Transforming Winter Blues Group
Facilitated by Naomi Tessler and Aviva Bellman
Summary of the Workshop
Winter can be harsh on our collective mental health. This year, let’s come together in a cocoon of community and healing so you can survive and thrive in connection. Join us for a weekly, experiential therapy group blending Expressive Arts Therapy with Emotion-Focused Therapy. Through creative expression and reflection, participants will explore themes of isolation, self-criticism, pleasure, connection, rest, and creativity. Each session will begin with a check-in around a guiding theme, moving into arts-based expression and EFT-informed processing, including compassionate engagement with the inner critic and protective parts.
This group aims to provide a safe, nurturing space to slow down, align with our nervous systems and the season, connect, and expand. Participants witness one another’s journeys, allowing creations and processes to speak, and receive invitations to carry learnings forward. Facilitated in a warm, supportive in-person environment with virtual options available, this space intends to honour the season’s invitation to hibernate together and emerge transformed in the spring.
Event Details
Title: Transforming Winter Blues Therapy Group (10 sessions)
When: Mondays, from January 26th-March 30th
(excluding the following select dates: Feb 16th and March 16th).
Time: 10 am–12 pm
Location: Songbird Sanctuary (Bloor and Dufferin area)
Cost: $444 for 10 sessions ($55/session)
Facilitated By: Naomi Tessler and Aviva Bellman
Fill out this form to register for the workshop
Meet the Facilitators
Aviva Bellman, MSW, RSW, Social Worker/Psychotherapist
Since 2018, Aviva has supported individuals and couples in cultivating self-acceptance, personal power, and authentic relationships. She helps clients tune into their emotions and bodily experience, transforming pain into greater self-understanding and emotional wholeness. Aviva is passionate about guiding others to balance their inner life with their relationships, fostering both self-love and meaningful connection.
Naomi Tessler, M.A., Expressive Arts Therapist-in-training (EXAT candidate)
Naomi is a seasoned group facilitator, coach, and psychotherapist-in-training specializing in expressive arts, somatic, and trauma-informed approaches. For over 20 years, she has led therapeutic groups that support mental health, self-expression, grief processing, and community healing.
Naomi’s work is rooted in presence, creativity, and compassion, helping clients build resilience, regulate their nervous systems, and reconnect with their voice and inner resources.
She is also an energy healer, ritual facilitator, and multidisciplinary artist living in Tkaronto (Toronto), guided by her Jewish ancestral wisdom.