About five years ago, Toronto therapist Karen Goslin sat down with her daughter to share the powerful story of her journey—a story that showcased strength, success, and resilience born from a weaker, painful path. After hearing her mother’s tale, Goslin’s daughter recognized the potential for a book that would inspire others to rise from despair to triumph. And so, Goslin picked up the pen.
Karen Goslin, a psychotherapist with more than 30 years of experience, is now an author and public speaker with an important message to share beyond the therapy room. She speaks to the importance of living the life we truly desire while acknowledging how difficult that can be to practice.
Like many of our journeys, Goslin’s has been far from perfect. She grew up in a safe community near Toronto, Canada, and was supported and educated, yet she often felt alone and unworthy. These feelings led to perpetual cycles of perfectionism, which pushed her toward overworking, overdoing, and overcontrolling. As a result, by the time she was 40, she was facing a severe autoimmune disorder that disrupted her career and social life, compounded by a painful divorce that left her at rock bottom.
Instead of surrendering to the darkness she found herself in, Goslin made a bold decision: she would take full ownership of her circumstances, including her role in her downfall, and, through that accountability, rebuild her life. She embraced the very principles she’d been teaching others for years: holding herself accountable, challenging destructive beliefs, and replacing them with healthier, more self-affirming truths. Yellow Paint: Learning to Live Again (OMERA Press, February 2025) is the product of that transformation—a book that not only inspires but also generously equips readers with the same powerful tools that Goslin used to change her life and that she continues to use to help her clients.
Goslin calls her approach Accountable Therapy. This refreshingly direct form of therapy blends deep compassion with practical strategies. “We all want change, yet we often get in the way of the very change we’re seeking,” she says. “We fall into the same patterns, tell ourselves the same stories, and sabotage our own happiness. There are valid reasons for this. We project the negative beliefs from our past onto the present, creating ‘problems.’ But these obstacles are the very opportunities we need to master past pain. I call these ‘invitations to grow.’ The challenge is that if we’re not ‘ready’ for these invitations, instead of growing, we reinforce the wounds, and more problems arise, causing us to spiral downward.”
Accountable Therapy gets us ready by helping us to recognize what’s actually holding us back, own our role in what isn’t working, and how to respond instead of reacting and to live with curiosity instead of judgment. The method offers daily tools to reduce self-sabotaging reactivity while also healing the deeper root causes of past issues that otherwise misdirect our present. Accepting the invitations to grow, Goslin says, opens the door to an entirely new way of living—one that “has been waiting for us the whole time, where we level up instead of spiral down.”
As the message of Yellow Paint spread, Goslin’s book was selected as part of the Oscars gift package for celebrity attendees this year. “This is a perfect fit!” she says.
Goslin understands the common human experience of striving for a life we deserve. “We all deserve to live on the red carpet of our own lives—showing up for ourselves, changing the narratives of our lives, and shining in the spotlight of our potential,” Goslin says. “We deserve to be seen, celebrated, and honored for the work we put in.”
Goslin encourages readers to identify their own “yellow paint” moments to transform their lives. “Painting takes step-by-step preparation and persistent patience, but in the end, it’s worth it,” she says. “It’s messy at times. Sometimes you need a primer. Sometimes the paint drips and needs a ‘clean up.’ Other times, you need a second coat. But eventually, you step back, admire your work, and realize the entire room has changed.”
Goslin’s message is clear. “If I did it, if my clients did it, you can, too,” she says. “Not because it’s easy or there’s a quick fix, but because you are capable of more than you believe. All you have to do is pick up the brush and start painting.”
