Is It Time To Revisit Your Childhood?

Health

Many of us become adults without ever emptying our emotional backpacks from childhood.

A workshop called “Changing Course: The Journey of Recovery” is designed to help start the process.

Dick and Connie Silk, marriage and family therapists in private practice in Spokane, will present the free workshop from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, S318 Cedar.

Claudia Black, the Bainbridge Island author of a number of books on recovery, such as “It Will Never Happen To Me,” will also speak.

Many adults are trapped with the same emotional responses they had as children, says Dick Silk.

A 40-year-old woman may freeze when she hears her partner raise his voice and emotionally shrink into a scared 7-year-old girl.

A 50-year-old man may feel compelled to control the lives of everyone in his family, just as though he’s still the same overburdened child he was at 10.

It’s only by experiencing buried pain, and sorting out who’s accountable, that people can move on to a healthier future, Silk says.

“I think people can change,” he says. “The thing that keeps me doing this work is watching people’s lives change. All of a sudden they’re not limping anymore.”

For more information about this workshop, call 838-0152.

, DataTimes