A Retreat for Men, HELD by Women
An intimate, immersive four-month deep-dive with an in person retreat for men ready to step away from everyday roles, reconnect with their hearts, and receive the nourishment and support of the feminine.
Guided by three women and one male facilitator, HELD welcomes a maximum of twelve men into a thoughtfully supported experience of emotional exploration, connection, and intentional change.
Four-month journey | February–May 2027
In-person retreat | March 18–21, 2027
Group calls beginning mid-February and continuing through May
Preparation, retreat, and integration included
A space to set it down. A space to step into.
The responsibility. The expectations. The familiar ways of being.
Maybe you've spent years holding everything together, figuring things out, and being the person others rely on.
Maybe you've achieved a lot, yet something inside feels disconnected. You want deeper intimacy, more meaningful relationships, or a clearer sense of what's next.
Perhaps you're navigating a transition in your work, your relationships, or your identity. Or you're simply ready to experience yourself beyond the roles you've learned to carry.
And maybe you don't need more support from others as much as you need to find a deeper sense of your own center.
Wherever you are, Held offers an opportunity to slow down, get curious, and meet yourself with honesty. You don't need to arrive with the right words or know exactly what you're looking for.
We begin where you are.
What we'll explore
This is a space for meaningful inner work, relational practice, and the bigger questions that shape how we live.
From holding everything to finding your own center
Notice where you overextend, withdraw, or feel you need to manage everything alone.
Explore what it means to receive care while staying connected to your own agency.
Develop a greater sense of self-trust, resilience, and responsibility for how you show up.
2. From emotional uncertainty to greater awareness
Build a language for your inner experience.
Learn to recognize what you're feeling, listen to your body's signals, and stay present with emotions like anger, grief, tenderness, and uncertainty.
Explore how breath, movement, and simple practices can help you navigate your inner world with greater awareness.
3. From old patterns to intentional relationships
Explore what you learned about love, closeness, vulnerability, and being a man.
Notice the patterns that shape how you relate to the people you love.
Practice expressing needs, honoring boundaries, navigating conflict, and repairing moments of disconnection.
Through relational practices in pairs, trios, and the group, experience what it means to be seen and to see another man without needing to fix or advise.
4. From expectation to self-trust
Make space for the questions that matter. Who am I becoming?
What am I ready to let go of? What do I want to bring into my relationships and my life?
What holds me, and what am I in relationship with beyond myself? Explore what feels true now, and begin making choices from that place.
Who Held is for
Held is designed especially for men in their 30s through 60s who are navigating a transition or seeking a deeper relationship with themselves and others.
We welcome men and masculine-identifying participants across sexual orientations and relationship experiences.
You may feel drawn to Held if you're ready to:
Step outside familiar roles and reconnect with yourself.
Develop a more compassionate relationship with your emotions.
Build greater self-trust and emotional resilience.
Explore your relationship with the feminine.
Practice receiving care, expressing needs, and honoring boundaries.
Take responsibility for patterns you want to change.
Experience meaningful connection with other men.
Invest in your growth with support before and after the retreat.
You don't need previous retreat experience or a background in this work. You do need a willingness to participate with curiosity, honesty, and respect.
This work can be deep and challenging. It asks for a willingness to meet yourself, stay present, and take responsibility for how you show up.
A four-month journey with
a three-night retreat at its heart
A powerful retreat can open a door.
The preparation helps you arrive ready. The experience itself creates space for something new. And the integration helps you bring what you discover into your everyday life.
Held is designed as a connected journey, with a small group of men building trust, shared language, and meaningful connection over time.
Preparation. The Retreat. Integration.
Three distinct phases, held within one experience.
01 — Late winter = Preparation February 2027
We begin with weekly group calls to meet one another, build trust, and create a foundation for the retreat. Through conversation, reflection, and accessible practices, we'll explore the body, breath, emotional awareness, and relationships.
You'll begin getting clear on what you're ready to set down, what you want to understand more deeply, and what you're ready to step into. This is an opportunity to arrive at the retreat with greater awareness of yourself and the intentions you want to carry into the experience. You’ll also walk in with a shared language and understanding.
02 — The equinox = Retreat March 19–21, 2027 | Friday–Sunday
Three days to step out of your usual pace and into a different rhythm.
