Lumia Life Coach:
Angela Rosenthal
Ok...begin rant.
I'm feeling intensely protective over my gorgeous friend here. I see the beautiful soul inside of you and I'm going to kick that shame right in the ass. YOU are brilliant. YOU show up in this world every single damn day. WE are so damn blessed to have you. Without every single human here showing up in their own special way, our world would not be complete.
This is my message to you. Please don't let someone else's pain take away from yours!! Your feelings are just as valid as anyone else's!! I spent YEARS believing that my trauma and pain wasn't as bad as other's, so I didn't deserve to feel it or heal it. You know what that did? It took away from my joy, from my life and from everyone around me. That's what happened. And you know what else? IT DIDN'T MAKE THEM BETTER TO DENY MY PAIN!! All it did was keep me hurting, highly anxious and deeply depressed, and unable to support any one else.
You are this amazing human who has lived a life with struggles and pain, no different than each and every one of us here. Simply because you are in a different phase of life or show up differently in the world does not for one second invalidate what you are feeling.
I have lived inside of pain and despair, we are human and it is part of our journey. We all deserve to be loved and held and validated. That's what I'm here for. Inside of our sessions we will uncover both your light and your shadow. I will sit with you inside the fire and pain. Hold your hand and kick shame's ass with you. Our wounds don't disappear, they are the truths of our human life. But with love and support, they can heal and become faint scars instead of being ripped open with each new experience. I am here beside you, supporting you one step at a time as we follow your truth down the rabbit hole.
My why? Scribbled in notebook after notebook over the last half decade.
So no one feels alone in their struggles, to support and love others, to offer safety and honor, to shift someone's world and watch them grow.
I truly believe that relationships are our greatest source of joy and healing in our lives, yet no one taught us how to do them and we feel like we’re failing over and over. I believe we’re mostly a bunch of wounded children walking around pretending to be adults, with our pain hiding in our shadows. Through curiosity and safety we’ll find the way through, no one should have to navigate this alone! I’m going to listen, there’s a good chance you’ll cry, I’ll probably kick some ass and then we’ll move through your shit. I’m a relationship coach who supports parents and partners in loving their humans better by moving into self trust, confidence and secure attachment.
How did I end up here? It's a winding and twisty story:) On the surface I'm a single mama of a teenage son, twice divorced and recovering from anxiety, depression and ptsd.
The story goes a bit deeper than that though. As a kiddo I moved. A lot. 8 different schools between kindergarten & grade 12, new friends over and over. Relationships were a constant struggle. Add in childhood verbal and emotional abuse (which I assumed were normal ways in which relationships functioned), codependency, passive aggressive communication, gaslighting and being deemed the 'angel' of the family...I didn't have a clue what was possible inside of relationships. I just assumed they always hurt, that I messed them up and everyone left.
After my first marriage ended, I dove into love language and attachment styles, realizing how arrogant I'd been inside of that relationship. When I remarried and found myself not only with my toddler, but two step kiddos as well, I leaned hard into validation and attachment parenting including training with Dr Gordon Neufeld. And, as parenting does, it dragged all my crap out of my shadows for me to look at and heal. Inside of that marriage, I trained in non-violent communication, explored Alison Armstrong's work and discovered boundaries for the first time. When that marriage came to a close, I sat down and took a loooong hard look at the patterns that brought me here. Unresolved trauma, deep codependency and love addiction, intense mistrust of men, painful self loathing... and I got up close and personal with all of it. No more hiding from myself.
On the other side, which is a life long process, I've come back to myself. Reclaimed the parts I'd disowned. Boundaries and honest, compassionate communication became second nature. Learned to trust myself, for the first time. With that came secure attachments and true, interdependent, relationships for the first time. A secure, open and respectful relationship with my teen. And a career that I'm excited about.
"Angela, you are amazing. I'm just thinking about our conversation last week and you had this beautiful mix of empathy and hard truth that I am always looking for and have rarely found. I'm grateful you showed up and said truth to me {around my patterns and my relationship} last week. It was really soothing to my soul." -Holly H.
"Angela provides a space safe for you to speak your heart out. Every single time we have spoken, she has provided a non-judgemental, compassionate, and truly empathetic door through which I could walk through. She is amazing at validating my experience, asking the necessary questions, and helping me (without ever pushing or judging) see things from a different perspective. She listens. Really, deeply, listens and I know that I am free to speak my truth to her. Every. Single. Time." -Leila G.
"In my time spent with Angela, she has shed light not only on my relationship with my husband, but she’s been able to communicate things to me I needed to hear all the while validating my own feelings. She’s a bit of a wizard when it comes to communication and setting boundaries. And I would recommend her to anyone wanting to understand their partner more!" -Lauren K.
"Being coached by Angela has been powerful in changing my life for the better. I came to her with feelings of inadequacy as a parent, unsure of how best to build my relationship with my daughter post-divorce. Angela met me with so much compassion and understanding. I felt truly seen during our conversations and well-supported with new tools and strategies to use in deepening not only my relationship with my daughter, but also my confidence in myself. I wouldn’t trade our coaching sessions for anything, and I only wish I had met her sooner!" -Nooshi D.
"Angela listens to you, all of you, not just the words you say. She lets you feel and share and cry and talk in a way that makes a difference. It's safe, it's comfortable. There's no judgement, no shame, no expectations. I absolutely love how she is able to listen, to be on my side without attacking my partner or minimizing my hurt." -Michelle K.
"Working with Angela has allowed me to grow in ways I never thought possible. She has given me practical tools to use when my anxiety is heightened, and she genuinely wants to find what feels and works best for ME in the moment. Angela is supportive, understanding and amazing at what she does." -Katie M.