I’m Dr. Angele Close, a Clinical Psychologist, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher and Emotion-focused therapist. I help people learn conscious and healthier ways to navigate their experiences in life so that they deal better, suffer less, and experience connection, insight and fulfillment on a deeper level.

I am your guide to understanding the patterns of your emotions, thoughts, and behavior choices in your life so that you can change what you don’t want and learn the tools you need to conquer what’s holding you back from living the life of your dreams.

Like everyone, you were most likely born with a deep longing for love, connection, and purpose in life. You’ve probably spent a good chunk of your life - some of which unconsciously - trying to find it.

And the reality is that for a lot of people, truly feeling content, happy and fulfilled is hard! It doesn’t always come from what we’re told will make us happy.

Your life might look ‘great on paper’ and yet you feel discontented, insecure, like you keep chasing the next thing you think will truly make you feel happy, but each time you ‘get it’, you still feel disappointment, dissatisfaction, lost, unsure, or confused. This defeat might even lead you to get angry at yourself for continually getting caught in the same negative cycle despite your wishes and best efforts. The sense of hopeless might leave you struggling with Depression.

Or maybe your distress shows up as chronic stress or anxiety - your energy zapped by constantly trying to stop the incessant worries, feelings of fear or panic. That inner negative critic that won’t shut up enough to allow you to feel good about yourself or to let you relax and enjoy what’s around you.

Maybe you experienced abuse or trauma in your life. Something that you thought you could ‘get over’ because you don’t want it to affect you…but it did. And still does.

It’s not your fault. Humans are imperfect, so we created a culture that is also in many ways broken.

You do the best you can with what you know…what you’ve been taught.

But what you’ve been taught - at some point in your life - will probably mean you struggle with feelings of unworthiness - imposter syndrome or ‘not good-enough-ness’.

These feelings can be extremely painful. Maybe even intolerable. So you try anything to keep them at bay - tune them out and shut them down.

But they don’t go away.

What I know to be True is You can feel better.

You can un-learn what’s made you feel cut off from your Self.

You can learn how to relate to your experiences with greater awareness and wisdom.

You can learn to treat your Self with kindness in hard times and to navigate your experiences so that you get what you’re longing for:

Connection and Confidence - Love and Happiness.

You are hardwired to heal. You are meant to be well. I know it’s possible because it happened to me.

Read What’s On My Mind

  • Dream it.

  • Build it.

  • Grow it.

 My Story

Like most people, I grew up pretty much emotionally illiterate. I had no clue that my feelings mattered, how to ‘be with them’, and how to move through hard times in life with skill and resilience.

Like all people, my parents did their best. Their best was … limited. So when some crappy things happened to me growing up, I really had no clue how to deal with my feelings. I didn’t know that our emotions carry meaning in them…messages about what you need and clues about what to do to find wellness, happiness, and ease. I had no way of deciphering their language.

With no real way of knowing how to navigate the messy world around me, I just did anything I could to try to feel better and to keep the negative feelings at bay. I distracted myself by zoning out on TV, eating, using intoxicants, and losing myself in relationships.

But, like most people, running from my feelings didn’t help - it only created more problems and more pain.

I guess you could say I hit a type of ‘rock bottom’ - I reached a point that I decided - ‘enough is enough’.

I remember sitting in the muck of it at nineteen. No matter what, I couldn’t feel better. There was no erasing my misery. I felt lost, stuck and alone. I asked the space around me ‘What’s the point of all this? Why????’ And as though an answer dropped down from the sky or a whisper breathed into my ear, I suddenly sensed the point to it all. My purpose became clear. I was supposed to heal and get through this emotional turmoil to help others figure out how to deal with theirs.

With a new NorthStar I became a steadfast seeker. I searched for insight and answers. I read. I meditated. I studied, and I learned. I grew.

I completely transformed my life.

I’ve spent my career learning how I can best help others transform their experiences of pain and suffering, struggle and confusion into clear insight, meaning, joy, and fulfillment.

