The masks we wear
Art Therapy & Yoga Therapy
for Self-Discovery
A creative day of art therapy, yoga therapy, mindfulness
and self-exploration in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
17th January 2027
10am - 4pm
Loreto College
Hatfield Rd,
St Albans
AL1 3RQ
£90
Is the person everyone sees the whole story?
A one-day immersive workshop exploring the masks we wear, the roles we play and what happens when we create space to meet ourselves underneath them.
Every day, we move between different versions of ourselves.
The confident professional.
The dependable friend.
The calm parent.
The person who always says, “I'm fine.”
The one who keeps everyone else happy.
The strong one.
The successful one.
The one who never needs help. These versions of ourselves aren't necessarily false, they can help us belong, succeed, cope, protect ourselves.
What Are The Masks We Wear?
Led by: Paula Malloy, Yoga Therapist, and Jessica Hall, Art Psychotherapist.
This workshop is a one-day art therapy and yoga therapy workshop in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
It's a gentle invitation to engage with your sense of curiosity about yourself in a confidential, non- judgemental space. The workshop invites participants to explore the different roles and identities they carry, using art-therapy and yoga therapy practices as complementary ways of exploring thoughts, feelings, body awareness and personal experience.
The workshop isn't to rip the mask away or force yourself to reveal things you're not ready to reveal,
or search for some perfect version of a “true self”. Instead, this is a day to become curious and explore the relationship between the self we show to the world and the experience we carry within us. Does our inner thoughts, feelings and world match our outer experiences and what we show to the world.
Through yoga therapy practices and art therapy, we will engage in a creative exploration of movement and mask making with the opportunity to explore the masks you wear, both visually and physically. Giving shape to what can be difficult to put into words and noticing how our experiences can be held in the body.
Why combine art therapy and yoga therapy?
We don't experience life through our
thoughts alone.
Our bodies, emotions, breath, memories, sensations and imagination are all part of how we experience ourselves and the world around us.
The Masks We Wear brings together art therapy and yoga therapy to explore these different dimensions of our experience.
Yoga therapy offers an embodied approach through movement, breath, awareness and stillness. Art therapy provides a creative space in which thoughts, feelings and experiences can be explored through images and artistic expression.
Sometimes we can talk about something easily. Sometimes we feel it in our body. Sometimes an image, colour, shape or creative process can communicate something that words cannot.
There is no requirement to be “good at art” or experienced in yoga.
The invitation is simply to become curious.
What masks do you wear?
Which roles have you taken on?
Which parts of yourself do you show to others – and which remain hidden?
This is an opportunity to slow down, explore and reconnect with yourself in a supportive and creative environment.
Workshop Details:
What Does Art Therapy Bring to the Day?
Art therapy uses creative processes as a way of exploring and expressing experiences, thoughts and feelings.
You don't need to consider yourself an artist. The focus isn't on creating something technically impressive or producing a finished artwork. Instead, Jessica will guide you through creative exploration, allowing images, colours, materials and the process of making to become another way of noticing and expressing your experience.
For some people, creativity can open up a different perspective on thoughts or feelings that can be difficult to put into words.
Within The Masks We Wear, art therapy sits alongside yoga therapy to create a multidimensional approach to self-exploration bringing together creativity, body awareness, breath, movement and reflection.
.
What does yoga therapy bring to the day?
For The Masks We Wear, yoga therapy provides an opportunity to notice how experiences can show up in the body, including through posture, movement, breath and physical sensations.
Our masks are not only something we wear on our face.
they are worn in our body language. Think about what happens in your body when you're trying not to cry or trying to stay calm.
or appear confident. Our posture can change, the shoulders might brace to appear 'capable' and “holding it together”, or the voice that becomes quieter when spoken over and how the body which refuses to relax.
Yoga therapy exploration provides a framework for developing greater awareness of bodily sensations, breath, movement and internal experience. The intention of the workshop isn't to diagnose what a particular bodily sensation means. Instead, we'll practise curiosity.
What happens when you notice rather than judge?
What happens when you stop performing and start feeling/ sensing? What happens when you give yourself permission to move & express yourself completely and freely.
Meet the Practitioners
Paula
Paula Malloy is a compassionate and experienced Yoga Therapist who offers a gentle, personalised approach to supporting your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Specialising in supporting people experiencing anxiety, sleep difficulties, depression and breathing issues, as well as working with neurodivergent adults. Yoga therapy is a recognised complementary healthcare profession, with Yoga Therapists able to register with the CNHC, an independent voluntary regulator with an Accredited Register approved by the Professional Standards Authority. CNHC registration provides reassurance that practitioners have met recognised standards of training, professional conduct and insurance. Registration also means healthcare professionals, including GPs, can refer patients to registered complementary healthcare practitioners where appropriate, although NHS funding is not necessarily provided.
Jess
Jessica Hall is an experienced and compassionate Art Psychotherapist and Mentalization-Based Therapy Practitioner, with 26 years of experience supporting adults through the NHS in Mental Health services.
She has a particular interest in supporting people living with developmental and complex trauma, as well as neurodiversity. Jessica creates a warm, safe and non-judgemental space where you can explore your thoughts, feelings and experiences at your own pace.
Alongside her clinical work, Jessica is a Visiting Lecturer and Associate Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, and a TCM-accredited Mediator.
Art Therapy and Art Psychotherapy are protected professional titles, and the profession is regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
A collaborative approach
Together, Paula and Jessica bring two complementary therapeutic approaches into the same space. Yoga therapy offers a way to explore through the body, movement and breath. Art therapy offers another route into self-expression, imagination and reflection.
By bringing these approaches together, The Masks We Wear invites you to explore the different roles, expectations and identities we carry and to become curious about what may lie beneath them.