Angela Schellenberg Counseling/ Coaching

Angela Schellenberg Counseling/ Coaching Angela is a mental health Trauma, Grief, and Loss Therapist , LMHC. Mother Hunger Facilitator

I lost my mom at 22.But I started losing her long before that.There was the grief of losing the person. And then there w...
03/23/2026

I lost my mom at 22.
But I started losing her long before that.
There was the grief of losing the person. And then there was the other grief, the one that doesn’t have a name. The grief of the relationship that never got to become what it was supposed to be.
That second grief is the one nobody gives you a funeral for.
Nobody brings you flowers for it. Nobody asks how you’re doing six months later. Nobody understands why you’re still crying about a woman who has been gone for years, or a woman who is still alive but was never quite reachable.
Both of those losses are real.
Both of them live in the body long after the mind has tried to move on.
I built Grief, Trauma & Your Mama because I couldn’t find a place that held both of those griefs at the same time. The grief of losing her. And the grief of what was never there to lose.
If this is you — you are not alone in carrying this.
Comment TRAUMA MAMA and come find your people. It’s free. It’s for daughters who grew up without the mother they needed whether she died, or whether she was simply never quite there. 🤍

If your mother could not receive loveyou likely never learned how either.You may give easily.Show up.Hold everyone else....
03/23/2026

If your mother could not receive love

you likely never learned how either.

You may give easily.

Show up.

Hold everyone else.

But when love comes toward you

something tightens.

You question it.

Pull back.

Feel uncomfortable being seen.

That is not self sabotage.

That is attachment.

This is part of Mother Hunger©️

coined by Kelly McDaniel.

The longing for nurturance, protection, and guidance

that was supposed to be yours.

Comment UNLEARN

and I will send you more.

03/22/2026

I showed up to my Level 1 equine training not expecting anything.
I thought I had done enough work on myself. Twenty years of therapy. Years of processing. I was fine.
And then Rosa — the lead mare — walked over to me and just started circling.
She looked exactly like Destiny. The horse I lost at 16. The same year my father was murdered. The same year my whole world collapsed in a single day.
I never got to say goodbye to Destiny.
And standing in that pasture in Malibu, something in my body that had been waiting for 30 years finally exhaled.
I cried harder than I had in years.
Rosemary asked me what I made of what Rosa was doing.
I said — it’s a full circle moment.
That’s why I do this work. That’s why I bring women to the horses. Not because it’s a nice idea. Because I know what happens when a nervous system that never got to grieve finally finds something safe enough to let it.
This is the work. This is where it lives.
April 29 through May 3. Malibu. A few spots left.
Comment MALIBURETREAT and I’ll send you everything. 🐴

Grief isn’t just missing her.It’s carrying her into every version of your life that she never got to see.If this hits, y...
03/20/2026

Grief isn’t just missing her.
It’s carrying her into every version of your life that she never got to see.

If this hits, you’re not the only one. 🤍
Comment COMMUNITY CALL

Most people think grief is something you “work through” in your mind.But traumatic grief doesn’t live in the thinking br...
03/19/2026

Most people think grief is something you “work through” in your mind.

But traumatic grief doesn’t live in the thinking brain.
It lives in the nervous system.

After a sudden loss, your body may still be holding the survival response that never got completed.

Fight. Flight. Freeze. Fawn.

That’s why grief can show up as:
• anxiety
• numbness
• panic
• exhaustion
• feeling constantly on edge

Nothing is wrong with you.

Your nervous system is still carrying the story.
This is why I work with horses.
Horses are incredibly sensitive to nervous systems.
They respond to subtle changes in breathing, tension, and heart rhythm.

When you walk with a horse, your body begins to regulate.

The rhythm of movement creates bilateral stimulation.
Your breathing slows.
Your nervous system settles.
Your body starts to feel safe again.
This is the work we do at the ranch.
Not just talking about grief.
Helping your body process it.

If you’re curious about experiencing this work, I’m hosting a 2-hour workshop on partnering with horses for wellness and learning.

Comment MALIBU RETREAT and I’ll send you the details.

Have you ever felt it? That unexplainable pull toward horses. It’s not random. It’s your nervous system recognizing some...
03/17/2026

Have you ever felt it? That unexplainable pull toward horses. It’s not random. It’s your nervous system recognizing something it’s been searching for its entire life.

Horses are prey animals. Their survival depends on their ability to read the energy and nervous system of every living thing around them. When you’ve grown up in an environment where you had to do the same, where you learned to scan every room and read every micro-expression just to stay safe, you speak the same silent language.

A horse doesn’t need you to perform. It doesn’t need you to be anything other than what you are in this moment. For women who learned that love was conditional, that you had to be good or quiet or helpful to be worthy, the unconditional presence of a horse is a revelation. It’s a relationship without words, where your body is the only truth that matters.

This is the heart of equine-assisted healing. It’s about co-regulation. It’s about letting your nervous system sync up with a 1,200-pound animal that is fully present in its body, and in doing so, finding a sense of safety you may have never known. It’s where the attachment wound, the part of you that never felt truly held, can finally begin to heal.

This is the work we do at our Healing with Horses retreat in Malibu. It’s deep, it’s transformative, and it’s for the woman who is ready to come home to her body.

If that’s you, comment MALIBURETREAT and I’ll send you all the details.

