Referring Clients to the ManKind Project 

A Powerful Supplement to Your Work

Every year, hundreds of men are referred to the New Warrior Training Adventure and ManKind Project Men’s Groups by licensed mental health professionals.

Why our trainings? The New Warrior Training Adventure is a unique opportunity for profound personal growth. Men come seeking support with issues of confidence and self-assurance, manhood and masculinity, isolation, marriage and relationship issues, negative self talk, lack of positive male role models, difficulty finding direction, confronting the past, learning to set boundaries, accountability, male shame … and much more. Each man’s experience of the New Warrior Training Adventure is unique to his needs in whatever life transition he is encountering. The experiential large group training process gives a man the opportunity to witness and support emotional risk-taking in a way that is 100% supportive and affirming. 

Why our men’s groups? Most men lack authentic connection with other men. ManKind Project men’s groups provide a practice space for emotional risk-taking and vulnerability that can help men create healthier habits and be more successful. As a supplement to counseling, a men’s group can be a fantastic place for men to continue goal-setting, checking in with peers, learning skills for self-aware communication, and gaining tools to process difficult situations and emotions. 

Not a Substitute, a Supplement

As we make clear in our Declaration on Mental Health, participation in ManKind Project programs and trainings are not a clinical intervention, and are not a substitute for professional mental health services. The reason that many therapists and professional care-givers recommend the ManKind Project is because it can fill a space not addressed in most therapeutic settings: peer-support for men. Our peer support model encourages and builds on emotional intelligence practices, empathy, listening skills, and emotional risk taking in an environment without rigid gender socialization, competition, or performative masculinity.

Readiness and Safety

NWTA applicants are required to complete a thorough pre-weekend information packet. These confidential applications are reviewed by a state licensed physician. Any flags are reviewed by the ManKind Project USA’s Mental Health Resource Team, a group of volunteer licensed mental health professionals. Additional interviews may be required for participation, including interaction with a participant’s professional care providers. ManKind Project trainings are not appropriate for men in active substance abuse, suicidal ideation, unstable mental states, or who have unexamined trauma. Please read our Declaration on Mental Health. The men who lead the New Warrior Training Adventure have been trained, peer-reviewed, and certified specifically to lead the processes of the training. Trainings and groups are for the purpose of self-exploration and peer-support, and are presented, facilitated, and attended by men ranging in ability to support others in need, and who in most cases do not hold credentials in the helping professions. 

Because of my book, I work daily with emotionally unavailable men, and I, literally, have sent hundreds of men to the NWTA. Why? Because, quite frankly, it makes my job easier. It is a fast and safe way to break through to a man’s walled-off heart, and to soften his resistance to doing emotional work.  I also send men to this program because the response I have received from my clients who have gone through it has been overwhelmingly positive. They become better partners, better parents, better men. I think we have done a great job of empowering women in America, but that is not enough. We MUST heal men to heal the world.
~ Patti Henry, M.Ed., L.P.C., Author; The Emotionally Unavailable Man: A Blueprint for Healing

Evidence Based Results: Peer Reviewed Research

Between 2006 and 2010, the ManKind Project engaged a research team to conduct a longitudinal study on the impact of the NWTA on participating men. Men were surveyed on standard measures for Depression, Conflict between Work and Family, Life Satisfaction,  Restrictive Affectionate Behavior Between Men, Restrictive Emotionality, Success Power and Conflict, Social Support, and Values/Ideology/Growth, prior to participation and one week, six months, approx. one year, and two years afterward.

The results revealed significant changes in men’s attitudes and behaviors more than a year after the training program.

Ryan Stanga, one of the researchers who worked on the study said,

“In short, one year after attending the NWTA, attendees consistently reported improved scores on measures of Depression, Conflict between Work and Family, Life Satisfaction, MKP Beliefs/Ideology/Growth, Restrictive Affectionate Behavior Between Men, and Restrictive Emotionality as compared to their reported scores before the NWTA. These same improvements were maintained when the same scales were measured two-years after attending the NWTA. Each of those scales are described in the paper.”

“What it means is that we can say with some increased confidence that what the ManKind Project does on their training weekends is meaningful and has impact. This is not just anecdotal or our impression, but is confirmed by data.”

Peer-reviewed findings from this research was published in “The American Journal of Community Psychology” (Volume 45, Numbers 1-2, 186-200) and the “Journal of Self-Help and Self Care” (Vol 8, No. 1).

Existing research and survey data has enabled us to adapt our curriculum to better serve a more diverse population, to refine our protocols for relevance over time, and to customize our follow-up efforts to provide effective integration for men after attending the New Warrior Training Adventure.

Our purpose as an organization is to create a world where men take individual and collective responsibility for our shared future by initiating and supporting them on a path of emotional maturity, spiritual awareness and deepening community. Self-awareness, increased connection and compassion, emotional intelligence, accountability, and purpose are key to this mission.

Review a bibliography of research about the ManKind Project spanning over 25 years.

Bibliography listings – Special thanks to Ed Barton
Research Coordinator ManKind Project International (MKPI)
Past Secretary MKP-USA
Past Centre Elder MKP-Windsor/Detroit

Volunteer Curator, Changing Men Collections
Michigan State University Libraries, E. Lansing, MI