Who does Angela Sue Garvey work with?

Angela works with high-functioning women who still feel dysregulated in the relationships that matter most. Many have done therapy or personal development before; some are coming to this for the first time. She offers licensed therapy for women in Washington State and coaching for women nationally.

What is self-erasure?

Self-erasure is the learned pattern of minimizing, suppressing, or abandoning parts of yourself to maintain connection, approval, or peace. It's not a conscious choice. It's a nervous system strategy that develops early, when belonging felt safer through adapting to others' moods, needs, or expectations. It often shows up as people-pleasing, over-functioning, boundary guilt, self-blame, and the persistent feeling that you're too much or not enough. Angela addresses self-erasure through the Three Roots of healing: Biology, Belief, and Belonging.

What is the difference between therapy and coaching at Life on Purpose School?

Therapy is a licensed clinical service available to Washington State residents, addressing anxiety, CPTSD, relational trauma, and the deeper roots of self-erasure patterns. Coaching is a non-clinical service available nationally for women who are ready to practice living differently in their relationships, boundaries, and daily habits.

What is the Three Roots framework?

The Three Roots — Biology, Belief, and Belonging — is a framework built on the biopsychosocial model that most healing approaches only partially address. Biology addresses nervous system regulation and stored trauma. Belief addresses inner narrative, self-blame, and identity stories. Belonging addresses attachment history, relational patterns, and family systems. When all three roots are integrated, healing finally sticks.

Therapist · Coach · Author

You didn't lose yourself.
You've been self-erasing, one small yes at a time.

You don't have to disappear to be loved.

Take the Quiz

The free quiz takes about 3 minutes.

Not sure yet? Learn about self-erasure.

Angela laughing on the stairs of a beach house

Sound familiar?

You can read a room before your coat is off.

Nobody can read you. You’ve made sure of that.

You’re the calm one in every crisis.

Including the ones that are yours.

Everyone calls you when something falls apart.

You can’t remember who you call.

basically, running the whole house on coping skills

There’s a name for this. The quiz takes about 3 minutes.

How the work actually goes

The Un-Erasing

Naming the pattern is the beginning, not the fix. The way back moves through four doors, and you don't have to walk through them in order.

1

Expand

Name the pattern. Find where it started. Grieve what it cost you.

2

Elevate

Who are you without it? Build her, on purpose.

3

Everyday

Where insight becomes practice, one small day at a time.

4

Environment

Shape a life that lets the new self stay.

There's no wrong door. Start with the one that's already open.

Why it hasn't stuck

Self-erasure has three roots

Most healing works on one root and wonders why the pattern grows back. The work holds when all three are tended at once.

Biology

Your nervous system learned the pattern before you had words for it. You cannot out-think a dysregulated nervous system.

the body does the reps

Beliefs

The quiet rules underneath: be easy, be useful, be no trouble. The stories that taught you to shrink.

the tapes we play

Belonging

The relationships the pattern was built to protect, and the ones that still ask for it.

there's a seat saved for you

See the framework →

Meet Angela

I didn’t find this in a textbook.

I found it in a public library, holding a book on anxiety while my youngest played at my feet. That book connected dots nothing in my training ever had: why healing kept stalling, for my clients and, if I’m honest, for me.

I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and not once in my clinical training did anyone put the body, the beliefs, and the belonging in the same room. Self-erasure is the name I gave what I saw when they finally were. It’s my own work in progress, and I’ll always tell you which parts are mine.

A handwritten note that reads: be willing to be misunderstood

the note that lives on my desk

Read the rest of the story

An open pink birdcage with a hummingbird flying free

the cage was open the whole time

It’s not burnout.
It’s self-erasure.

Burnout says you did too much. This is what it costs to be too little of yourself for too long. Rest is good. It just doesn’t reach this.

What self-erasure actually is

Work with me

Two ways in.

Different rooms, different work. I’ll help you pick the right door.

Licensed in Washington State

Individual Therapy

You understand your patterns. They’re still running. Therapy works at all three roots, the nervous system, the story, the history, so the healing doesn’t stay in your head.

I don’t bill insurance. You pay up front, and I provide a superbill you can submit to your plan.

Learn about therapy

Available virtually

One-on-One Coaching

You’ve done the inner work, and you’re done intellectualizing. Coaching is where knowing becomes practicing: in your relationships, your boundaries, your ordinary Tuesdays.

Coaching is not therapy. If therapy is the better fit, I’ll tell you plainly.

Learn about coaching

Not sure which one? That’s what the consult below is for.

You read this far for a reason.

If something here put words to what you’ve been carrying, trust that. A 20-minute consult is just a conversation. No pitch, no pressure, and nothing to decide on the call.

Book a 20-minute consult

Free, and it stays a conversation either way.

Angela sitting in a wooden chair, smiling over her shoulder

The Grounding

You hold everyone.
This holds you.

Part letter, part exhale. For the woman who has read all the books and still feels like she's erasing herself.

A letter every other Tuesday. No noise, no pressure. Unsubscribe anytime.

You didn't lose yourself.You've been self-erasing, one small yes at a time.