Thinking About Enrolling For Our Summer Wilderness Intensive?

What To Know About Our Transformative Learning Experiences

We Strive To Grow As Human Beings Into More Complexity

Into A Greater Appreciation For Paradox

And Into A Greater Ability To Yield & Forgive

Our Work Is Done In Service & Support of Meaningful, Authentic, & Vital Living.

HERE’S WHAT MAKES OUR JOURNEY INTENSIVES TRANSFORMATIVE

1. WE FULLY ENTER INTO LIVING THE MYTH OF THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Our staff is highly trained in this very particular type of transformational process.  It is based on the myth of the Hero’s Journey®, as articulated through the work of Joseph Campbell.   We fully enact, in a very literal and real way, the three essential phases of this journey – SEPARATION – INITIATION – RETURN – over the course of seven days.

HERE’S WHAT MAKES OUR JOURNEY INTENSIVES VITAL

2.  WE ARE UNIQUELY SITUATED WITHIN A VAST, MAJESTIC AND REMOTE NATURE SETTING

Nature, and the remoteness of wilderness, is an important experiential teacher, mirror and container for supporting an individual’s ability to enter more fully into their own depths, and find meaning and vitality there.  A majestic setting – remote, vast and private – allows for a sense of wonder, and a deepening intimacy with oneself and the land.  

We have wide open plains, wooded, moss-covered mountain forests and streams, backwoods caves, mountain peaks, sheer cliffs, and fields of wildflowers and berries.  We have ever-changing weather and temperature patterns that reflect the ever-changing moods of our human experiences.  We have vistas the provide inspiration and deep reflection, and hiking trails that allow us to make our way into unknown & unexplored territory.

We are also quite fortunate to be able to provide open outdoor fires, a rarity in today’s climate-changing conditions.  We have three separate areas that support our ability to create beautiful and ceremonial fires – in the woods, in our meadow, and on our high mountain plain.

HERE’S WHAT MAKES OUR JOURNEY INTENSIVES SO ENLIVENING & JOYFUL

3.  WE HAVE A COMMUNITY OF MEN WHO ARE PLAYFUL & WISE.  THEY STRIVE TO BE HUMBLE & REAL.  

THEY CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE THAT IS LIGHTHEARTED AND CAN GO DEEP. 

The stewarding team provides all the ambience that makes the journey come alive with warmth, companionship, and care.  They provide us with all the nourishing and nutritious meals we need.  They provide all the logistical, physical and emotional support for all the experiences that take place.  They are supportive, engaging and useful with all of our participants. And they are all participating in their own individuals journeys at the same time, as well.

We are quite literally ‘all in it together’.  We share in one another’s sorrows and joys of living, as we all strive to be in the world as it is.  We learn to change ourselves, and we don’t try to fix others or the world.  When we let go of trying to be helpers, we can more genuinely accompany others through their adventures and ordeals.  

This kind of accompanying allows us to become allies to one another.  We serve one another as ‘active witnesses’ who can listen and see without needing to fix, which in turn, allows others to see themselves and the world around them with new eyes, and a capable, willing heart.

HERE’S WHAT MAKES OUR JOURNEY INTENSIVES PROFOUND

4.  Our Skillfully Facilitated Men’s Groups Are Transformational Tools

It’s been said that ‘a rising tide lifts every boat’.  Each man who enters the transformative vessel of the ally group experience becomes an essential contributor to the journey of every other man.  Each person’s presence becomes an important part of the group, and yet each man also stands a part from the group at times, becoming a distinctly individual and unique presence.  We go back and forth between these two learning positions, while being among such an essential collection of diverse men.  

Conversations, honest feedback, deep exchanges, being side-by-side, going through experiences together – all of this happens by focusing on what can be spoken and seen in a group like this, things unlikely to be heard of spoken or witnessed anywhere else in a man’s life.  

Bonds are forged, old and self destructive patterns are addressed and shed, new possibilities come forward to be considered that ar life-giving, new opportunities are provided and new risks are taken, learning happens – and a new orientation to one’s own future begins it’s germination.

The real reason to go on a journey of transformation is to become someone other than who you already are.

All images are from our program experiences at our mountaintop base camp near to Spruce Knob, WV