Authentic Relating & Empowerment for Gay Men
A Comprehensive online group coaching program for learning how to thrive as a Gay Man
In this 9-week group program you will learn how to heal your relationship with yourself so you can feel empowered in your relationships with others. Through teaching you life changing skills and facilitating healing connections with like-minded gay men, each workshop will bring you closer to becoming the confident gay man you deserve to be.
Before we get into the nitty gritty about the program, we want to talk about who this program is actually for…
You identify as a gay man and you have always felt a little different than most people. You have an urge to express yourself but are uncomfortable doing that due to previous rejection, so you sometimes feel the need to hide the true nature of who you really are.
Whether you’re…
- Hiding aspects of yourself due to prior experiences of rejection, criticism, or judgement
- Struggling with intimacy avoidance or avoiding your own emotions
- Don’t understand how to accommodate your sexuality or sexual urges in a healthy way
- Feeling socially overwhelmed and anxious
- Struggling in your relationships
- Can’t seem to kick that pesky habit of people pleasing
- Feeling alone or lonely in the world without connection to other gay men/community
You’re in the right place and I want to tell you exactly how Authentic Relating & Empowerment (ARE) for Gay Men will give you the tools, inspiration and support to learn how to thrive as a gay man in a world that often tells you to be something that you’re not.
Maybe this is the time in your life when you unconditionally fall in love with yourself…
By the end of this 9-week program you will:
Have a better understanding of what it takes to thrive as a gay man
Learn how to embrace and accommodate your sexuality
Have a greater sense of safety and confidence to show up just as you are without hiding behind the masks you have created
Develop strategies to manage the anxiety that being gay can cause
Experience more vitality and aliveness as you establish meaningful connections with like-minded gay men
Develop interpersonal skills and new ways of relating to others in an authentic way
Learn how to become more self-expressive so you can get your needs met and live a more fulfilling and satisfying life
When you enroll for this 9 week program you’ll learn how to:
- Embrace and value your identity as a gay man
- Be vulnerable in a safe space with like-minded people
- Accommodate the impact of your sensitivity in everyday life
- Address the challenges of being a gay man
- Draw on the strengths of being a gay man
- Understand your unique needs as a gay man
- Honour your own boundaries
- Let go of people pleasing habits
- Let go of unhelpful coping habits
- Develop emotion processing skills
- Show up authentically so you can stop hiding
- Let go of shame related to being gay and recognize and develop tolerance to your shame triggers
- Show up more presently in your own life
- Express yourself in a way that gives you more satisfaction in your roles and relationships
- Handle rejection and let go of your fear of judgement
- Self-affirm instead of seeking external validation
- Replace unhelpful coping habits with facing up to challenges with courage
- Form healthy relationships that will meet your needs
When you enroll you get access to:
- 25 hours of workshop time over 9 weeks (Live on Zoom)
- Workshops include: PowerPoint slide presentations, large group discussions, smaller breakout room discussions
- Lifetime access to all the course materials (PowerPoint slides, resources etc.)
- Weekly check-in calls with other participants
- Access to a group chat during and after the course (via WhatsApp)
- Resources and pro tips on how to navigate many of the challenges faced by gay men Reading recommendations
- An opportunity to change your life and meet some amazing people who are on a similar journey
Do you believe that life has singled you out, and in some ways has placed an unfair burden on your shoulders?
Instead of dealing with your feelings, you may have suppressed them in order to function and survive. You may feel that your sexuality inhibits you from accessing life like you want to, or that you’re not able to live life on your own terms.
I am also a gay men so I understand what you’re going through. I know what it’s like to disown aspects of myself. I know know what it’s like to abandon myself for the approval of others. I know what it’s like to feel like I need to hide away from the world because my anxiety is out of control.
I want to offer you a way out. The same way out that I took to learn how to thrive as a gay man. I know you are capable of transforming the way you relate to yourself and the world around you. I know you can stop disowning aspects of yourself and embrace who you really are. I know how powerful it can be to connect with other gay men on this journey and I want to share this opportunity with you.
The “ARE for gay men” group program offers you a healing community where we all walk each other home to the truth of who we are. For many of us it may be the first time we feel like we truly belong to a community of like-hearted people.
This is the power of the ARE group program and I would love for you to join us on this powerful and transformative journey.
