Hi Friend!
I’ve been on a mission to fight the patriarchy by empowering, protecting, and liberating women my whole life.
Almost 17 years ago I discovered I could do this as a personal trainer, by helping women reclaim their bodies and power through developing physical prowess and getting strong AF.
Ten years ago I decided to switch gears and empower women as a body image coach instead, helping them root out the underlying causes for their insecurities, and cultivate an authentic and resilient sense of self-compassion, self-worth, and self-acceptance. I’d seen how these issues disproportionately impacted women and femmes, and I became obsessed with figuring out what really caused so many folks to feel insecure, unworthy, anxious, and disempowered in their relationship with themselves and their bodies.
Over the years I’ve honed my craft as a coach, established a deep understanding of the topics and tools that play a role in these issues, and developed a comprehensive system for helping anyone overcome body anxiety, shame, and insecurity, through body neutrality. (You can check out my book BODY NEUTRAL: A Revolutionary Guide to Overcoming Body Image Issues to learn more!)
All of this is to say that the approach and expression of my mission has changed multiple times over the years, but the core mission itself has always stayed the same: to fight the patriarchy by empowering, protecting, and liberating women and femmes.
But lately I’ve been feeling called to make another change, and to explore the mission in a new way—a more direct, and hopefully more impactful way—by working directly with men.
For years, I’ve worked with women to heal and overcome the traumatic experiences they’ve had at the hands of men and patriarchy, unlearn the messages they’ve learned about gender and worthiness, and navigate relationships with men that feel inequitable, frustrating, and fulfilling, and wished I could do more. I wished I could go directly to the source of these issues, and work with men directly.
To be fair, I’ve always worked with men.
Due to the gendered nature of body image issues, my public-facing content has always been geared toward women, femmes, and non-binary folks (ie: pretty much everyone but straight/cisgender men), but my private coaching practice has always included men. Men who struggle with food and body image issues. Men who struggle with sexual issues and insecurities. Men who struggle with relationship issues, and men who just want to feel more confident, do less harm, and learn to fully accept and express themselves.
The truth is that I deeply love working with men,, but I’ve never considered creating a coaching offer, course, or program specifically for straight cis men until now.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a total business overhaul! I’ll still be offering all my normal coaching packages for body neutrality, I’m just starting to think about how I can best help men…
…connect with themselves, their bodies, and their intuitions, so that they can understand their inner worlds better, do less harm, and cultivate a more authentic and resilient sense of self-worth.
…develop a healthier relationship to pleasure, sex, intimacy, and joy.
…understand how patriarchy has impacted them personally, and help them heal and restore the parts of themselves that have been damaged or lost in the pursuit of masculine ideals.
…recognize how they have inadvertently benefitted from gender discrimination (and inequitable distributions of domestic and emotional labor in their relationships with women), and find ways of taking accountability and making changes to their identity and behavior that feel empowering and fulfilling, rather than punishing.
…develop the skills that will help them cultivate healthy and fulfilling relationships, like emotional self-awareness, communication, attunement, and healthy coping skills (as well as more practical relationship skills, like how to empathize with and validate someone’s feelings without offering solutions, and how to safely and productively navigate conflict).
…identify and break free from their deeply rooted and unconscious beliefs/entitlement when it comes to gender, relationships, sex, and life—without shame getting in the way—because our conditioning isn’t our fault, but dismantling it is our responsibility!
I’m still in the early brainstorming phase around this, so I’m open to any and all feedback– especially around what kind of program, course, or offer you think would appeal most to you (if you happen to be a man yourself), or to the men in your life, as well as on which topics, issues, and skills you think would make you/them most likely to sign up!
I’m so curious to hear your thoughts, so whether you’re a man who might be interested in working together in some capacity, you’re partnered to a man who would benefit from this kind of work, or you just want to share your thoughts– go ahead and hit reply to let me know!
Big hug,
Jessi
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