Daev’s Men’s Group

First Group July 15 2024 is currently full:
Anyone interested in the group will be put on a waitlist as the group will continue beyond 6 weeks – and may have turn over as it continues. Additionally, because of high interest in the group I will be announcing a second group that will be scheduled later in the week, likely 4:30 pm MT, on Thursdays.

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Join us for a weekly journey with Daev Finn’s Men’s Group, where we delve into the complexities of modern masculinity.  In today’s world, the expectation for men to possess unyielding confidence, while balancing career, relationships, and self-discovery can feel daunting.

Under pressure to find out who we are often without ancestral continuity that meant receiving father-wisdom from past generations, we struggle to find our place while we wrestle with the complex emotions that come from having a broken connection to the past.

Drawing from Jungian and Depth psychology, we navigate the challenges of defining what success means, and finding purpose amidst the pressures of contemporary life. Join us as we explore what it means to be present, engaged, and conscious of the life journey we are on, rather than the destination we are often sold.

Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park – Colorado

Subjects Explored

  • The Father Wound
  • Ancestral Past
  • Self-Confidence
  • Consciousness
  • Meditation: Learning to Fold: Daev’s unique method of meditation
  • Keeping a Ship’s Log: Your Journal
  • Shadow: When addiction rears it’s head
  • Dreamwork

Joining Group

Those seeking to join Daev’s Men’s group will be admitted based on work done in therapy previously, it is not the place to go to therapy without having done some work already. Once admitted to therapy group, members commit to doing a certain amount of weekly work, which may include reading, meditation, and journaling, which all contribute to the the overall success of the group, and what someone takes away from the group experience.

The group is currently open to limited enrollment and invitation. If you are interested in joining the group please email me with a subject line : Daev Group Signup

daev.finn@mac.com

WEEK 1: ARE WE THERE YET?

As I am about to begin my men’s group in a couple weeks I wanted to write an article that sets the rhythm for the first week, to allow anyone on the fence to peek a little more inside my intention for the group. This article is a first article, that will be shared with men in the group (and will be taken down from public sharing after the group is full).

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I like to think of how to set intentions in our lives.

We are meeting for a group, but we are not meeting for drinks and to kick back while watching sports. We are arriving at group with an implied intention, but I like to consider how to set this intention for the week as we move into this group and begin what is a new experience for some. It will in some ways be a new experience for all of us, because this group is currently in uncharted territory since we have not yet met.

We are creating a new space together. We are inviting something in. There are expectations for an experience, and we ourselves are creating that experience. Our participation in the group is important to creating that ephemeral experience that is hard to pin down.

There will be ghosts conjured on this journey.

There will be mythical figures rising from the implied fire at the center of our room. You may feel the gravitational pull of a black hole at the center of our imagined fire – pulling you inward, where the emotions are. You may sense doors opening that you were not aware of.

We set our intention to get there though, to find that fireside place. We have been doing it for a long time. We were not just hunters, we were the artists and spiritualists who honored the animals we hunted and imagined what must be done.

We are here to access something that has been kept away from us. We have been told for too long that men must be strong and quiet. We have been told that big boys don’t cry. We have been told that we must be strong providers – knowledgeable in all things. We have been told to not admit to our weaknesses, to keep the mask on.

We are implored to show no weakness – as if uncontrolled rage were not weakness – or as if isolating silently was a strength.

LOOKING FOR CONNECTION

As we moved away from tribal communities, away from small towns, we moved towards work that keeps us away all day – we have taken on the role of distant provider. We have reached for the “big boy” jobs, the materialistic gains that prove our worth. We may find success and yet still feel empty, we may find company, and feel alone.

Jungian psychotherapist Robert A. Johnson wrote the following:

We live our lives like we have free will, and I believe we do – however we forget sometimes that we are following values that have been amplified by others over past generations. There are well-worn tracks through this universe that we adhere to. We have thousands of years of fairy tales and myths that have worn some of those tracks. Consider also that we have lost the thread of some of the older meanings behind those myths and fairy tales.

Consider that for men in fairy tales, the typical male lead is a prince, who by almost no effort of his own succeeds in being the “hero” of the tale. Is he the hero? Quite often the prince comes into a fairy tale with two things already handed to him, wealth and power, and for the happy ending, he needs to attain only one more thing, beauty

This is what I refer to as The Three Graces complex, a complex that appears to confine men to a very superficial role.

SETTING THE INTENTION

So what is the intention for this first week of Men’s Group? The intention is to discuss what it is we value as men, and perhaps where these values may come from. As we explore these things we value, let’s discuss whether it is bringing us joy or happiness, and why we may be trying to nail down something which is fleeting at best and intermingled with loss and future loss as well.

Let’s consider whether we feel the presence of these three graces, and how they have been distorted through time and distorted to define what it means to be a man. To be manly. To be successful. To have arrived. How do we carry the values of past generations of men?

How does this show up in our lives, and how has it shaped us? How does it feel to be a man in this day and age with the pressure to do all things?

Let’s set the intention as we embark on the first week of this group. Conjuring a meeting space, with each of us poised at the edge of that black hole, at the edge of infinity.

WEEK 2: