The NWTA was a wake-up call. Vision and mission didn’t mean anything to me before the weekend but I’m still working with the vision and mission that I took away with me. My mission is about creating a heart world for children where they can flourish and grow, which led to me to become a parenting coach and running parenting workshops which I still do
Look Deeper, Ben Parkes
One of the places that MKP has allowed me to step into – is leadership, which was another foreign place to me before. This kind of leadership means stepping into the kind of life that I have envisioned for myself – one of compassion, meeting the neighbours, connection as well as stepping up to the plate around leadership in terms of standing up for what I believe in.
Look Deeper, Jon Kinsella
My father gave me less than nothing as a role model, and now manhood makes sense to me in my body. I had ‘abuser beliefs’ because that’s what I’d taken in during my childhood. It was in my core. MKP was able to change that. I imbibed from men who had courage, generosity, compassion and wisdom, and that was such a privilege. I learnt integrity and accountability. I’m able to express how I feel. I have so much more clarity. My relationships are much better.
Look Deeper, Paul Hawkes
On the NWTA weekend it became clear I had to decide whether to stay closed up and wary, or to dive in, be more transparent and ‘do my work’. At one point in the training I decided to really go for it and as a result, something inside me genuinely opened up. I experienced a deeper connection with others, in some ways for the first time. I also started realising that vulnerability is strength, which I hadn’t realised before. I have since become increasingly aware of my potential as a man and how to step into that potential.
Look Deeper, Dan Knowlson
For me, my life is like a pressure cooker, it keeps growing in pressure so my i-group is a place where I can express all that energy whether it is grief, pain or laughter. It is a precious safe space where we are supported and challenged. It has a huge impact on my life. My wife says she can always tell when I need to go! I’d trust these men with my life, soul and spirit, that’s how important it is.
Look Deeper, Diarmaid Fitzpatrick
I think I closed down on the grief when my first wife died . It was a way of surviving for me. The weekend was an opportunity to open up the long black bag that Robert Bly talks about in Iron John, there was a choice to make, either live half a life or go for the full one. I’d locked a lot away. It was as if I had no feelings. So I made a decision to let go into my feelings. It opened up a new portal into life for me.
The work: looking up from beneath the surface
A few weeks ago I saw a screening of an intense documentary film called ‘The Work‘. It’s about a project with men at Folsom State Prison in the States by the Mankind Project and shows fruits of ten years work filmed during an intense bi-annual four-day workshop. Prison inmates are also facilitators in a programme inviting men from the outside into the prison. It’s an incredible piece of work, all the more fascinating when you realise how much time and investment has gone into creating conditions for it to be made.
Look Deeper, Daniel Dzikowski
I felt as though I wasn’t masculine enough in those stereotypical ways around my body, sports etc. What I discovered with MKP is that most men feel that way. There is a construct of masculinity in the media and culturally, and most men don’t feel it represents them. Seeing how many different versions of masculinity there are, helped me accept my version.
Look Deeper, Dan Kidner
I was a successful cameraman, but it was the only thing in my life at the time, which gave me a sense of validation. It was how I saw myself as a man. If I was doing well, I felt fine, if not, I felt lost and drank as a way of numbing out my feelings. I’d been drinking since I was 16. In a way, the pub was a sanctuary for me. I was very lost. But I think in one way or another MKP probably saved my life. Sadly a cameraman I know took his life recently. It was a stark reminder of how important the work of MKP is for men today.
My MKP Journey
When I was growing up I thought that my father was perfect. He was my god – I strove to be like him. He had the belief that his behaviour was right and everyone else’s was wrong, if it were different from his own. This was so powerful and undeniable to me. I had no one in my life to make me think that maybe there was another way. But my father didn’t know the truth. His father didn’t and his father before him didn’t. They were simply passing on what they had learned in the best way they knew how.
