Positive Masculinity & Self-Leadership

6 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Define what it means to live a fulfilled life for you as a man together with your cohort. Develop a toolkit of positive masculinity.

Course overview

Do you sometimes lack purpose, passion and a sense of belonging?

Being a man in the 21st century means living in a paradox: old stereotypes of traditional masculinity prevail in media and society, yet we are expected to be modern, equal, caring, emotionally vulnerable men.


The course will take a small group of men on a journey of self-reflection. If you wonder what being a man in the 21st century means to you and you sometimes feel trapped in between the conflicting messages you are receiving, this course might be for you.


Together we’ll reflect about gender stereotypes, expressing emotions, how to create better relationships, and how to make your life more purpose-driven.


We'll discover that there is no one right way of being a man. Instead, you'll need to arrive at your own answers. In the course we'll kickstart and accelerate the process of arriving at your own answers by working as a group. It will get you set up on this path so that you can continue to do your own work afterwards.

The course covers three core areas:

01

Definition of Masculinity – Improve you understanding of what masculinity means to you and come up with a working definition.

02

Self-Management – Understand your emotions better and develop more self-compassion.

03

Male Friendships – Understand and improve your friendships with other men.

Your journey of reflected masculinity starts here.

Understand the differences between gender, biological sex and sexual orientation

The course includes a crash course in gender studies with the goal of understanding which behaviours and properties of gender are socially constructed (spoiler alert: a lot of them!). This will enable you to open up your thinking about what is masculine vs. feminine.

Reflect how your view of masculinity was shaped by role models

We'll dissect how your views on what a man should and shouldn't do was affected by the people who were around you growing up. Understanding this is crucial in order to liberate yourself from constraints and ideas that no longer serve you.

Develop more self-compassion

We'll look at how your inner critic might be holding you back from improving your life and come up with some helpful reframes

Improve your friendships

I believe that having a group of men around us who we trust is one of the bases of secure masculinity. We'll dissect the friendships you already have and come up with a plan on how to deepen them.

Examine how you express emotions

Most men grew up socialised in a way that doesn't 'allow' us to express our emotions fully: Boys don't cry. We'll reflect how each of us expresses emotions. We'll do this without judgement. Expressing emotions is a valuable skill that can be learned.

Reflect on your life and what it means to you to be a man together with peers

During the course you'll be part of a supportive group of men. You'll help each other in your personal growth during the course and hold each other accountable to becoming a better version of yourself.

This course includes

7 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

In-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

Projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Mar 8—Mar 9

    Mar

    9

    Intro Event (in person)

    Sun 3/95:15 PM—7:45 PM (UTC)

Week 2

Mar 10—Mar 16

    Mar

    10

    Masculine vs. feminine (online)

    Mon 3/107:00 PM—8:45 PM (UTC)

Week 3

Mar 17—Mar 23

    Mar

    17

    Male role models & relationship with your father (online)

    Mon 3/177:00 PM—8:45 PM (UTC)

Week 4

Mar 24—Mar 30

    Mar

    24

    You and your emotions (online)

    Mon 3/247:00 PM—8:45 PM (UTC)

Week 5

Mar 31—Apr 6

    Mar

    31

    Self-compassion and the inner critic (online)

    Mon 3/316:00 PM—7:45 PM (UTC)

Week 6

Apr 7—Apr 13

    Apr

    7

    Your friendships (online)

    Mon 4/76:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)

Week 7

Apr 14

    Apr

    14

    Closing: Bringing it all together and writing your Man-ifesto (online)

    Mon 4/146:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)

Post-course

    Tying it all together: What kind of men do we want to be?

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What people are saying

        The course is indeed a self journey and at the end what I have today is something I would never imagined at the start, the course took me from reflecting on my ideas of what is men, to the foundation of gender science, to discussing such crucial topics like attachment. I am comfortable with the topic today as oppose to [...] when I started.
Yashvir

Yashvir

Meet your instructor

Peter Fessel

Peter Fessel

Facilitated 35+ men's circles; diploma in men's work

Why me: As part of the Berlin Men’s Group I’ve facilitated 35+ men’s circles and I also recently finished a 3-week training as a men’s work facilitator. In the course, however, I don't see myself as a teacher – I’ll be a facilitator and you will do most of the work as a group and learn from each other. The aim of the course is to give you a basic introduction to the above topics so that you can continue to do your own work afterwards.

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Course schedule

2-4 hours per week

  • Intro Event (in person)

    Sunday 09.03. – 6.15 pm

    To get up to speed quickly, we'll have the first two sessions on consecutive days.


    We'll start on Sunday with the intro session where we get to know the group. This will happen in person in Friedrichshain.

  • Weekly Sessions (online)

    Mondays 10.03.-14.04. – 8pm

    Here we have our weekly meetings.


    Rough agenda:

    • 5 mins welcome & checkin
    • 15 mins reflection on last week's topic
    • 45 mins group exercise & workshop on this week’s topic
    • 30 mins topic input & discussion
    • 15 mins discuss the homework and reading at home
  • Weekly reading & self-reflections

    1-2 hours per week

    For best results please reserve some time for your own individual work during the week.

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Interactive and project-based

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Learn with a cohort of peers

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Stay in the loop

Sign up to be the first to know about course updates.

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Be the first to know about upcoming cohorts

Positive Masculinity & Self-Leadership