Retreat Structure & Flow

You’ll be part of a small crew of up to six men.

Our time together integrates:

Powerful group circles. We get honest, reveal the things we spend so much time and energy hiding from ourselves and others, receive feedback and guidance, interrupt our normal patterns, and set the stage for new ways of being, while opening to the necessity of engaging the heart. All in real-time.

Body practices. Many men spend most of their time in their heads, analyzing, thinking, solving. And we can be rewarded for that. But the cost of disembodiment is harrowing: an incapacity to be with sensation and emotion, to truly be with self and others. It’s through our bodies that we find ground and know the solidity of the present moment. We must include the body on our path of healing, wholeness, empowerment, and integration.

Hapé. Served across all three days — a grounding, clarifying medicine ally that helps us land in the body, clarify the mind, open the heart and spirit.

Ceremony. On day two, we’ll hike into the beautiful James Peak Wilderness. As we make our ascent along a high-elevation creek, we’ll step off-trail and drop in with medicine. This traveling ceremony invites us to open our bodies to nature, quiet our minds in the spaciousness of the wild, and meet one another from the ground of a softening heart. (In case of severe weather, ceremony will be held around the hearth in our mountain home.)

The Forge. In the evening following our day of ceremony, we’ll gather around the fire inside a holding and invitation to release the performance of our social-selves, and allow the spirit of creativity and expression to flow. With musical instruments and voice, we set aside ideas of “how we should be” in favor of the true shape of our individual soul. It’s a practice for all of us (myself included), allowing ourselves to be seen and heard — and welcomed — among our fellow men.

Relaxed engagement with your comrades. We pack a lot into our time together, and balance it with a measure of time for relaxedly engaging with your fellow men. This happens mainly during shared meal prep, our sit-down family-style meals, and kitchen clean-up.