PRIME Retreat: Oct 22-25, Northeast US: Learn More
PRIME Retreat: Oct 22-25, Northeast US: Learn More
MELD CORE
A 10-week somatic awareness training and facilitated men's group. Where the MELD system stops being something you understand and starts being something you live.
The model most men were handed says to handle it alone, stay productive, keep moving. Strength means stoicism. Vulnerability is a liability. Figure it out.
So it’s no surprise that so many men end up overwhelmed and shut down, disconnected in their relationships, anxious or blocked, and quietly unfulfilled — even when they’re doing everything right by every external measure.
This isn’t a character flaw. It’s a systems failure. The model was never built to carry the full weight of a man’s life. MELD CORE exists to correct that.
A 10-week live training in the MELD system for real life. You train the capacity to stay present under pressure — not in theory, but in a group of men who are actually showing up.
Most men who come to CORE aren't lacking information. They've read the books, maybe done therapy, probably tried a few programs. They understand why they shut down or blow up or go numb. Understanding doesn't fix it. CORE trains the layer beneath understanding — the nervous system — where behavior is actually determined.
A lot of successful men are running on autopilot. They show up to dinners, meetings, and conversations — but some part of them isn't really there. CORE rebuilds your felt connection to your own experience. Not as a concept. As something you actually notice, in your body, in real time.
Most men don't have a single relationship where they're fully known. Not a real one. CORE changes that — first inside the group, then outside it. You learn to stay close when your instinct is to pull back. You learn to be honest without it costing you everything. The men you meet in this program become something you didn't know you were missing.
The moments that cost you the most — the argument that escalated, the conversation you avoided, the reaction you regret — those don't happen because you don't care. They happen because your system isn't trained for that kind of load. CORE builds the regulation, orientation, and capacity to stay coherent when it actually counts.
Therapy helps you understand your patterns. Coaching holds you accountable to goals. CORE trains the biological system underneath both of those — the nervous system — where your actual behavior under stress is decided.
80% of the information in your nervous system flows upward from the body to the brain. Most development programs work entirely top-down. CORE works at the source: the body first, the mind second.
The result is change that doesn't evaporate when you're stressed, tired, or in conflict. Change that stays.
Somatic Facilitator · MELD CORE
Mike Sagun is not a guru. He's a deeply embodied somatic facilitator who knows how to run the MELD system so it doesn't collapse into talk, story, or performance.
He keeps men inside their experience when they would normally escape into their heads. That's where the actual change happens — not in understanding, not in cathartic release, but in the sustained moment of staying present when everything in you wants to leave.
Mike brings the same non-ideological rigor to CORE that defines the rest of the MELD system: function over fashion, integration over ideology, results that survive real life.
Five two-week modules. Each one builds on the last. By the end, you're not just more self-aware — you're operating from a different foundation.
We start with your nervous system — not as theory, but as something you can actually feel and map. You'll assess your Autonomic Nervous System, your Window of Tolerance, and your current somatic awareness. Most men discover their range is narrower than they thought — and that narrowness explains a lot.
Every man has patterns that once made sense — ways of shutting down, checking out, overworking, over-controlling — that no longer serve him. In this module you start to see yours clearly. Not to judge them. To understand what they're protecting and what they're costing you.
Human beings regulate their nervous systems through other people. That's not a metaphor — it's physiology. Most men have been isolated from that process for decades. This module does something simple and difficult: it opens the possibility of real connection with other men. Not bonding over achievements. Actually being known.
Something that often surprises men at this stage: energy returns. When you're not spending it on chronic vigilance, rumination, and emotional management, you get it back. This module focuses on reclaiming vitality — the physical, emotional, and relational aliveness that most men have been slowly trading away for years.
The final two weeks are about making it real and making it yours. Skills practiced in the group get integrated into everyday life. The group itself becomes a model for what ongoing men's community can look like. You leave with a system that belongs to you — not a methodology you depend on us to deliver.
APA · Psychology of Men & Masculinities · 2024
Graduating from CORE is the new 'man card'. I feel more grounded in my body, more connected to my emotions, more aware of what's happening to me. Which helps me show up better as a man in my family, work, and community.
By teaching us about the science behind connection, and leading us through facilitated practices, we bonded as a group and each took valuable and actionable takeaways. CORE helped me better connect with myself, so I could connect better with others.
CORE is a great way to learn how to slow down and listen to what your body is telling you. From there you make better business and life decisions.
I've worked with Owen Marcus for 10 years in a group setting. It simply changed my life. Today I'm the man I have always wanted to be. He helped me find my own answers, and that's why the change feels so good. It's mine.
The only woman ever to attend one of our events, Esther actively encourages men to participate in MELD trainings and groups.
Compared the impact of MELD’s work to the healing potential she observed in EFT — from one of the field’s most rigorous researchers.
Recognized MELD’s approach as a parallel path to IFS — a legitimate way of working with a man’s internal landscape that produces real, durable results.
One of the leading couples therapists globally, Terry actively encourages the men he works with to pursue MELD training and groups.
| Format | Live online, group |
| Schedule | Wednesdays, 7PM–9PM ET |
| Duration | 10 weeks |
| Led by | Mike Sagun |
| Entry | Enrollment now open for limited time |
| System tier | Tier 2 — Practice |
| Recommended next | Forge, Prime Retreat |
MELD is a three-tier system. Every offer has a distinct job. CORE is where interest becomes practice.
Start here without overcommitting. Feel the method. Decide if MELD is for you.
Where the work becomes real, repeatable, and embodied. Structured training with an ongoing men's group.
For men ready for a different level of commitment. CORE is the recommended path in.
CORE's outcomes are supported by MELD's own participant survey data and by peer-reviewed research published in the American Psychological Association's journal Psychology of Men & Masculinities.
Less reactive, more capacity to stay grounded under pressure.
Men felt less alone with their inner life — and more able to share it.
Partners, children, colleagues. Connection built on presence, not performance.
Not just inside the program. In the morning. In the meeting. In the argument.
Men reported feeling and managing their emotions better, experiencing more positive affect and joy. They became less reactive and more centered.
Participants became more attuned to their own emotions, needs, and patterns of behavior.
Participants experienced growth in their interpersonal relationships, feeling more connected and safe with others — and more authentic in how they showed up.
Men noted being more adept at resolving conflicts in their relationships rather than avoiding or escalating them.
Participants developed a more compassionate relationship with themselves — less judgmental, more present, more willing to advocate for their own needs.
Men gained clarity on their personal values rather than defaulting to normative expectations. This led to more purposeful living and integrity.
You'll know because it shows up in real situations, not just in how you feel inside the group. You stay present in conversations that used to derail you. Old patterns lose their automatic grip. You start noticing your body's signals before they become a blowup or a shutdown. You ask for what you actually want.
The program has run many times. 78% of participants saw measurable reduction in stress and anxiety. 74% reported improvements in their relationships. If you attend and do the work and don't see results, we return your money — no questions asked.
80% of the information in your nervous system flows up from the body to the brain — not the other way around. Most development programs work from the top down: insight, understanding, new beliefs. That works to a point. The point it stops working is when you're stressed, tired, in conflict, or under real load.
Somatic work trains at the level where your behavior under pressure is actually decided. That's why the changes hold in real life instead of evaporating when things get hard.
Many men tell us it's the most direct thing they've done for their marriage or partnership — more than couples therapy, more than coaching, more than reading every relationship book they could find. Not because CORE is about relationships per se, but because what erodes closeness in relationships is almost always a regulation issue: reactivity, withdrawal, emotional unavailability, defensive communication.
CORE addresses those at the root. 74% of participants reported measurable improvements in their relationships.
You're added to the alumni network and stay connected with your cohort. If your small group wants to keep meeting, MELD will help you launch it as an ongoing men's group with minimal ongoing support from us — that's how most of our strongest communities started.
Completing CORE also prepares you for MELD's more advanced work. The most direct path forward is CORE → Forge (Tier 3, advanced personal transformation) or CORE → Prime Retreat for men who want an immersive experience of the full method.
A therapy group processes the past. A support group offers empathy and validation. CORE trains present-moment functional capacity. The group is a structured somatic practice environment — the most honest, real-stakes arena most men ever practice in.
You're not there to be heard. You're there to develop skills. The hearing happens naturally as a byproduct of the work. It's a meaningful distinction.
Live attendance matters — the group dynamic is part of how co-regulation is trained, and it doesn't work asynchronously. That said, life happens. Sessions are recorded so you can stay current with the material if you miss one. The expectation is that you show up, not that you're perfect.
Enrollment opens on a rolling basis. Join the waitlist to be notified when the next cohort opens.
Free to join the waitlist · No commitment required