Our retreat takes place around the spring equinox, a moment of balance between day and night and a natural invitation to reflect on the balance we're seeking in our own lives.
With four facilitators and a small circle of men, we'll create space for ceremony, movement, emotional exploration, connection, and time in nature. There will be time held by the women, time together as men, and time to experience the group as a whole.
An opportunity to receive support, explore your inner world, and experience yourself in relationship with others. You don't need to have a particular breakthrough or know what you're supposed to discover.
03 — Spring = Integration: Grow it into your life March - May 2027
The retreat is the center of the journey, not the end. Quite the opposite, it is usually a beginning.
Through weekly group calls following the retreat, we'll continue building on what you've experienced.
We'll explore how to bring greater awareness into ordinary moments:A hard conversation. Asking for support. Expressing a need. Making a decision. Noticing an old pattern and choosing differently.
With accountability, community, and practical tools, the focus is on changes you can continue to cultivate in your relationships and daily life.
Optional individual coaching offers additional support for your particular intentions and next steps.
Outcomes
By the end of the journey, the intention is for the changes to show up in ordinary moments, not only during the retreat.
With yourself
You notice what you're feeling sooner.
You can stay with anger, grief, tenderness, or uncertainty without shutting down or being run by it.
You begin to trust yourself more deeply and respond with greater awareness.
With the people you love
You ask for what you need.
You say no when you mean it.
You let care in without losing your footing.
You stay connected through difficult conversations and begin to recognize when old patterns are showing up.
The people closest to you get more of you.
With other men
You experience what it means to be seen and supported without needing to perform, fix, or prove yourself.
You build a circle of men who know you as you are.
A place to return to, beyond the retreat itself.
With something larger
You make space for the bigger questions.
What holds us?
What are we grateful for?
What is the context within which our lives unfold?
Through ceremony, reflection, and time in nature, there is room to explore a felt sense of connection with something beyond ourselves.
And you leave with simple practices and a deeper awareness to return to whenever old patterns show up.
Your investment
Held is a four-month experience centered around the retreat, with preparation, accommodation, nourishing meals, guided group experiences, and ongoing integration.
Your investment includes:
Weekly group calls beginning in mid-February and continuing through May.
The three-day, Thursday–Sunday retreat, March 18–21, 2027.
Accommodation and nourishing, chef-prepared meals.
Guided group experiences, ceremony, movement, and time in nature.
Preparation and integration practices.
A small, supported group of no more than twelve men.
Optional individual coaching and additional one-on-one support are available separately.
Four-month all-inclusive investment
Bunk Accomodation at the retreat plus 4 month container is 4 payments of $900
Shared Room at the retreat plus 4 month container is 4 payments of $1000
Private Room at the retreat plus 4 month container is 4 payments of $1200
Benefactor - Private Room at the retreat plus 4 month container and contribution to another’s access is 4 payments of $1350
The benefactor rate helps support access to this experience for others.
Your participation and the rate you pay—including benefactor and scholarship participation—will remain private.
Different payment plans are available. Two partial scholarship places are available by application.
Sign up by Filling Out this form below and sending a $500 deposit here.
Want to book a call first? Use this link.
Why Held?
We believe men deserve spaces where they can be supported without needing to be strong, achieve, or provide for others.
Held is an invitation to explore old patterns, deepen emotional connection, and discover strength through vulnerability.
To feel more without becoming overwhelmed. To soften without losing your power. To receive support while remaining sovereign.
You can soften and remain strong.
An intimate circle. Meaningful individual care.
With four facilitators and no more than twelve participants, Held offers a unique balance of personal attention and group connection.
Through individual reflection, shared experiences, and relational practices, we create space for authentic expression, connection, rest, and growth.
All of you is welcome.
There is room for tenderness, anger, grief, uncertainty, joy, and the parts of yourself you rarely share.
Our community is grounded in honesty, confidentiality, consent, clear boundaries, and mutual respect.
Held is a nurturing, nonsexual space where vulnerability is never expected or forced.
Come as you are. Share at your own pace. Be supported without losing yourself..
Meet your facilitators
Four facilitators. Dynamic perspectives. A shared commitment to creating a space where men can explore, connect, and grow.
