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Face & Heal

Your Inner Turmoil

Is it finally time?

A New Man: A life-changing weekend experience

For men from all walks of life

March 8 to 10, 2024

Southern Arizona

Have you struggled with your hidden pain and inner turmoil long enough?

Do you yearn for a safe place to face your past, express pent-up anger, heal your grief, and release your shame?

A New Man is that place.

At A New Man, you’ll embark on a journey to true healing. You’ll find new purpose and see a new vision for your life.

You’ll experience true brotherhood, community, and belonging. You’ll find peace.

How do we heal when, as men, we’re not even supposed to feel?

The demands seem to echo all around us.

“Masculinity is toxic.”

“Men don’t need support.” “Men don’t need friends.” “Men don’t cry.”  “Men don’t fear.”  Men just don’t … feel.

Men are supposed to be stoic heroes. Fixers. Meeting everyone else’s needs while not even recognizing that we have needs of our own.

 

Is it any wonder that so many of us struggle with … ?

|    Addiction.    |    Loneliness.    |    Relationship problems.    |    Divorce.    |    Sexual confusion.    |    Financial insecurity.    |    Pornography.

|    Father wounds.    |    Mother wounds.    |    Not feeling man enough.   |    Not belonging.    |

 

 So many of us have lingering wounds from an absent or abusive father. We have sexual shame, with feelings and experiences we’ve never told a soul. We have old peer wounds and relationship wounds that we can barely admit even to ourselves.

Where do we find healing? Where do we even find … ourselves?

Discover a new you. Join us March 8 to 10, 2024, in southern Arizona.

Everyone who participates is seeking to resolve inner conflicts of some kind and to make life choices that are better aligned with their core values, faith, life purpose, and life goals.

Exploring Through Experience, Not Lecture

A New Man is “experiential.”

By that we mean that you’ll explore through experience, not lecture or discussion or “therapy.”

Experiential processes are participatory, not passive.

These can include experiences like:

  • Journaling, contemplating powerful, introspective questions
  • Facing, processing and releasing anger or grief.
  • Facing and releasing shame
  • Inner-child affirmation and healing
  • Facing your “stories” and impulses towards women, men, mom, dad, or others
  • Psychodrama. Role-playing internal conflicts (a simplified, peer-led form of psychodrama that we call “guts work”).

One simple example: You won’t just talk about where you stand with other men. You will in fact stand eye to eye with another man while we help you process whatever beliefs and feelings might arise.

Exploring Underlying Issues

In the course of the weekend, we provide opportunities for you to explore lingering pain from past experiences, internal and interpersonal conflicts, confusion, and problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Men come to A New Man to explore deep issues like:

  • Being stuck in old recurring habits and self-destructive patterns.
  • How you see women and how you relate to them — and what that says about you.
  • Being stuck between passivity and assertiveness
  • Self-image, self-worth, and critical self-talk.
  • Buried or unresolved anger, fear, or grief.
  • People pleasing, being “Mr. Nice Guy.”
  • Father wounds
  • Mother wounds
  • Peer and relationship wounds
  • Fear of rejection
  • A longing to belong, to be wanted, or include
  • A history of being bullied or abused  or being a bully or abuser 

Group and Individual “Work”

We do this work in large-group sessions or small break-out groups. We allow ample time for men to do their own individual work in various small-group settings. 

Structured experiences focus on:

1.  Recognizing the differences between “stories” (judgments), data (facts), feelings (emotions), and impulses.

2.  Recognizing core emotions (anger, fear, sadness, joy) versus counter emotions (shame, anxiety, depression, lust, etc.) versus defenses and distractions — and how they affect us differently.

3.  Understanding projections and transferences and how they affect our responses to people and situations.

4.  Experiencing self-acceptance and “inner child” healing — in real-time.

5. Framing your inner-healing and -growth work through the lens of four “MANS” principles:

6.  Meeting your “Golden Self” and “Shadow Self”

7.  Facing some of your deepest woundsand experiencing breakthroughs in your healing journey.

8.  Facing your “shadows” around women

9. Living the surrender principle — yielding your heart to God

10. Your freedom to choose your own life path

We consciously create a safe, supportive yet challenging environment to explore issues, challenge internal “stories” or touch emotions that you may have previously been avoiding.

