If you’ve ever been hijacked by your feelings, and done or said something you later regretted, you’ve probably tried thinking positively to try to get over the uncomfortable feeling. Or maybe you tried staying busy. Or reminding yourself things could be worse. But it doesn’t work, does it? Not because you’re doing it wrong. Suppressing or overriding feelings doesn’t make them go away. It just makes them wait. And then they show up at the worst possible moment: In a conversation you didn’t mean to derail… in a reaction that surprised even you… in a 3 A.M. spiral you can’t stop. What if the answer isn’t to get over your feelings, but to get bigger than them? This class will offer you a simple way to do this.

You retired thinking you would finally have time for the people you love. Why does the time feel awkward, the conversations shorter, the visits more obligation than joy? For most of our working life, structure carries us. Retirement removes that scaffolding. What remains are the patterns we learned long before we became aware of them: Criticism that arrives without warning, sarcasm that hides inside humor, judgments delivered with confidence, stories that get hijacked the moment we try to share them. Each pattern is an inherited reflex learned in the family that raised you long before you could choose otherwise. Once you can name a reflex, you can interrupt it. In this session, we will walk through the Family Zoo, four common archetypes that show up at family gatherings and quietly drain the warmth from a room. We will look at why each behaves the way it does, how to stay neutral when one appears, and how to recognize the one you become under stress. This workshop is not about fixing your family members. It is about who you choose to be in the room with them. You will leave with a clear framework for the moments that matter most: Awareness, neutrality, and the discipline to create a space family members want to enter rather than one they feel compelled to.

Identity is made up of how you see yourself and how others see you. And, identity is fluid. In this lively, interactive class, participants will explore how their unique identity has evolved and shifted through their life stages and where they may be headed next.