Mandy is a former type-A go-getter turned medicine guide, life coach, and sound practitioner. She incorporates tools and techniques grounded in modern science with esoteric and ancient shamanic practices to help people feel at home in their mind, body, and spirit. Her work draws upon her experience in venture capital, published psychology research on behavior change, years as a professional-level athlete, and extensive training in transformational work.
Her certifications include Master Coach, NLP Master Level Practitioner, Breathwork, Reiki Master Level, Sound Healing 100hr, Shamanism, and Psychedelic Facilitation.
Lisa is a multi-faceted entrepreneur, transformational coach, sacred medicine guide, sound healer, breathwork facilitator, and yoga and meditation teacher dedicated to helping people reconnect with their authentic selves. She creates heart-opening experiences that blend ancient wisdom with modern practices to inspire healing, growth, and lasting transformation.
As the founder of Collective Hearts, her work centers on self-love, wellbeing, and empowering others to live with greater purpose, joy, and connection. Guided by her philosophy of Celebrate. Elevate. Luminate., Lisa believes that when we learn to deeply value ourselves, every area of our lives begins to flourish.
Anie (“Aw-nee”) is a relational men's coach, certified sexologist, and breathwork facilitator. After a decade as a corporate attorney, she now helps men build healthy, conscious, and connected relationships with themselves and others. Her training in the Somatica Method lets her guide clients through both the emotional and embodied dimensions of intimacy. Anie's work is rooted in her own transformation. She has rewritten her patterns around love and built a deeply intentional marriage. Through her journey, she has come to the conviction that relationships are our most powerful containers for growth. They are where our oldest wounds surface, and where they can finally heal. For Anie, love isn't something you find. It's a practice, and a path of transformation.
Loren Following 15 years as a management consultant and business owner, Loren has spent over 10 years as a group facilitator and executive coach to CEOs and founders.
His group work spans executive teams, graduate school group process, and depth-oriented men's work. His approach moves from the inner—integrating our parts and listening to the body—to the relational—attuning to others, staying connected through conflict, repairing rupture, and allowing ourselves to be seen—and to the group level, building trust, understanding influence and roles, and sharing power. Working relationally, he helps us find home within ourselves, relate to others, and recognize the context within which we are held. He draws on mindfulness and expressive movement practices, parts work, and training in Relational Somatic Healing.
Testimonials from Journeys with Mandy
“After a few exceptionally challenging years and a recent traumatic experience, I was carrying a crippling amount of anxiety in my body, and an immense amount of grief in my heart. I was overwhelmed with life and self doubt. I’d been seeing a psychotherapist and career coach for over 6 months, trying to eat well, getting outside, spending time with friends, and basically doing all the ‘right’ things to be better. To feel better. But everyday was a struggle. I was seeing patterns in my life that I just didn’t know how to break. When I booked a 6 hour sound ceremony with Mandy hoped for some relief, but did not expect the magnitude of the gift that Mandy gave me.” K in San Francisco
I am in awe of her and her process during which such profound healing could occur. From the careful preparation and conversation the night before, to the creation of the most comfortable environment, no detail was missed. I always felt supported, yet she did not intervene or distract, but rather helped me surrender and feel safe enough to go deeper into the many layers of repressed trauma that I truly never had the courage or method to face before. Then, she gently guided me to let it all go. It was temporarily painful at times, but the profound sense of love, connectedness, and self-reckoning was almost immediate after. I was particularly awestruck with Mandy’s use of music and sound. The work has stuck with me many months later” —KK in Santa Barbara
“From the deepest part of my heart. I would like to say thank you and express the amount of peace and clarity and grounding I feel. I feel my most authentic self and I haven’t allowed her in, in so long. I am so grateful to be with myself again. This is nothing short of GOD’s work and will. Please keep illuminating the paths of light so others can feel this.” — DT in San Francisco
“It was like getting 5 years worth of therapy in one day. Mandy brings sound meditation to a whole new level using her own array of the most beautiful instruments. I honestly believe that the sound that resonated through me was one of the most powerful experiences, and the entire journey would not have been as impactful, or effective without it. Later that evening I felt a sense of peace and calm I had not felt in a very long time. Mandy also helped me with the grounding after the journey and we’ve had several debriefs since to ensure I maintain it. This experience may not be for everyone, but for me personally, it helped me recall that sense of personal power I had lost somewhere along the way, and over the days that followed I also remembered my purpose and motivation to live within my core values, and speak my truth. I am so grateful to Mandy. Her trust in the healing process is intrinsic, and now I trust it too." —TK in Santa Barbara
