“We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile.”
-From the Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
People often wear masks to hide how they are feeling. Sometimes the masks are short term, such as when a husband gets into an argument over the phone with his wife, but he has to put a smile on his face for the business meeting he is about to step into. Other times the masks are long term like when a teenager enters high school and she does not fit in with a certain crowd, but would like to, so she spends the next four years of high school wearing a mask, pretending to be someone that she is not. These masks are emotional masks that hide they way people truly feel or who they truly are. Why do people wear masks? Well, one reason is fear. Fear of being judged. Fear of embarrassment. Fear of not being accepted. But what would things look like if we removed our masks & were free to be who we are without being judged? What if I told you this is actually quite possible? “How?”, you ask. Well for starters, counseling. With a counselor, you are free to take off your mask and just be you. Free to show your pain, your hurt, your tears. And then the healing can begin- healing that takes place deep within… Healing that sometimes allow people to walk out of the counseling office, leaving the mask behind, because with healing often comes transformation & then the fear is gone.