About the NMMW 2026 Fall Conference
An exploration of soul, meaning,
and conscious participation
Become a conscious, active participant and designer of your life and your death by examining the inherited patterns, unconscious habits, and long-held expectations imposed by others that continue to shape and limit your life’s direction, choices, and outcomes.
Join men from across the region for four days of experiential workshops, authentic community, personal reflection, and meaningful growth in self-awareness and meaningful life practices.
Throughout this conference, we will cultivate greater awareness, agency, and conscious participation to create lives of deeper meaning, intentional living, stronger relationships, and greater alignment with our authentic selves and core values.
Workshop Topics
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Seeing the Patterns, Living from Your Deeper Self by Mark Pugsley
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Designing From the Shadow: Reclaiming the Unlived Life by Mitch Tappen
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Accelerating Growth Through the Welcoming Process: Releasing Old Patterns to Live From Your Deepest Wisdom by Glenn Geffcken
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Remembering Who We Are: Reclaiming Healthy Masculine Power Through Conscious Participation by Frank Ortiz
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Roots of Loneliness: Embracing Aloneness by John Mcleod
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Time for Some Action: Conscious Participation and Social Responsibility by Sean Cardinalli
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Exploring Death From the Deeper Self: Life Practices and Intentions by Hank Blackwell
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No Way Out: Death, Surrender, and the Limits of Design by Max River
Conference Presenters
Our conference presenters will lead a series of experiential, interactive, and interconnected workshops designed to help participants become more conscious, active participants in their lives. Through reflection, small group dialogue, and practical experiences, you will gain practical insights and life practices that you can take home to positively influence your relationships, your decisions, and the direction of your life.
The problem this conference seeks to address
It is the problem of old internalized mental-emotional patterns that continue to operate within us. Like an old lens, they color how we see ourselves, our world, our relationships, and the choices we make.
This is, of course, a simplification, yet it is a pattern that repeats itself from generation to generation. It repeats itself in our daily lives. We are relationally and attachment-based human beings, with needs for attention, connection, and belonging that are as essential as food, water, and shelter. Through inadequacy, trauma, abuse, imperfection, family systems, and social circumstances during our formative years, when we are 100 percent dependent upon our caregivers and environment, we develop an array of coping and survival strategies. Many of these patterns become internalized, residing within the deeper limbic brain and operating largely outside of awareness. Some may become maladaptive, hyperactive, or distracting. We continue to live from them long after they have outlived their usefulness.
Not all of these internalized coping patterns are negative. Through them, we have learned to adapt, become resilient, and find ways to overcome the challenges life has presented. They become a part of our character, our strengths, and our identity.
Yet these patterns and parts of the self often react instinctively, automatically, and with little conscious awareness. They quietly influence our identity, our relationships, our life direction, and the way we engage with a world that is already complex, uncertain, and often limiting.
These patterns are not easy to see because our identity has often formed around them. What once helped us survive can eventually become the very thing that limits our freedom, disrupts authentic intimacy in our relationships, and diminishes our capacity to consciously participate in designing the lives we truly desire.
The greatest obstacle to living from the deeper self is often not a lack of desire, but the continued influence of unconscious, inherited, attachment-based patterns that were once adaptive but now limit our conscious participation in life.
Registration Details
Financial Assistance
If you need financial assistance to attend this conference, please contact Victor La Cerva at heartsongsvittorio@gmail.com. NMMW will work with you to determine an amount you can afford so that you may attend.
Donations
If you have the financial means, please consider contributing through the donation page during registration. All donations will support the conference’s financial assistance fund. A contribution of $25, $50, $100, $200, or more will help men with financial need attend the conference.
Conference Spirit of Volunteerism
NMMW has a 40-year history of volunteerism, with men generously contributing their time, talents, and financial support to the organization and its wellness conferences and events.
In keeping with this tradition, the conference leaders and workshop presenters have generously volunteered their time and effort to plan and present this conference. We are deeply grateful for their dedication and service.
Questions about Conference Registration
If you have questions about registration, accommodations, or other logistical needs, please contact Kurt Faust at kurt@tierrateam.com
Community Potluck Thursday evening, October 29
Please bring a favorite dish to share at the community potluck. Please bring enough to serve 6–10 men. All other meals during the conference will be provided by the Ghost Ranch Kitchen.
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