Council of Brothers
Our 2024 Council is full and underway. Sign up to know when dates and applications go live for 2025.
Offered once a year, the Council is a curated space for 12 men ready to anchor deep changes in their internal and external landscape. Through a combination of group council, somatic exploration, parts work, and ceremony, men are taken on an 8-month arc through four doors in a combination of bi-monthly online sessions and two in-person retreats.
“I can confidently say that this men's group has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Before joining, I felt like I didn't have many spaces where I could show up and be completely vulnerable…from the moment we opened our first council, I felt a sense of belonging that I had never experienced before.”
Chris, Spring ‘23 Council
What if all the conditions were present for you to be who you really are and from this place, you knew exactly what your life was about and had all the support to live it fully?
8 Months, 12 brothers. Online + In-Person.
“I came to this council a desperate man. My marriage was in trouble, after 25 years of striving for repair. I longed for an intimacy with my wife and kids that seemed elusive. Through the course of the council, I gained a new perspective on living that has brought renewal not only to my marriage and family relationships but also transformed all aspects of how I navigate life. With my heart open and tender, my wife feels like she is married to a new man…I have grown in a deep, life-changing way.”
Ken, Fall ‘23 Council
Together, we’re charting a new course for being men
Sign up to know when dates and applications go live for our 2025 Council.
Our Story
Here’s how we see it: there’s a version of you—open in your heart, connected to your life-force, grounded in your body, surrounded by others, in service to your purpose—that only gets to flourish in the right circumstances. For most of us men, we’ve never gotten the opportunity to be in those circumstances. It makes a lot of sense that many of us feel a gap between who we are and who we know we could be.
In our circle, we’re giving you those very circumstances to flourish. We’re meeting those places in you that have never been met. We’re reflecting back to you the essence of how we really see you. We’re showing up for you like our own lives depend on it (hint: because they do).
Yes, we’re doing “the work” to be ourselves amidst all the hurt, disappointment, and broken models we’ve been handed down. Yet “the work” has the possibility in this circle to feel like the most nourishing, resourcing, and uplifting part of our lives, as we get free from all the shit that isn’t us.
The best part (which you’ll come to see, and we’ll tell you the secret now): nothing that happens here is because of Heart of Men. The beauty, belonging, and possibilities you will feel and experience in this circle are coming from inside you. We’re simply providing the conditions for your torch to catch, and once it’s a warming fire, we fully expect you to carry it forward, in service to the world.
Is this your Story?
You’re not broken but you're aching. You’re not lost but you're waiting. You’re not helpless but you're hurting.
You know that the life you’ve been sold, the life you’re living, is not it. You’ve tried your life on in different ways—changed jobs, experienced different partners, even moved cities—and still something deep inside feels unfulfilled.
You look around at what you’re told is “normal,” and you cannot rest deeply at night living within this limited reality. You know you’re supposed to carry something more beautiful into our world— as a man, a father, a son, a brother, a husband.
You sense there’s something wanting, even waiting, to emerge. Something that you have to bring forth or it may just kill you. You spent the last couple of years—decades even— looking for the key to unlock that very something.
You know that now is the time. This cannot wait any longer, and you’re ready to step through the doorway into this life that you came here to live.
Interested in Future Councils?
“Man, I’ve been in therapy since 2011, and it hasn’t struck this kind of chord with me. This has been a life-altering event.”
Danny, Spring ‘23 Council
Lead Facilitator: Thomas Doochin
I’m Thomas,
And I’m the lead facilitator at Heart of Men.
I’m a child of this earth, a husband to my beloved, a caretaker of land and community, and a believer and protector of the preciousness of Life.
From a young age I’ve been hungry for the deepest layers of truth. I’ve been all around the world on this quest to feel at home within myself.
Everything I offer in these spaces is a result of my own journey through a myriad of healing modalities.
I am here in service to men, young men, this Earth, and the blossoming of the original blueprint we humans have the capacity to live out.
Co-Facilitator: Becky Boisvert
I’m Becky,
And I am co-holding 2024 Council for Heart of Men.
I am a lover of life, a cultural change agent, steward of land and place-based living, a mother, community visionary, and a maitre d’ of the house that is my body.
I offer an exquisiteness to space holding that has been honed through my lifelong study of the human experience coupled with skill in the areas of somatic exploration, compassionate consciousness, nervous system literacy, and the bodymind connection, to name a few.
I am here in service to a vision of life that extends beyond survival and into great thriving.
Men’s Mentor: Lature Van Duren
is the founder of Release Breathwork and NuCellf, a movement coach, and a youth advocate. He facilitates healing spaces across New York City, including a men’s program inside of Rikers Island and in the Youth Detenion Center. Lature has been studying breath and movement arts since his early 20s. He lives with his partner in Brooklyn, NY.
Lature is a 2x participant of the Heart of Men Council and will be serving this cohort as a mentor and coach as he sharpens his facilitation with support from Becky and Thomas.
“This circle shifted things that were stagnant for as long as I can remember. The support and honesty of these men has been a huge part of me allowing myself to begin to relate to my sexuality, eroticism, animal side, fear and insecurity in a curious way. This is the first time in my life I have felt movement in any of these things. And now I can see very clearly how these will be dynamic parts of my life as long as I live.”
Ben, Spring ‘23 Council
Two In-Person Gatherings:
We’ll be gathering on a 20-acre property situated within a broader 330 acre community, nestled in the mountains east of Asheville, NC. Our gathering space is a hand-built, wooden Yogasthan overlooking the creek, and our work will be supported by dozens of miles of walking trails, the serene quiet, spring water, and glowing stars by night. We will be eating nutrient-dense, local, organic meals, crafted by a dear farmer, friend from a previous Heart of Men program. This is one of our favorite places to gather on the North American continent.
Our vision for a well culture of men is situated within the context of these times. If we’re going to create a new possibility for the masculine expression, we must root into and draw from the multiplicity of the masculine experience. This requires our circles to not only welcome—but prioritize—the gifts, the pain, and the life-ways unique to all lineages of men. The fullness of life we’re calling each man into can only materialize with a fullness of perspective in the circle.
Recognizing the historical and ongoing barriers in access to a space like this for Brothers of Color and the deep value these lineages bring to the space, our Full Circle Fund serves to welcome men often excluded from these spaces. In doing so, we begin to heal, not only as individuals but as a collective—bringing forth the fullness of who we are and who we can become together in the context of a more complete and expansive masculine narrative.
We offer four spaces in our Council to brothers doing the brave work of keeping the fires from ancestral lineages of the Global Majority. Through the support of our community and fiscal sponsors, we offer a needs-based sliding scale covering 50–80% of program costs for these men.
Full Circle Fund
“I would recommend this for the man who recognizes the value in embracing all of himself. This work celebrates the fullness of each man in the circle. Celebrating him as he is now and how he intends to be.”
-Jerrel, Fall ‘23 Council