If you follow The Integral Center, I am sure you have heard some buzz about the Authentic Man Program.
As a subsidiary of our newly merged partner company Authentic World, AMP is now the men’s work arm of The Integral Center. Given that, you may be wondering: How integral is AMP?
I’ll share how AMP is informed and expressed in an integral framework but first a little backstory about me, Casey Capshaw.
I moved to Boulder 8 years ago to take a job as Assistant Managing Editor for IntegralNaked.org, then the media outreach project of Integral Institute.
I had the opportunity to work very closely with Ken Wilber for 3 years on all manner of Integral initiatives and this is where my curiosity for men’s specific personal development began.
My journey led me from Ken, to David Deida, to Robert Bly and eventually landed me in an AMP Intensive workshop as a “Research Project” for The New Man Podcast, a project I was producing with long-time integralist Tripp Lanier.
This AMP workshop absolutely rocked me and changed my life. Every single relationship I have been in since that workshop has been profoundly more emotionally intimate and rewarding. AMP showed me the “water I was swimming in” and that water involved a lot of emotional unavailability as a by-product of self-protection.
I have taken up the role of Executive Director for AMP as a way to give a little back for the gifts that I received from that workshop back in 2008 and as a brilliant opportunity for me to express my unique self in service of the evolution of men.
So, how is AMP Integral?
As with anything, the answer is complex. At AMP we work a lot with the masculine/feminine polarity, increasing awareness and capacities in both directions through practice. We start with an acknowledgement of the difference in the male and female experience of being human and work with these differences.
AMP is the only program I know that brings in women to work with the men–not as therapists or coaches, but in their full expression as women–to give honest reflection in service of men’s potential.
AMP also fundamentally accepts whatever level of values these men are bringing at any given moment. Our bias is towards transcendence and inclusion by making the subject of a man’s experience into an object in his awareness, including desire, power, darkness, and shadow elements in a male-specific container.
This “spiral wizardry” is what makes AMP special in the world of men’s work and is supported by an integral framework and perspective.
I would love your support in bringing AMP to the men of the Integral community and beyond.
Help us make the Inaugural AMP Workshop at the Integral Center a success by joining us or sharing this event with the men in your life.
More info hereI am also hosting a weekly AMP Men’s Circle by donation (free to IC members) every monday evening at 6pm for any man interested in trying a men’s group for the first time, dropping in for support, or looking to form a more committed men’s group.
Find the Men’s Circle on FacebookI look forward to continuing in this journey with you.
Yours in service,
Casey
Executive Director
Authentic Man Program