While I’ve trained in several types of therapeutic approaches and believe that wellness is best viewed holistically, the two worlds of wisdom that most helped me transform my life and now inspire my clinical work are Mindfulness and Emotion-focused Therapy.

My graduate research focused on how Mindfulness and Self-Compassion benefit people’s mental health. I studied from two renowned Mindfulness Meditation Teachers in the United States, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, graduating from their first-ever 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program.

I have trained in advanced levels of Emotion-focused Therapy from its developer, Dr. Leslie Greenberg. I am on track to certify as an EFT therapist to train and supervise other clinicians in how they can help their clients transform painful emotions towards resilience and wellness. I am passionately committed to changing the cultural conversation about emotions. I believe strongly that our ‘cultural mental health’ depends on us all understanding our emotions and getting better at feeling our feelings.

For the past decade, I have taught hundreds of clients how they can ease their suffering and confusion by relating to their emotions differently - with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion - and by processing the unresolved emotions that are creating suffering and blocking them from living the life of their dreams.

I have a passion for group work and I have run several successful courses that integrate the benefits of Mindfulness, Emotional Resilience, and Compassion to help people build the skills they need to make deep and significant changes in their lives.

Things to Know About Working With Me:

  • Your safety is my priority. The work will bring you to your ‘leaning edge’ - meaning, to where change happens but within your Window of Tolerance, so you can grow without becoming overwhelmed.

  • I’m not a juror, judge or expert on anyone else’s life. I will be your witness, your guide, your coach and teacher along your path. My role is to help you connect with your own answers, your own inner wisdom - to help you come home to your True Self.

  • I know there is NOT only ‘One Way’ to get better. I work with you to find what fits for you.

  • Being invited into other people’s inner worlds is a sacred gift. I am humbled and blessed to be welcomed into others’ journeys of self-discovery and healing in this lifetime.

If you’re feeling stuck, lost or continually finding yourself in the same unhappy place despite trying all kinds of things to feel better, maybe it’s time to try therapy. If something in my story or the offerings on my site resonates for you, reach out now​.

Don’t wait any longer - start your journey to live the life you’ve been longing for, Now.

I’m looking forward to hearing you.

 

Professional Bio.

Dr. Angele Close graduated with a Double Honors in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Carleton University. She went on to receive her Masters in Counseling Psychology from the University of Western Ontario. Awarded prestigious National Scholarships, Angele pursued her doctoral studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto where she received her PhD in 2014. Dr. Close is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in both Ontario, Canada and the State of Illinois.

Dr. Close received Certification as a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s Two-Year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, supported by The Awareness Training Institute and the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California Berkeley.

For over a decade Dr. Close has taught Mindfulness and Compassion Workshops as well as Emotional Resilience to various groups and populations, including corporate and organizational staff, entrepreneurs, university students, and clinical populations. She is passionate about bringing the skills and benefits of these pivotal teachings in an available way to people who are longing for useful and effective means to navigate the stressors and challenges of work, relationships, and personal fulfillment in life.

Dr. Close has a strong passion for and extensive training in Emotion-focused Therapy. She has trained with its chief developer, Dr. Leslie Greenberg and is currently undergoing the process of certification under his and Dr. Joanne Dolhanty’s supervision.

During her career, Dr. Close has worked in a variety of clinical settings (e.g., primary care, College Counseling Centers, and private practice). Throughout, she has approached her clinical work with individuals, couples and groups with skill and compassionate presence. Using an integrative, client-centered approach, she weaves interventions and teachings from various evidence-based approaches, such as Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Mindfulness, Relational Cultural, Schema Therapy, Psychodynamic, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Dr. Close is passionate about helping people unlearn destructive and unhealthy conditioned patterns in order to integrate disconnected parts of Self to live as their most ‘Authentic True Selves’ to find healing, happiness, and life success. She believes the pathway to healing unhealthy patterns is through mindful awareness of emotions, thoughts, and sensations, and by cultivating skills that help clients understand and relate to their experiences with insight, kindness, and compassion.