Sneak peek at what’s inside the program
9 weeks of interactive group training and coaching:
Week 1: Introduction to ARE
- Creating a safe space and getting to know each other
- Course overview and setting your goals
- How to get the most out of the course
- Understanding the nature of gay men and our community
Week 2: Overcoming the Pain Of our Past: Growing Up Gay
- Exploring the emotional impact of growing up gay
- Exploring the challenges and benefits of being a gay men
- Unpacking the social conditioning we may have inherited around sexuality and gender
- Understanding gay shame
- Exploring internalized homophobia
Week 3: Understanding Emotions & developing Emotional Intelligence
- Explore the difference between healthy and unhealthy emotion processing
- Learn how to work with challenging emotions many gay men have to face: shame, inadequacy and fear
- Addressing unhelpful coping behaviours (substance use, sexual compulsivity, comfort eating, procrastination, codependency, dissociation and social withdrawal)
- Addressing unresolved emotional responses from the past by exploring the journey of emotional development
Week 4: Healing Shame & Trauma
- Understanding the impact of toxic shame and developing shame resilience
- How to care for the traumatized inner child
- Understanding trauma and how to begin the healing process
- Understanding and disarming our protector parts
- Moving towards an internal sense of safety and security
- Understanding the unique needs of gay men
- How to start to empower ourselves as gay men
Week 5: Integration Period: learning to rest
- Integration is taking what we learned so far, making meaning of it, and applying it to our lives
- During integration we are no longer consuming, we are digesting what we already consumed
- We use this week to integrate all the information and experiences from the first 4 workshops
- It is a time to slow down, rest, and let the work we have done take hold in our mind, body and soul
Week 6: Becoming more Present
- How to authentically connect to yourself and others through presence
- How to become emotionally intelligent and resilient
- Developing the observer self: the part of you that witnesses your experiences
- Developing your intuition and curiosity in relation to other people’s feelings and behaviours
- Learn how to hold space for other people to be authentic
Week 7: Improving Your Communication: Listening Skills
- How to give and receive emotional validation
- Understanding differences in relating to people who are not gay
- How to actively listen and make people feel heard
- How to slow down your pace of relating so it can meet your needs and the needs of others
- The art of conflict transformation
Week 8: Improving Your Communication: Self-Expression
- Exploring barriers to self expression
- Breaking the habits of people pleasing
- How to communicate your needs and make decisions more effectively
- Using vulnerability to enrich your relationships
- Cultivating your sense of worthiness
- How to set and maintain healthy boundaries
Week 9: Program Integration & Wrap Up
- Integration is taking what we learned so far, making meaning of it, and applying it to our lives
- During integration we are no longer consuming, we are digesting what we already consumed
- We use this week to integrate all the information and experiences from the last 4 workshops
- It is a time to slow down, rest, and let the work we have done take hold in our mind, body and soul
THE “ARE for gay men” Facilitator
You may be asking yourself “who is this person that will show me how to change my relationship with myself and my sexuality?
I help gay men who feel they need to hide who they are and are struggling with low self-worth, learn how to overcome insecurity, loneliness and shame. I am offering you a step-by-step process and a supportive community to go on a journey towards living a more authentic and empowered you!
Matt Landsiedel
Matt is a Counsellor & Facilitator from Calgary, Canada.
Matt specializes in working with highly sensitive people (HSP), empaths and gay men to develop a stronger sense of self-worth. His areas of expertise are teaching people how to heal toxic shame and attachment trauma and embody their authentic self so they can enjoy meaningful connections in their lives.
Matt is a Registered Professional Counsellor through the Canadian Professional Counsellors Association. He has spent the last 17 years working in the fields of Mental Health & Addiction Counselling and Intuitive Life and Spiritual Coaching where he guides people on their psychological and spiritual journey through life.
Matt has also studied Peruvian Shamanism through the Santa Tierras Earth Medicine Traditions and incorporates this healing modality into his own life and coaching/counselling practice.
Inspired to Be Authentic is a mission Matt has purposefully created. Through his creative content and coaching/counselling, he offers you inspiration to share more of your truth with the world. He does this by teaching you life changing skills and sharing energetic transmissions that inspire you to show up courageously in your own life by practicing vulnerability.
Matt’s vision for this world is for us all to live with more courage so we can share our authenticity and enjoy more meaningful connections in our lives.
In his spare time, you can find Matt traveling the world, writing, reading, hiking mountains, meditating and contemplating life, spending quality time with family and friends, learning the guitar, singing, photography, and spending time building conscious community and his private coaching/counselling practice.
