Angela Schaffner, PhD
Office Location: Atlanta
Pronouns: she/her
I want to help alleviate your suffering and increase the joy you experience in life.
Through a relationship of safety and trust, I work to help clients move into more fulfilling relationships and life experiences as the true self emerges.
My style is warm, collaborative, and casual, and I am willing to be direct and challenge you to take steps that result in change. I want to help you heal from painful experiences, alleviate your suffering, and increase the joy you experience in life. I encourage compassion and curiosity, and I will help you navigate relationships, feelings, and decisions with more confidence and connection to yourself and others. I am a trauma-informed, Level 2 AEDP therapist (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy), an approach to therapy that combines somatic and relational interventions. I encourage insight and self-trust through IFS (Internal Family Systems) work that helps you connect meaningfully with many parts of yourself and experience a more integrated sense of self. I integrate Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) which helps you increase mindfulness, regulate emotion, tolerate distress, and build effective relationships.
After completing my doctorate at Ball State University and an internship at Emory. I practiced group, family, and individual therapy at an outpatient eating disorder center for 13 years and have been in practice since 2005. I'm a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo and I lead therapy groups integrating martial arts. In addition to providing therapy, my experience includes work as an adjunct professor, authoring two books, and publishing in professional journals as well as presentations at workshops and retreats throughout the U.S. I recently contributed to Safer Sanctuaries, a guide for keeping vulnerable people safe in faith communities. I’ve studied transpersonal psychology, psychedelic psychotherapy, and energy work, and consider myself a lifelong student. I learn something from every client and value diversity in my practice. I deeply value time with friends and family, and I also enjoy solitude through meditating, reading, journal writing, and hiking.
Eating Disorders, Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, LGBTQ+ Affirmative