In a relaxed, non-confrontational environment that respects your own pace and privacy, you will learn to safely resolve current and repressed feelings, allowing important, healthy positive changes to occur.
The workshop will be led by Lynn Turner, PhD, LCSW, Marian Horton, LCSW-C.
May 1-2, 2026
Friday | 6:30pm–9:30pm,
Saturday | 9:30am–5:30pm,
$550 New to this workshop
$475 Experienced
Insurance Applies
Register below
Next Workshop: May 2026
For more information, email [email protected]
A Center For Relationships
Address sent after registration:
Alexandria, VA 22306
Stop Repeating the Pain of
WEARING A MASK TO HIDE YOUR TRUE SELF
May 1-2, 2026
As adults, many of us carry unresolved emotional memories and negative messages from childhood. We might have had a severe trauma or chronic dysfunction in our early years. We might be carrying unresolved memories of a major trauma in adulthood, such as war or another assault on our sense of survival. Or, we may be experiencing the stress of major life changes such as the loss of a loved one, divorce, or an unwanted career change.
Often, we recognize how our pain from childhood or adulthood is interfering with present-day relationships and activities. Sometimes, we are unaware of how we repeat with others what was learned/experienced long ago. Some people shut down emotions altogether, while others act them out destructively. Usually, we blame others in our lives for the repetitive pain we are feeling. Sometimes the voices in our heads drown out positive feedback.
No matter where we are, however, the emotion or lack of emotion is ours, and only we can stop the repetition of messages and reactivities. This pain pattern is the leading cause of poor choices, dysfunctional relationships, or withdrawal from relating. The workshop will encourage recognition of repetitive patterns, will allow for emotional healing, and will engender cognitive understanding as well as the development of new behavioral choices.
Wearing a Mask, Hiding our True Self, will be the particular focus of this healing workshop.
The gentle, natural approach to processing emotions will teach you how to resolve stressful feelings and heal underlying issues affecting your life. Releasing stressful feelings from the present or the far past will allow you to make better choices to live a happier, healthier life. The workshop will include cognitive treatments, structured visualizations, and dyad processes.
Note: An interview session with a workshop therapist is required. If you are inexperienced in this workshop and have not met with one of the Center therapists, please email [email protected] to make an appointment with Lynn or Marian before the workshop.