In-person men's work will crack you open in ways that decades of traditional therapy cannot touch. I discovered this truth during my conversation with Melanie Curtin on her show, where we explored how gathering with other men in physical space creates a unique alchemy that online connection simply cannot replicate. We were preparing for a retreat near Mendocino that summer, and talking about it reminded me exactly why this work has become the most transformative force in my life.
One of the stories I shared was from my 20s when I was really locked up. Couldn't access emotions, uncomfortable in my own skin, had been in therapy for years. Then I did my first men's group with a teacher. Within 20 minutes I was on my back crying in a way I'd never cried before. Something cracked open that I couldn't access in 30 years of therapy. That opening got things moving again.
We talked about what makes the live experience so potent. There's something about physically leaving your ordinary world, going on a journey with other men, facing the inner work together. The feedback you get in real time, the nervous system regulation that happens in a group container, the way masculine energy transmits body to body. I've got men in my life now from retreats I've done where I feel closer to them after a weekend than guys I've known for decades. That's the power of going through something real together.
The other piece we explored was anger and accessing that vital energy in safe ways. For so many of us, that valve is shut down, and when we can finally express it with other men holding space, there's this shift. Life force comes back online. You can see it in men's faces, this transformation from being a shell to being alive again.
If you're feeling like there's more possible but don't know how to get there, that's exactly where I was. Men's work, particularly the in-person depth work, gave me reference points in my body I never had before. Changed everything about how I move through the world.
If this resonates and you want to explore working together, head to evolutionarymen.com.
