Fit For Intimacy
Intimacy: A familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of a bond that is formed through knowledge and experience of the other—a sense of belonging together.
About Angie
Angie Tsiatsos Phillips, MA, CMT, is a Somatic Counselor, working with individuals, couples and groups. She offers an integrative approach to psychobiological health; bringing psychoeducation, reflection, and effective practices including Somatic awareness, Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for Couples (PET-C), Mindfulness, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), movement & dance, Love & Logic Parenting, as well as fitness & nutritional guidance. Angie is dedicated to supporting people in their exploration of their masculine and feminine natures and helping deepen the transformative practices of intimacy, sexuality and eroticism. Angie also offers support for new mothers throughout pregnancy, birth and parenting. Angie espouses a balance between solution-focused work and developing trust, over time, within the therapeutic relationship to allow for an organic rewiring of corrective attachment experiences and core relational behaviors.
My Personal Journey
Expressing ourselves intimately, with a partner; through sharing close personal space, touch, and emotional vulnerability is a bold and courageous way to be known; to be seen, and to bond deeply—to experience togetherness. And human beings have a strong need to do just that: To belong.
Most of my life has been dedicated to exploring how relationships embolden, enliven, exhaust, and enlighten our experience of life; and teaching others how we can inhabit our bodies in ways that express our inner worlds effectively and authentically, helping us to connect more fully with others.
From the time I was a child, I was drawn to engage with people beyond the surface. I had an almost insatiable need to be “met,” in fact. The details of that hardwiring can be left for a different post! But suffice it to say, relationship has, since I can remember, been the most defining and motivating force in my world.
After brokenness, hurt, and loss seemed to prevail—mine and others—I began exploring the one common denominator in all my failed relationships—Me! And so I chose to pursue an education that would integrate my personal journey with my desire to understand and serve the relational needs of others.
In 2006, I completed my Masters level education in Somatic Counseling Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder. Since then, I’ve done extensive training in therapeutic relationship models, gaining the highest training in Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for Couples (PET-C) from Dr. Brent Atkinson, author of Emotional Intelligence in Couples Therapy: Advances in neurobiology and the science of intimate relationships and Developing Habits for Relationship Success.
For years prior, I’d owned and operated a Massage Therapy practice and was a Certified Personal Trainer—both of which ignited an intuitive grasp of how the mind is expressed through the body. My Masters thesis was a group study on the mental and emotional impact of Focus Intensity Training (FIT); the progressive form of mindful strength training featured in the book, Strength for Life, by Shawn Phillips.
My passion has further grown to studying neuroscience and how one’s mind is literally hardwired throughout the body and, from this perspective, the BodyMind is utilized as a resource for emotional and psychobiological health.
In 2008, after the birth of my daughter, I discovered a form of dance-fitness called AfroCaribe and have since become an instructor, furthering my understanding of how we literally move ourselves through the world—how our emoting bodies can help us redefine our processes of expression and “taking up space.”
Our bodies are vehicles for sharing our lives and whether we embody fear, rage, eroticism, awkwardness, wanting, sadness, playfulness; we can choose to be intimately known—one of the deepest needs of the human spirit—by sharing our unique experiences through our physical embodiment in the world. Choosing to be known in our fear, for example, might be beyond our immediate zone of comfort. However, in developing a foundation of trust in an intimate relationship, owning that valid, core emotion can deepen our capacity to acknowledge the full spectrum of our human essence.
My work with my clients at Noeticus Counseling Center & Training Institute is to help them explore their psychological worlds through their bodies and then help them find ways of resourcing their bodies, to access the depths of unexplored strength and wisdom. It is also to help shift the perception of people’s internal story of being “wrong” in the world, to owning the unique expression that has grown out of that person’s particular life path and learning to own the strengths connected to that developed wisdom.
While my specialty is working with couples and individuals in support of relational strength and intimacy, my other passion is the very foundation of life—birth and all it entails; from pre-natal health, education and support; to empowering women to fully experience the transformative power of birth and bonding–ultimately preparing for a life rich with intimacy!
I enjoy dance, singing, cycling, playing guitar, rock climbing, gardening, creating nourishing meals for my family, training, and yes—being a sexually, erotically alive woman! I earned my undergraduate degree in theater at Eastern Oregon University where I learned that making HUGE mistakes was my most direct path to learning! Most often you will find me mothering my two amazing children who teach me, daily, to draw myself into intimate contact; when I’m not serving in the world of psychobiological health.
