GOLEM Expressive Arts

08/07/2026

One of the reasons I appreciate Internal Family Systems (IFS) is that it gives us a kinder way of understanding ourselves.

Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” it invites a different question: “Which part of me is here right now?”

Over the years, I’ve come to recognize many different parts in myself. The one that listens. The one that creates. The one that reflects. The one that doubts herself. The one that teaches. They all have something to contribute, and none of them tell the whole story of who I am.

The same is true for the people I work with. We are all more complex than any single label, emotion, or role. Learning to become curious about our different parts often brings a little more understanding, a little less self-criticism, and a little more choice.

Which part of you has been showing up lately?

07/31/2026

Away for a couple of weeks in Germany and Latvia, and now I’m home.

It’s always good to change the scenery for a while, but it’s just as good to come back. I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio, seeing clients again, and settling into my usual routines.

Here are a few snapshots from the trip. ✨

07/14/2026

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been craving a little less screen time and a little more real life.

Not every summer memory has to be big or expensive. Sometimes it’s a coffee on a park bench, getting lost in a museum, reading outside until the light fades, or finally doing something you’ve been meaning to do just because it sounds nice.

I came across this list and thought it was worth saving. Maybe one or two of these ideas will find their way into your summer too. If they do, I’d love to know which one.

06/30/2026

“The gym is my therapy.”

We’ve become so used to hearing phrases like this that we often stop questioning them. There is truth in them, of course. Exercise, creativity, nature, meaningful relationships, and good food all contribute to our wellbeing. They help us regulate, restore, and support our mental health, and I hope they are part of your life.

At the same time, they don’t do the same job as psychotherapy. If my back hurts, I could take a cooking class instead of seeing a physiotherapist. I might enjoy myself, learn a new skill, meet interesting people, and even feel better for a while. But if I really want to understand why my back keeps hurting and help it heal, I’d probably see someone whose profession is treating backs.

I think our mental health deserves the same respect. If you’re struggling with anxiety, burnout, depression, trauma that keeps resurfacing, or relationship patterns that leave you feeling stuck, it makes sense to seek support from someone whose profession is mental health. That doesn’t mean you stop going to the gym, making art, swimming, or spending time with people you love. It simply means you’re giving your emotional wellbeing the same thoughtful care you would give any other part of your health.

I say this not only as a therapist, but as someone who has been in therapy myself. Therapy has never replaced swimming, pottery, friendships, or time in nature for me, and I would never want it to. They each have an important place in my life. The point isn’t to choose one over the other. The point is to let each one do the job it was designed to do.

06/22/2026

Last week I wrote that therapy feels like work because it is. Change is hard. Looking honestly at ourselves is hard. Learning new ways of relating to ourselves and other people is hard. There is no way around that.

As I was reflecting on that post, I found myself thinking about the courage it takes to keep showing up. Most people don’t come to therapy because life is easy. They come because something hurts, because something no longer works, or because a part of them still hopes that things can be different.

Every time someone walks through my door, I know there are many parts arriving with them. There are parts that are hopeful, parts that are skeptical, parts that are exhausted, and parts that would rather be anywhere else. And yet, somehow, they keep showing up.

So today I simply want to acknowledge that. Thank you to the parts that keep coming back to the work. Thank you to the protectors that have carried so much responsibility for so long. And thank you to the vulnerable parts that are slowly learning it might be safe to be seen.

Therapy is hard work. But before growth, healing, insight, or change, there is something even more fundamental: the willingness to show up.

06/10/2026

05/21/2026

Hi, there.

One of the harder things to accept as a therapist is that no amount of care, training, insight, or good intentions can remove another person’s pain for them.

I can’t make grief disappear.
I can’t undo trauma.
I can’t make life stop being painful or uncertain.

But I can be with someone in it.

And I think being deeply, compassionately accompanied through something difficult is much more powerful than we sometimes realize.

05/19/2026

I think solitude became possible for me only after I started building a different relationship with myself.

With therapy, parts work, and a lot of inner work, being alone stopped feeling like abandonment.

It started feeling like company.

Like I could actually sit with myself, my thoughts, my emotions, my different parts, without immediately needing to escape them.

And honestly, I think that’s one of the deepest forms of healing.

Learning how to stay.

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.