About Angela M Carter
Trauma informed therapy with depth, steadiness, and compassion.
I know what it is to be the woman who holds everything together. Capable, accomplished, and completely exhausted by your own competence. Smiling through it, managing through it, and lying awake wondering why something still feels missing.
That lived experience is what brought me to this work. And it is what keeps me in it.
A therapeutic approach that honours the whole person.
Many of the women I work with are highly functioning. They are intelligent, capable, and often described by others as having it together. And yet something inside them knows that the way they are living is costing them more than it should.
Anxiety, overthinking, people pleasing, emotional shutdown, exhaustion, and self-criticism are not signs of failure. They are signs that the nervous system has been working extraordinarily hard to create safety, often for a very long time.
At Trauma Release Centre, therapy does not begin by forcing change. It begins by slowing down, listening carefully, and creating enough safety for the next step to become clear. The work is paced, relational, and deeply respectful of the body, the nervous system, and everything you have already carried.
My clinical background
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)
Relational trauma and attachment work
Autonomic nervous system awareness
Polyvagal informed practice
Somatic and body based trauma healing
Spiritual and energetic practices
Work with burnout, anxiety, and protective patterns
Therapeutic group facilitation
Author, therapeutic app developer and resources
I am an IFS trained therapist and a trained DBR practitioner, with over 30 years of clinical experience. My approach brings together Internal Family Systems, Deep Brain Reorienting, somatic and nervous system awareness, and trauma informed relational practice.
I am especially interested in the quiet ways people learn to survive, the protective strategies that formed before there were words for them, and the possibility of healing that does not require shame, force, or having to explain everything at once.
Before I became a therapist, I spent years as a systems analyst. That background shapes how I see people. I understand how complex systems organise themselves, how patterns hold, and what it actually takes to shift them. It is a lens that makes me a different kind of therapist, and it is what led me to build the Settle and Source app.
What it feels like to work with me
Gentle and paced
Therapy moves at the speed your system can manage. There is no pressure to disclose everything at once or revisit painful memories before there is enough safety.
Relational and attuned
The therapeutic relationship matters. I work with steadiness, care, and respect, creating a space where different parts of you can be met without judgement.
Practical and embodied
The work supports insight, but it also includes the body and nervous system. We may explore grounding, regulation, inner awareness, and practical ways to support yourself between sessions.
Understanding trauma through the body, the nervous system, and relationship.
I understand trauma as something that can affect the whole person. It may shape how you feel in your body, how you relate to others, how you respond under pressure, and how safe you feel inside yourself.
For many of the women I work with, trauma does not look dramatic from the outside. It shows up as high functioning, emotional control, exhaustion, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, or that quiet feeling of being composed but somehow unsettled. Capable on the surface.
Carrying a lot underneath.
This work offers a way to slow down, notice what has been held, and begin to create a different relationship with the parts of you that have been working so hard to keep you safe. You do not have to have it figured out before you begin.
"I believe healing happens when we are no longer forced to abandon ourselves in order to be acceptable, safe, or loved. My work is about creating a space where people can begin to listen inwardly, understand what their protective systems have been carrying, and reconnect with a steadier sense of self."
Angela M Carter
Trauma Therapist & Founder, Trauma Release Centre
I work with women who are navigating:
Relational trauma and attachment wounds
Anxiety, burnout, and nervous system overwhelm
High functioning patterns that hide inner distress
People pleasing, perfectionism, and boundary difficulties
Shame, self criticism, and emotional suppression
Disconnection from yourself and the people you love
Therapy, groups, writing, and therapeutic resources
Alongside individual therapy, I create trauma informed groups, reflective resources, guided practices, and therapeutic writing designed to support women beyond the therapy room.
My work includes ACC funded therapeutic groups, nervous system education, and reflective programmes that meet people where they are. I am also the founder of the Settle and Source app, built from over 30 years of clinical experience and designed to offer real support in real moments of overwhelm. Not a wellness app. A therapeutic tool, created by a therapist who understands what the nervous system actually needs.
Everything I create comes from the same place. The belief that healing should be accessible, unhurried, and deeply respectful of how hard you have already worked to get here.
Therapeutic groups
Structured, trauma informed group programmes supporting regulation, body awareness, relational safety, and compassionate self understanding.
Get in touch
If you would like to enquire about therapy, groups, or resources, you are welcome to make contact.