Holly Keen Goldes

Holly is a queer POC Expressive Arts Therapist.  She's ethnically half Chinese Canadian. She grew up on Vancouver Island and has lived in Vancouver, China and now she's calling Cumberland, BC her home. 

She works with women, queer and non-binary clients. She specializes in helping clients with Anxiety, Grief,  Trauma, Depression,  Self-confidence and Self-development  as well as exploring,  Sexual orientation and  Gender identity.  Holly welcomes members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Holly allows for a gentle space to explore and heal through the Expressive Arts. 

Her main background trainings are in movement and music. She loves to encourage clients to explore through creativity and to honour that no experience is needed at all in this type of work to receive the benefits and healing that the Expressive Arts have to offer. 

A session with Holly will allow for a lot of calm, gentle held space for her clients to be and explore exactly who and what they need to be in the moment. She offers gentle suggestions that clients can take or leave, in order to deepen an experience, a movement, or a sound during a session. 

Holly holds a connection to nature and to spirituality close at heart. She brings elements of the grounded healing earth and the gentle fluidity and energy of water to her sessions and workshops. 

Holly has worked and had many different job opportunities and careers which she brings to her work to enrichen her clients experiences. 

Some of these experiences include traveling and living and performing as a singer overseas in China, working as a busker on Granville Island and in Gas town,  singing in various bands,  performing in Festivals as a mixed media artist,  working as a sea kayak guide,  a construction worker,  a tree planter and being involved in varying forms of movement like capoeira, tango, ballet and wrestling.

All of these experiences she brings with her, in her work in the Expressive Arts. These experiences help to offer a whole and holistic experience and bring a wealth of understanding of differing gender roles and dynamics that can be experienced in relation to them.

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Background

Holly grew up on Vancouver Island surrounded by vibrant natural beauty.  She spent many days soaking in the quiet by the local rivers and by the ocean side. She finds that this calm connection to the earth is something that shapes her to the core and she shares a sense of calm and grounded connection with her clients.

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Holly's background and training before the Expressive Arts Therapy Certificate program at Langara College are in Music and Movement.

She had a lifetime journey and relationship with music through her classical training in singing through choir, opera and piano to the more spontaneous interactions with music singing in rock bands, performing as a jazz singer in China and working as a busker and performing artist in Gastown and on Granville Island. 

Some of her journey with movement also began in the classical realm with ballet, jazz and tap having transitioned to other forms of athletic movement like wrestling  and contact dance.  She has continued her exploration and evolution with movement in recent years through capoeira, tango, salsa, as well as through rock climbing, and sea kayaking. 

Originally, she was interested in studying music therapy, but when she discovered Expressive Arts Therapy training she fell in love with the movement and freedom involved in weaving between the arts in order to gain clarity, move stuck energy and to experience healing. So here she is today, offering this work to our communities.