“My own experience of the sound journey this evening was an opening to memories and places, colors and movements, the aliveness and SEEING sound while my eyes were closed. Observing where my mind was going and knowing why it was going there was something unique to itself but also, knowing that probably others were experiencing something just as transformative as we all peeled back our veneers of '“reality”. The gong silence that internal thought voice and its resonance and dissonance created a landscape beyond recognition. I’ve never been so reminded of my singularity and aloneness in the universe while feeling so connected and safe. I saw us all merge as we emerged from the experience. Hugs, embrace, touch, looking deeply and connecting with the beauty we share on this fragile lifeboat we call Earth.” — M in Santa Barbara
“This is why sages remain silent. There really is no explanation or description grand enough for that experience. Yet, because I am human, and because I am me and I love words, I try. First, may I say thank you for including me in that experience. It really was all that I wished for and more. It was a deep, deep honor to watch you and David work together. It was an honor to be present and witness the processing of the other souls in that room. And most importantly it was just FUN!!! We have talked ad nauseum about what comes next, what's on the other side of processing, what's after fear... only Love...light and sound in constant, orgasmic play with each other over, and over, and over, and over, and over... Every note that was played sang only one refrain, I AM! No matter the frequency, no matter the cadence, that was it: I AM. I AM. I AM. What a relief to experience that in bodily knowing; that no matter where I turn, no matter if it looks dark or gray, the command within my power is to tell my mind, "Color here too" and it will be so. And once there is color there is creation. And once there is creation it is endless. My guides told me that I had chosen not to create in a world without color, that I had been holding myself back until I had seen. And now that I have seen, I will choose. What, I don't know; but, that is enough. Because in my not knowing I will allow the question to arise, "Would you like to know?". And to that, I will always answer YES!”
— EV in San Francisco
The SOUND MEDITATION PROTOCOL
1. Consciousness Expanding Medicine
The specifics of medicine can be discussed on a call or in person.
2. Priming Talk
Mandy discusses the scientific and therapeutic properties of sound and medicine. She then shares lessons and frameworks that serve as helpful “tools of navigation” for your sound journey.
2. Vocal Toning
The use of your own vocal chords is an important part of somatic healing and personal expression. This wordless form of vocalization serves as a platform for self-expression and physical release. It is a supported method of soothing the vagas nerve (a major nerve known for storing trauma in the body and emotional regulation).
3. Breathwork
Inspired by Stanislav Grof's Holotropic breathing technique, you will be guided through a powerful three-part breath that will enable you to disconnect from the “monkey mind” enough to reach heightened states of awareness and a deeper state of meditation. Oxygenating the body also has health benefits such alkalizing blood PH, a known indicator of immune system functioning and vitamin balance.
4. Sound
Mandy and team will guide a sonic journey into your inner landscape using overtone-emitting instruments (Currently she uses: large gong, singing bowls, ocean drum, tribal drum, chimes, monolina, sansula, the wing, and more) These rich overtones affect the brainwave cycles, neurochemistry, autonomic nervous system, heart-rate variability, and subtle energy in the body. The sound meditation sets the stage for a deep, meditative and unique altered state of consciousness allowing us to disconnect from physical, mental, emotional and psychological habitual patterns and rewire them.
5. Integration
“It was a year of therapy in 6 hours.” Is common feedback Mandy hears. The brain and body want to be healthy so when we give them the opportunity to “take out the garbage” and come back to wholeness, they do. Many participants experience rapid imagery and insights, thus time is spent after session to help participants integrate into their every day experience.
*Created and Perfected by my teachers, David Shemesh and Alexandre Tannous
The Benefits of This Work
Physical: Reduction of the Following: Stress, Fatigue, Physical Pain, Physical Discomfort, Insomnia, Sleep Disorders
Psychological: Reduction of the Following: Depression, Anxiety, Brain-Fog, Overthinking, Lack of Clarity, Worry, Fear
Emotional: Improves emotional stability, increases feelings of peace, clarity and love, Releases Emotional Trauma, increase feelings of personal agency and intuition
Spiritual: Expansion of the feeling of connection to higher self and divine/universe
