On this highlight interview, therapist Anna Gwozdz reveals a method we unconsciously cover from discomfort and forestall actual therapeutic and progress in our lives.
Welcome to a different version of The Interior Work Collection: What Therapists Need You to Know, a group of brief interviews that function grounded knowledge from actual therapists.
At the moment I am honoured to function Anna Gwozdz (Psychotherapist & Medical Counsellor, CCC, HonMACP, BAPsych), Proprietor of/training at Bespoke Medical Counselling in Calgary, AB.
Interview with Anna Gwozdz, Calgary Therapist
Contents
- 1 Interview with Anna Gwozdz, Calgary Therapist
- 1.1 Q1. What’s one mindset shift you usually assist your shoppers make?
- 1.2 Q2. What’s one small behavior or each day motion that helps with emotional resilience?
- 1.3 Q3. What’s one query you would like extra individuals requested themselves (or their therapist)?
- 1.4 This fall. Suggest a favourite useful resource:
- 1.5 Q5. What’s one fable about remedy you’d like to bust?
- 2 Discover Anna Gwozdz
Q1. What’s one mindset shift you usually assist your shoppers make?
Many individuals come into remedy with deeply ingrained beliefs that they must be laborious on themselves to be motivated or profitable.
They’re usually caught in cycles of disgrace, perfectionism, or comparability, pondering they are not sufficient except they’re always reaching or pleasing others. I work with them to acknowledge that harsh interior dialogue is just not solely unhelpful—it is dangerous.
By way of our work, shoppers start to know that being sort to themselves does not imply giving up or making excuses.
It means acknowledging ache with out judgment, chatting with themselves the best way they’d to somebody they love, and recognizing that progress comes extra simply from a spot of security and self-worth than from concern or punishment.
This shift towards self-compassion is highly effective—it opens the door to deeper therapeutic, resilience, and significant change.
Q2. What’s one small behavior or each day motion that helps with emotional resilience?
One small however highly effective each day behavior I usually advocate for constructing emotional resilience is checking in with your self every day—even for only a few minutes.
This may be so simple as pausing to ask your self, “What am I feeling proper now?” and “What may be contributing to this sense?”
Doing this helps develop emotional consciousness, which is foundational for resilience.
If you’re extra attuned to your inner state, you are higher outfitted to control feelings, reply thoughtfully relatively than react impulsively, and acknowledge once you want assist
Many consumers discover it useful to pair this check-in with journaling, a mindfulness apply, or simply taking a number of gradual breaths whereas reflecting.
Over time, this behavior builds a stronger connection to your interior world, which will increase your capability to navigate stress, setbacks, and alter with better stability and readability.
Q3. What’s one query you would like extra individuals requested themselves (or their therapist)?
One query I want extra individuals requested themselves—or introduced into remedy—is: “What am I avoiding and why?”
Avoidance is a typical, usually unconscious technique we use to guard ourselves from discomfort—whether or not it is troublesome feelings, painful recollections, unmet wants, or uncomfortable truths about {our relationships} or conduct.
Whereas it may possibly present short-term aid, avoidance usually reinforces anxiousness, retains us caught, and prevents actual therapeutic or progress.
When shoppers start to discover what they’re avoiding—and get curious relatively than judgmental about it—they begin uncovering the deeper patterns that drive their misery.
This query opens the door to significant perception, emotional processing, and in the end, extra freedom and selection in how they reply to life.

This fall. Suggest a favourite useful resource:
A favourite useful resource of mine is the podcast known as Let’s Discuss About Psychological Well being by Jeremy Godwin.
The host is a counsellor, author, and psychological well being advocate who does a fantastic job of taking advanced emotional points and breaking them down into quite simple and digestible ideas, whereas additionally offering concrete instruments to use in our lives to assist higher navigate these advanced points.
Many of the episodes are below half-hour and all of them are usually not solely useful, however entertaining, as nicely.
Q5. What’s one fable about remedy you’d like to bust?
This perception retains so many individuals from getting assist till they’re overwhelmed or burned out.
The reality is, remedy is not only for disaster administration—it is also a proactive house for progress, self-discovery, and studying more healthy methods to navigate on a regular basis life.
You do not have to attend till your world is falling aside to learn. In reality, among the most significant and lasting change occurs when individuals are available in curious, not in disaster.
Remedy is usually a place to strengthen emotional resilience, enhance relationships, make clear values, and perceive patterns earlier than they develop into greater issues. Consider it as psychological and emotional upkeep—not simply emergency restore.
Discover Anna Gwozdz
Loved studying Anna’s insights and solutions to the above questions? Please go to Anna’s web site, bespokeclinicalcounselling.ca, and extra hyperlinks under to attach together with her and be taught extra about her work.
Anna’s Hyperlinks:
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