds for future possibilities … possibilities that include the kind of loving, intimate relationship with self and others that each person deserves to have. Her approach to healing relational trauma seamlessly blends creativity and healing, reflecting her profound faith in the power of honoring our true stories.

She received her Master’s of Social Work at the University of Iowa in 2009 and also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, also from the University of Iowa.

As a relationship expert, Angela has been featured in numerous publications, including Today, Oprah, Cosmopolitan, Well + Good, Salon, Forbes, MSN, Women’s Health and the Toronto Sun. On the topic of relationships, she’s been a contributing writer for Inc. and Fatherly. On the subject of trauma, she’s a contributing author of the Clinical EFT Handbook, published in 2013. 

In her spare time, Angela is a mixed media artist. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous galleries around the United States and published in several journals and magazines. She’s also the co-creator of the Faces of the Divine Feminine, published in 2017. 

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Angela now makes her happy home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. On sunny days, you can find her cozied up with a book or hiking in the mountains with Daniel.

You can find her art at angelaamias.gallery.