The mother wound is the grief of losing a mother who was never really present. The one who was there in body but couldn’...
03/16/2026

The mother wound is the grief of losing a mother who was never really present. The one who was there in body but couldn’t be there in spirit. Maybe she had severe mental illness. Maybe she had her own unhealed trauma. Maybe she loved you fiercely and still couldn’t give you what you needed.

Both things can be true. She loved you. And it wasn’t enough.

This is the heart of Mother Hunger®, a term created by the brilliant Kelly McDaniel. It’s the ache of that absence. The longing for a mother who could hold you, see you, and delight in you. It’s a hunger that doesn’t just go away. It lives in our bodies, our relationships, our sense of self-worth.

We learn to abandon ourselves first. We choose partners who need saving. We make ourselves small so we don’t need anything from anyone. We become experts at managing everyone else’s feelings while our own go silent.

Healing this wound isn’t about blaming her. It’s not about forgiving her either, not at first. It’s about grieving what you didn’t get. It’s about learning to finally give it to yourself. The safety. The attunement. The unconditional love.

If this is your story, you are not alone. It wasn’t your fault. And you’re not doing it wrong.

Comment WORTHY or HEAL and I’ll send you something that helps.

Your body knows the truth, even when your mind tries to talk you out of it.That ache you feel, the one that whispers you...
03/15/2026

Your body knows the truth, even when your mind tries to talk you out of it.

That ache you feel, the one that whispers you’re too much and not enough all at once?
That’s Mother Hunger®. A term by therapist and author,Kelly McDaniel. It’s the developmental trauma of not having the mother you needed and deserved, as defined by the brilliant Kelly McDaniel.

It’s a wound that can make you feel untethered, unseen, and unsafe in the world. And it’s a wound that horses understand without you having to say a word. They don’t just see your performance of being okay. They feel the truth of your nervous system. They respond to the real you.

At my Healing with Horses Somatic Grief Retreat at Shakti Ranch in Malibu, we’ll work with these magnificent animals to find our way back to ourselves. To learn what safe love feels like in our bodies. To finally feel held.

Comment MALIBURETREAT below and I’ll send you the details.

Losing your mom young is a different kind of grief. It’s not just about the person you lost. It’s about the mother you n...
03/14/2026

Losing your mom young is a different kind of grief. It’s not just about the person you lost. It’s about the mother you needed and the future you were supposed to have with her.

It’s the ache that hits you at your wedding. The emptiness on the other end of the phone when you have news. The constant search for her in other women, just to feel a flicker of that maternal warmth.

People expect you to move on. To get over it. But they don’t understand that grief doesn’t have a timeline. It becomes a part of you. It lives in your body.

You are not doing it wrong. You are not alone in this.

If this feels familiar, if you carry the weight of a mother lost too soon, I see you. Our Community Circle for motherless daughters is a space to land, to be seen, and to heal together.

Comment COMMUNITYCALL below to join us.

You may have heard the classic poem.“Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte.It says if a child lives with c...
03/13/2026

You may have heard the classic poem.

“Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte.

It says if a child lives with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If they live with encouragement, they learn confidence.

This is true. And it is not the whole story.

I have reimagined this poem for the daughters who grew up with a different kind of lesson.

The ones who learned to be small. To be quiet. To carry what was never theirs.

For the daughters who live with the invisible wounds of Mother Hunger, a term created by the brilliant Kelly McDaniel.

For the daughters who were never protected. Never seen. Never truly nurtured.

What you lived is what you learned. But it is not what you have to keep.

You can unlearn it. You can heal it. You can come home to yourself.

Ready to begin? Comment UNLEARN or WORTHY below and I will send you a resource to get started.

She’s not okay. She’s high-functioning.She’s the one who plans the funeral and forgets to eat.Who cries in the car and s...
03/13/2026

She’s not okay. She’s high-functioning.

She’s the one who plans the funeral and forgets to eat.
Who cries in the car and smiles at the door.
Who holds space for everyone but herself.

She Googles “why am I so tired” at 2am.
She says “I’m fine” so often she almost believes it.

But here’s what no one told her:

High-functioning grief is still grief.
Your body is keeping score — even when your mind says you’re fine.

You don’t have to fall apart to deserve support.
You can be strong and still need to be held.

Healing doesn’t start when you collapse.
It starts when you let someone in.

If this is you, you’re not broken. You’re just ready.

Save this for the day you need it. 💜
Tag someone who needs to hear this.
Follow for more.

Address

7345 164th Avenue NE Te 145/386
Santa Monica, CA
90405

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Website

https://linktr.ee/angelaschellenberg

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Angela Schellenberg Counseling

Hello,

I’m Angela Schellenberg. I a trauma therapist and I specialize in grief, loss, and trauma. If you are looking for a trauma-informed and trained counselor/coach then you have come to the right place. I love helping clients work through the challenges in their lives. I am a humanistic counselor and I use many different modalities and theories because I never believe there is just one method that works for everyone. I am trained in EMDR, Restorative Retelling for Violent and Sudden Death, EFT Tapping, and Matrix Reimprinting. I enjoy working with individuals, families, couples, and children. I work with grief, loss, and trauma. I am passionate about helping clients manage depression, anxiety, and trauma (PTSD). If you are interested in booking an appointment you can visit my website at www.angelaschellenberg.com or call at 4256283354,