At A New Man, we face our “stuff” head-on, with courage and rigorous honesty — to the extent that we are ready and willing — rather than hide it or run from it.

Nevertheless, we always honor every man’s free choice. Anyone can “pass” and choose to not participate in any particular process. If you do “pass,” our staff-volunteers will likely ask what is behind that choice for you, but they will never force or pressure you to do anything against your will or to do anything that may not feel quite right to you.

About the People

About the Participants

Typically, participants in Brothers Road weekend intensives range in age from 21 to 70s, but most are in their 30s to 50s. 

The maximum number of participants per event is 24. The average is about 20 participants.

Participants in our weekend intensives may be single, partnered, married, divorced, or widowed. Most (but not all) attendees are religious. Most are Christians (of every denominational variety), Jews, and Muslims. Some are non-religious or agnostic.

Participants may include businessmen and entrepreneurs, doctors and other medical professionals, lawyers, artists, pastors, school teachers, college students, college professors, engineers, and many others.

All are men who are seeking to resolve inner conflicts and make life choices that are better aligned with their core values, faith, and life goals.

About the Volunteer Staff

A New Man is peer-led and facilitated by men who have been where you are now — men who have done (and continue to do) their own inner healing and personal-growth work.

It is run by about 15-20 men who volunteer their time because they care deeply about supporting men’s healing and personal growth.

Volunteers either are not professional therapists or are not serving in that professional capacity in the course of the weekend.

The retreat gave me new friends, a new community, and new life. It was a total reset in my life, and a fresh start. I’m forever grateful for my weekend experience.

Victor, Florida, USA

The weekend has shown me that I am not alone in my struggles. That there is hope, but also hard work that I need to do. I met a lot of other men who are on the same journey as I am, and we support each other in this journey.

Voytek, Poland

It has been an immensely positive experience for me. I did not feel as if I belonged to the world of men until after my weekend. Since then I have been able to grow with and meet some of the most incredible men I have ever met in my life. I have gained self-confidence, self-awareness, sobriety, have matured, and grown in love, truth and strength.

Stephen, Tennessee, USA

Key Teachings

What We Teach and Believe

  • You are good and valuable just as you are, right now, today.
  • You have brothers who see your “shadows” (weaknesses, blind spots) and love and accept you just as you are.
  • Shame never brings about meaningful change, healing, or growth. Bringing our shame into the light by being authentic and vulnerable with a few trusted others can significantly reduce shame and bring about healing and self-acceptance.
  • Your beliefs create your internal reality. Change your beliefs (about yourself and others) and you change the world as you know it.
  • We embrace and celebrate our masculinity, seeking the healthiest possible balance between the archetypes of Warrior and Lover.
  • Emotional healing requires courageous authenticity.  “Real men” aren’t afraid to get real, to feel feelings, and face old wounds.
  • Authentic, core needs can only be suppressed for so long. Men need to discover their true, underlying needs and learn to meet them in healthier ways.
  • Men love to be in control, but control is often an illusion. There is much that is outside our power that we just need to accept. Inner healing requires surrendering our resistance to changing from within. We need to turn our will and our lives over to God, release our attachments to harmful thoughts and behaviors, and find a higher purpose and meaning.

How is it different from Journey Into Manhood? 

“A New Man” is a broadened and adapted version of “JiM.” We’ve changed some of the focus and processes to make “A New Man” appropriate for men from all walks of life who struggle with painful past experiences and relationships of all kinds, or inner conflict over their self-image, self-worth, values, doubts, unhealed wounds, and unmet needs. 

Does A New Man replace Journey Into Manhood?

No. It is an additional offering targeted primarily (but not exclusively) to straight men. But SSA men are welcome, as well, and will likely benefit just as much.

If I’ve already attended Journey Into Manhood, should I attend A New Man also?

Probably not, unless you’re attending to support a straight friend. But please do refer your friends and family who may be ready to experience this kind of powerful inner work and brotherhood.