GOLEM Expressive Arts

GOLEM Expressive Arts Registered Counsellor and Expressive Arts Therapist offering IFS and art-based sessions to help you re-create your life with presence and compassion.

Hi, there.I’m starting a small series here.Short reflections that come out of the therapy room, sometimes from my own wo...
04/28/2026

Hi, there.
I’m starting a small series here.

Short reflections that come out of the therapy room, sometimes from my own work, sometimes from what I witness.

If you’ve had a session and walked away without a big insight, or without the pain disappearing, it doesn’t mean nothing happened. We tend to expect something dramatic, but often the work is much simpler than that.

Sometimes it’s just slowing down, looking inside, connecting to a part of you, or making something and sitting with yourself for a bit. That alone is already a step.

Giving yourself that time and attention isn’t small. It’s something many of us are actually hungry for.

This is what I mean when I say healing is not the absence of pain. It’s the ability to be with yourself.

04/24/2026

Hi, there.
I stepped away for a bit.

Sometimes the work I talk about here… I also need to live it.

Slowing down, resetting, coming back to myself.

I’m here again. Thank you for staying.

Hi there,I often get asked what sessions with me actually look like, so I wanted to put it into a few words.We begin by ...
03/24/2026

Hi there,

I often get asked what sessions with me actually look like, so I wanted to put it into a few words.

We begin by noticing what’s already present — what needs attention, what wants to be heard and addressed. You don’t need to retell your story over and over again. I know how exhausting that can be. Instead, we follow what is alive and emerging, while staying anchored in a sense of safety.

At times this means talking things through and making sense of what’s been happening. At other times we slow down enough to notice and meet the different parts that are involved, especially the ones that have been working hard to protect. And when words reach their limit, I bring in clay or other creative processes, not as an activity, but as a way to access and work with experience differently. There is room for laughter too. And for tears.

If you’ve been wondering what it might be like to work with me, this is a glimpse into the process.

Thank you for being here.

How are you doing?!
03/06/2026

How are you doing?!

I hear “I’m tired” often. It makes sense. Life is full. Work, children, immigration, responsibility.What I hear less oft...
03/02/2026

I hear “I’m tired” often. It makes sense. Life is full. Work, children, immigration, responsibility.

What I hear less often, but feel underneath, is something quieter. Not just tired. Flat.

Nothing dramatic is wrong. But nothing feels particularly alive either.

That kind of boredom is hard to admit. It sounds ungrateful. It sounds selfish.

And yet sometimes it is simply a sign that something in you wants more depth.

I think we deserve to be honest about that.

Life without passion is life without depth.True passion is not spectacle or drastic reinvention. It’s the feeling of bei...
02/27/2026

Life without passion is life without depth.

True passion is not spectacle or drastic reinvention. It’s the feeling of being inwardly engaged with your own life. Many women I meet learned very early how to be strong, how to be useful, how to anticipate the needs of others before their own. Over time, desire can begin to feel impractical, even selfish. It becomes easier to function than to feel.

So, bit by bit, we lose our aliveness. Our world tightens around obligation. Nothing is visibly wrong, and yet something feels missing. Inner depth requires contact with what moves you, disturbs you, excites you, even unsettles you. Passion often appears as a subtle pull, a returning curiosity, a moment when your attention sharpens and you feel more present.

You do not discover passion by searching for a grand answer. You cultivate it by noticing where your energy shifts, where your body softens or leans forward, where something feels truly yours. That attention, practiced over time, restores dimension to life.

Passion and aliveness do not arrive through endurance. They grow from engagement.
❤️

02/23/2026

Resting Slavic face.
I promise I’m not judging you.
I’m feeling everything. It just doesn’t always travel to my eyebrows.
If I look intense, I’m probably translating, tracking, and trying to keep up with your story at the same time.
English is my second language. Therapy is not.
Have you ever had a Slavic therapist?

Recently, I asked a few clients why they chose me. I expected answers about therapy approaches or experience))Instead I ...
02/11/2026

Recently, I asked a few clients why they chose me. I expected answers about therapy approaches or experience))

Instead I heard:
• your hair
• you remind me of my grandma
• your accent

It made me smile, but it also reminded me of something important. People don’t choose a therapist only with their mind. They choose with their nervous system. Something in the room feels safe enough, familiar enough, human enough.

And that is often where the work really begins.

I’m curious, what helps you feel safe and connected when you meet someone new?

Hi friends,I created this cycle after a long conversation with a colleague that stayed with me for a long time. We were ...
02/02/2026

Hi friends,
I created this cycle after a long conversation with a colleague that stayed with me for a long time. We were talking about how becoming a therapist isn’t a straight line, but more like a spiral. You think you’ve finally landed somewhere solid, and then something shifts and you’re right back at the beginning, but with a little more awareness this time.
It started with a quick sketch in my notebook. I was trying to capture that strange mix of urgency, hope, burnout, and epiphanies that so many of us go through while becoming mental health professionals. First you want to save the world, then a client, then, in a moment of honesty, you realize you’re trying to save yourself. And only after all of that do you begin to discover what’s already inside you, and slowly start to trust the process.
It’s not a linear journey, and it definitely doesn’t end. But I’ve come to believe that cycling through these phases is part of what makes us good at this work and helps us evolve as humans and therapists.
If this resonates, feel free to share it and leave a comment. Because what we say - in disputatione nascitur veritas.

golemdesigns

01/25/2026

Hi everyone,
Here’s a little peek into the therapy space I’ve been tending for the past couple of years.

It’s not fancy, but it holds a lot — stories, tears, laughter, relief, new insights, parts that haven’t spoken in years.
People come in carrying all sorts of things — trauma, self-doubt, stress, grief, burnout.
Together, we slow down, listen, get curious. We follow the thread.

Therapy isn’t about fixing you.
It’s about finding new ways to be with what’s hard — and rediscovering what’s always been there: the good, the intact, the resilient.
It’s about finding the full range of (e)motion — and learning how to move through life with more clarity, connection, and care. Warmly, Anna

partswork traumainformedtherapy counsellingbc healingjourney

“when you mindfully breathe you live. when you forget, you survive.”This sentence came up in a somatic session last week...
12/08/2025

“when you mindfully breathe you live. when you forget, you survive.”

This sentence came up in a somatic session last week and it stayed with me.

Most of the time we breathe without noticing. The body keeps going, but we don’t really feel here. The nervous system does what it knows: survival.

When we bring attention to the breath, even for a moment, something changes. We actually arrive in our body again.

Welcome back.

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Burnaby, BC

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Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm

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