Beyond the Masks: Breaking Free From False Selves
As children, we all learned how to stay safe.
In homes marked by chaos, addiction, control, or emotional neglect, safety often came at the cost of authenticity. We learned to wear masks: the responsible one, the helper, the peacemaker, the achiever, the invisible child. Those roles once protected us from rejection and anger, but as adults, they often keep us disconnected from our true selves and from living an authentic life.
This course, based on Tim Fletcher’s teaching, explores how those masks formed, why they persist, and how to let them go with compassion. You’ll examine patterns like people-pleasing, perfectionism, and hiding, and learn how to replace performance with honesty and presence. Each lesson combines reflection, journaling, and trauma-informed insights to help you move from survival toward authenticity.
This is an invitation to meet the person you’ve always been beneath the roles: to live as your real self, without apology.
*All prices are in Canadian Dollars.
Course Curriculum
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Welcome Video
Introduction
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This opening lesson explores why people with Complex Trauma often learn to hide behind roles that once kept them safe. You’ll uncover how masks like perfectionism, caretaking, or invisibility form when authenticity feels dangerous, and how these roles quietly shape your adult relationships. Through reflection and compassion, you’ll begin learning what it means to live as your real self again.
Lesson • Journal • Video
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This module examines how survival once depended on keeping others calm, happy, or unbothered. You’ll learn how the caretaker role forms from fear of conflict and guilt, and how it becomes mistaken for love or responsibility. By practicing new ways of caring with boundaries, you’ll begin to separate compassion from compliance and rediscover what healthy connection actually feels like.
Lesson • Journal • Video
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When love or safety depended on achievement, perfectionism became the way to survive. This lesson unpacks how fear and shame drive constant striving—and why success never feels like enough. You’ll learn how to shift from proving your value to living from it, replacing impossible standards with honest, grounded self-respect.
Lesson • Journal • Video
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For many, disappearing was the safest option in unsafe environments. This module explores how emotional withdrawal and self-erasure protect children but isolate adults. You’ll learn to slowly reconnect with your feelings and body, taking gentle steps toward being seen again, not as a risk—but as a right.
Lesson • Journal • Video
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The final lesson invites you to move beyond survival and step into your true self. You’ll learn to release shame, thank your old masks for keeping you safe, and begin living with honesty, courage, and calm confidence. As you practice being seen in safe spaces, authenticity becomes less frightening and more natural.
Lesson • Journal • Video
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This section offers books, talks, music, films, poems, and somatic practices to support your journey beyond the masks. These tools encourage slow, compassionate reconnection with your body, emotions, and true self, reminding you that healing is not about becoming someone new, but remembering who you’ve always been.
