Begin Your Recovery – Attend a Workshop!

A workshop is a safe, structured program to help you begin to recover from paruresis. Much of what happens involves relearning how to urinate in the presence of others. Find your workshop here.

Many people report that they were nervous before the workshop and quite reluctant to sign up, but after the first few hours wondered why they hadn’t sought help for their paruresis earlier. The fearful feelings are normal, so don’t worry too much about them, just bring them with you to the workshop and anticipate meeting a group of people just like yourself. You’ll feel at ease right away.  [Virtual Workshops are one day events through Zoom that use an abbreviated version of the following agenda.]

At the beginning of each workshop (Friday night), participants share, often for the first time, their stories of what it has been like living with paruresis. This usually proves to be a very cathartic experience, as people realize that they are not the only person in the world who suffers from this anxiety disorder.

The sessions on Saturday and Sunday involve three things:

1. Information sharing by the workshop facilitator and sometimes an assistant;
2. Practice sessions involving graduated exposure exercises, usually with one or two other people (people always practice at a level that feels comfortable and that will ensure success); and
3. Group sharing about what the practice experience was like. For more information about graduated exposure and what that entails, see our About Avoidant Paruresis page.

A typical workshop schedule:

A few more “boring, but important” details regarding workshops. . .

We set two minimums when we are planning for workshops. For live, in-person events, we need a minimum of five registrations at least 30 days prior to the scheduled date. Why? We contract with host hotels that have a cutoff on when we can cancel and still get our money back. For virtual Saturday events, we need at least eight registrations by the end of the Wednesday prior. This number of participants is needed to have the virtual breakout sessions work for the best. For both live and virtual, if we don’t meet these minimums, we need to cancel or reschedule the event. We understand that our community has as one of its characteristics “avoidance” which means it’s hard for attendees to register. But please register as early as you can so that we can call each event a “go” as early as possible. If you have any questions about the status of any event, or if you’d like to know more details, please use the Contact the IPA form.

Your registration is 100% Money Back Guaranteed. If the IPA does not hold this event due to not meeting our 5 participant minimum, we will refund your registration fees. Women: if you require a female “pee buddy” and we don’t deliver, we’ll refund your fee, as well. 

Lastly, we want you to know that workshops are part of our nonprofit mission. Yes, we charge registration fees for them, yet our overall all workshop program goal is to break even on revenues versus expenses. Many of our other programs are offered at no cost. These workshops – and all our operations – are made possible by the generous gifts of our donors. We make every effort to make these events affordable while also being good stewards of IPA funds. You’ll find 20+ years of IPA financial reports at this link. Thank you for investing in the IPA and in yourself when you register.