The Whole Paradox

Falling Apart with Anna Olinova

Molly Mitchell-Hardt//Anna Olinova Season 1 Episode 6

Why so much suffering? The constant and unspeakable atrocities of humanity over and over and over it repeats, the horrors we inflict upon others, ourselves, is there a difference?

I turn to the void, unhinge my jaw, I open to let it in. “Is this going to annihilate me?” “Yes my love, let it.” On my knees I reach down to the earth, the tears come, washing me clean from the inside “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you.”

In this episode Molly Mitchell-Hardt interviews expressive arts therapist and associate mental health counselor,
Anna Olinova.  They discuss:

  • How being a Russian immigrant informs Anna's life perspective
  • Experience working in prison rehabilitation program, with youth offenders, and with people with schizophrenia and other perceptual disorders
  • Why to keep on going in the face of the terrible truths of life
  • Art as healing modality
  • Cultivating community
  • The language of sensation
  • This episode includes an experiential exercise around noticing what you are feeling through expressive arts lens

Find Anna Olinova:
Follow Anna @glitterforest.
Find out more about her work on her website.

Follow us @mollymitchellhardt

This podcast was produced in association with Channel the Sun by Kevin Joseph Grossmann.  Musical stylings by Kevin Joseph Grossmann.

References:
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron