PRIME Retreat: Feb 19-22, Joshua Tree, CA: Learn More
A 4-Day Science-backed Somatic Retreat Training for Men
The PRIME Retreat is MELD’s transformative 4-day in-person training, bringing men together to connect – to feel alive and clear again.
This is for men who are ready to do their inner work to achieve peak performance and emotional mastery, becoming a more resilient and connected version of themself.
The model we’ve inherited encourages men to quietly shoulder the weight of their world on their own. We’re taught to prioritize doing over being. Feeling is regarded as an obstacle to productivity.
But what if the opposite were true?
Your felt senses are the ultimate optimization, galvanizing resources you already possess. When you activate your energy, your purpose, and your worthiness, you become unstoppable!
PRIME is where you get back to yourself. Four days of somatic practice, brotherhood, and real nervous system training – so you can stop managing your life and start living it.
slow down enough to hear what your body and heart have been trying to tell you for years – what truly matters and why you’re here.
Sense and name what’s actually happening in your body instead of getting lost in your head. Build the confidence to stay present in moments that once made you shut down or lash out.
Discover how your patterns of protection show up in relationships and communication—and practice new ways of relating that actually work.
PRIME gives you tools to recognize when you’re in fight, flight, or freeze – and how to come back to center fast. Experience what real calm feels like in your nervous system and how to return to it under pressure.
The PRIME Retreat offers something fundamentally different from all other men’s programs:
Our science-based somatic approach bypasses traditional methods to access deep patterns living in your nervous system – you formed these patterns out of survival, yet parts of them no longer serve you.
We teach practical tools you will start using immediately to build resilience against stress and burnout, putting down what you no longer need to carry.
Rather than performing or intellectualizing about change, we help you access and release what’s built up underneath – the stored experiences, tensions, and patterns that have been interrupting your natural biology.
Experience the magic of the high desert of southern California, just as Bill and Elizabeth Campbell did. After the First World War, the couple were sent to the high desert because of Bill’s declining health from exposure to mustard gas. The warm, dry environment and clean air improved Bill’s health and they decided to make the desert Home. The Campbell’s homestead a tract of land near the Oasis of Mara and built a cottage which formed the nucleus of their beautiful home, completed in 1925.
The massive granite monoliths that dot the landscape are a testament to geological forces at work over eons. Sunrises and sunsets paint the horizon in breathtaking arrays of color. Renowned for some of the best stargazing in the US, on a clear night, the Milky Way stretches across the sky in a band so bright it can cast shadows. The area’s namesake, the Joshua Tree, have a unique, almost whimsical appearance, their twisted, spiky forms creating quirky and captivating silhouettes against the sky.
Owen Marcus, a pioneer in men’s emotional wellness, brings over four decades of groundbreaking experience to guide individuals toward profound personal growth and emotional resilience.
Mike Sagun is an educator, SEP, and somatic men’s coach. in the last 18 years, Mike has helped hundreds of men worldwide transform their lives through coaching, retreats, and online programs.
Duncan Rich is a father, husband, and somatic men’s coach. Driven by a people-centric view of sustainability, Duncan believes that by raising emotionally resilient children, we are able to shape the future.
Immerse yourself in a series of targeted somatic exercises designed to sharpen your body’s sensory acuity. Learn to recognize and interpret subtle physical signals, enhancing your ability to respond to your body’s needs. This foundational session sets the stage for deep, embodied self-discovery throughout the retreat.
Delve into the complexities of your autonomic nervous system. Gain practical skills to identify and manage fight, flight, or freeze responses in yourself and others, to connect more deeply with the world around you. Confront long-held patterns and beliefs, paving the way for profound personal breakthroughs.
Under careful guidance, learn to embody and confront your internal blocks. Awaken and integrate dissociated parts of yourself, completing experiences that have been interrupted. Reclaim your innate power and rediscover your life’s purpose with renewed clarity and vigor. Bring previously disconnected aspects of yourself into harmony with your whole being.
Honor the journey you’ve undergone. Reflect on your experiences with new insights. Practice sustainable tools and resources designed to support your continued growth and evolution long after the retreat. Leave with a renewed sense of purpose and a practical roadmap for ongoing personal development.
Men can be reluctant to fully engage with their own personal development. Many men don’t have experience with feeling the kind of safety that is necessary for them to truly let their guard down and address what is going on underneath. Yet men regularly report moving more energy and making more progress in a weekend with us than they have in years of therapy.
Learn to harness the MELD Method, an integrated somatic technique you can begin to incorporate into your practice.
MELD’s groups and programs are a perfect complement to traditional therapy. We are not therapists; we are facilitators who create spaces for men to develop and practice new skills. Our method, grounded in the science of emotional physiology, promotes authentic connections and resilience.
Based on the work of many researchers and therapy innovators, such as Peter Levine, Esther Perel, Stephen Porges, and Sue Johnson, we have crafted a new approach to working with men.
It’s difficult to lead a man to a depth within himself that you yourself have not experienced. That’s why all of our trainings are experiential, which means you will learn by doing, and by receiving. The Prime Retreat is a training opportunity to embody a new skill. Add the MELD Method, proven effective over decades practice, as a tool to your arsenal for working with with men.
A 2024 study published in the American Psychological Association’s (APA) journal, Psychology of Men & Masculinities, tracked the progress of a group of 14 men in order to explore the efficacy of the MELD Method.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-50444-001?doi=1
The study finds that men who participate in MELD’s programs experience:
The study reported men 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 emotions, needs, and patterns of behavior.
Participants experienced growth in their interpersonal relationships, platonic and romantic, feeling more connected and safe with others. They reported being more authentic and able to share their feelings openly.
Men noted being more adept at resolving conflicts in their relationships.
Participants developed a more compassionate relationship with themselves, becoming less judgmental and more present. They learned to advocate for themselves, set boundaries, and ask for what they need.
Men gained clarity on their personal values, as opposed to adhering to normative expectations. This led to more purposeful living and integrity.
Many men’s retreats inspire, but few help you rewire your operating system to discard old patterns and create new ones.
At MELD PRIME you’ll practice body-based skills to discharge stress, express cleanly, and leave with an integration plan you’ll actually use. It’s a reset for your nervous system and your relationship to life.
4 days of experiential training in our science-based, somatic method for shedding the protective patterns our nervous system has created for us, and bringing lost, disconnected, or frozen parts of ourself back online.
We slow down, teach, practice in triads and small groups, spend time in nature, eat good food, and of course relax and integrate.
The word “soma” is Greek for “body”, “somatic” simply means “of the body”. What that means is that we work with the signals and wisdom of the body to get “underneath” behavior patterns and beliefs. Intellectually understanding what isn’t working is great, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to make sustainable changes. That’s because our patterns live in our body and are reenforced by our nervous system.
Consider that 80% of information in your system flows upwards from your body to your brain [1]. Whenever something happens in our world, our body is first to react – first we have a physical experience. Then, we have an emotional experience, and THEN we have a cognitive, intellectual experience.
Yet we live in a “top-down” world where our lives are determined and dictated from the mind. While the mind is a very powerful tool, it cannot be the only voice represented in the conversation. Understanding why we do what we do is only part of the puzzle. The mind can often function as the biggest distraction from the root of an issue due to its power to rationalize, as the nervous system instinctively works to protect us from feeling discomfort.
[1] Porges, S. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74(2), 116-143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.06.009
The MELD Method is a science-backed process for slowing down, and safely and effectively confronting what’s been hidden in our unconscious.
Created by Owen Marcus in 1995, The MELD Method is grounded in 7+ decades of research in how stress impacts the body, including the work of Ron Kurtz (Hakomi), Dr. Stephen Porges (Polyvagal Theory), Sue Johnson (Emotionally Focused Therapy), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing), as well as Attachment Theory, Internal Family Systems, breathwork, and many other lineages.
The process is designed to holistically restore a man’s natural ability to live in alignment with his deepest purpose, feel profoundly fulfilled in his relationships, and contribute to the world in ways that are truly meaningful.
MELD is a health and education organization serving men and addressing the challenges men face – from a man’s perspective. We work with men who are ready to do their own inner work to achieve amazing results that traditional therapy cannot offer.
MELD is not a boot camp that beats you up and humiliates you, nor do we engage in new-age, mythopoetic concepts of what masculinity is and isn’t. We don’t offer prescriptive advice or one-size-fits-all solutions. Our approach honors the unique story, struggles, and aspirations of every man.
Nope. This state is a result of your nervous system, which is designed to protect you, working perfectly.
Here’s what’s happened: When you were young, you had many experiences that were too big for you to process. You did not have the skills, the model, or the safety to fully express and process your experience, and as a result, part of you was left incomplete. In order to protect you from the discomfort of incompletion, your nervous system, started to withdraw you from connection to what you were feeling.
This is all of us.
This became a pattern, because we had to. Now that we’re adults, those patterns have features that no longer serve us.
With careful facilitation, a protected container, and a supportive group, we can shed the elements that are holding us back, while keeping all of the positives that we’ve built for ourselves.
Men regularly tell us that they get more from working with us than they’ve received from decades of therapy.
That may sound like a brag, but it’s a fact.
Science-Rooted Approach: At the heart of MELD’s methodology is a deep commitment to a science-backed approach. By weaving in over five decades of physiological research and the therapies that emerged from this extensive study, MELD’s methods and trainings are not just innovative but also grounded in proven scientific principles. This commitment to research-based strategies provides a solid foundation for all of MELD’s programs, guaranteeing reliability and effectiveness.
Body-Based: MELD’s somatic (body-based) approach speaks to men’s physicality and tendency towards action. MELD addresses your Somaware™, the system with which you perceive and translate the unconscious signals of the body into conscious, actionable information, focusing on the impacts of stress and other experiences on your physiology. Somaware™ is the bridge between the physical sensation and non-physical concept, our shorthand for the system that makes the unconscious –> conscious.
This body-based approach recognizes the intricate connection between the physical body and emotional well-being. By employing techniques that directly engage with the body’s innate wisdom, aka “getting out of your head and into your body”, MELD facilitates a deeper experience, leading to emotional mastery, peak performance, deeper connections, and the capacity for profound personal growth.
Community: MELD often works with men in groups, helping them break out of patterns of isolation that society has forced us into, building deep bonds and creating community. This community focus allows individuals to learn, grow, and heal within a supportive network, as our biology demands. The shared experiences within the community foster a sense of belonging and provide a safe space for open communication and mutual support. This aspect of MELD’s ethos taps into the human need for connection, leveraging the journey of personal development to be more enriching and powerful.
Causal Orientation: Rather than merely addressing the effects of personal challenges, MELD focuses on their causes. This approach identifies and addresses how the root issues have manifested in unconscious protective patterns, leading to more effective and lasting change. By understanding and tackling the underlying causes of challenges, MELD helps men achieve sustainable growth that builds on itself.
MELD’s unique blend of science, body awareness, community engagement, and a focus on causality creates a holistic impact that transcends traditional wellness and growth methods. MELD men experience not just temporary relief or superficial changes but deep, lasting transformation that permeates all aspects of their lives.
