Videos

Healing From Religious Trauma for Gay Men

Many gay men have been effected by messages from those closest to us about the legitimacy of being gay. When those messages are rooted in religion and when we are inundated with those messages, there are real and serious consequences for us. In this video we will start to talk about how we identify the messages we were told, what we took those messages to mean, and the consequences to our development from receiving these messages at a young age.

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Barry Shaeffer
Gay Men and Ghosting

Have you ever been ghosted? It doesn't feel good. Have you ever been in a relationship where you didn't show up authentically? That doesn't feel great either. This week's video kicks off the conversation about ghosting, how we know ourselves better, and how to show up authentically in our relationships.

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Barry Shaeffer
The Power of Transforming Expectation into Intention

We are naturally drawn to fulfilling expectations because that is how we learned to create connection and safety for ourselves when we were young. Meeting expectations, both others' expectations and our own, can run amok when those expectations aren't grounded in what is right and true for us. Intentions are exactly that. They are based in our own truth and they consistently guide us in the direction we want to go. In this week's video we'll start the conversation on how we transform expectations into intention and the life-changing power of doing so.

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Barry Shaeffer
Finding the Love of Your Life

"If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?" In this week's video we dive into these words of wisdom from Mama Ru. We'll talk about how we know when we might be looking for love in all the wrong places and how we can develop the love of our lives.

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Barry Shaeffer
Do Gay Guys Get a Pass on Toxic Masculinity?

The Me Too Movement has brought the subject of toxic masculinity into sharper focus and certainly into the collective conscious in a way that hasn't happened before. It started me wondering what role toxic masculinity might play in my life as a gay man and if there are ways in which I have been complicit or perpetuated toxic masculinity.

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Barry Shaeffer
How We Learn to Trust Our Gut

Today's conversation is about how we know when to take a risk, deviate from the standard, and trust our instincts. This can often be hard to know as our minds get SO BUSY around these things and that can create anxiety, which makes it hard to know the truth from the noise.

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Barry Shaeffer
Sparking More Joy in Our Lives

The success of Marie Kondo's Netflix show Tidying Up and her best seller The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up have made the idea of "what sparks joy" a talking point for many folks. In this video we'll explore how the process Marie uses with possessions works just as well in our relationships and other experiences.

One way we can think about cultivating more joy is by being mindful of our relationship with things that don't turn out the way we expect or plan. We'll talk about how we can view these things as a failure OR they can be an opportunity to know ourselves better and therefore experience more joy.

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Barry Shaeffer
Keys to Creating Meaningful Relationships for Gay Men

As we get older, it feels like making good friends becomes harder. This happens for a variety of reasons that we'll explore in this video. We'll also go over four keys to building solid relationships: setting our intention, getting clear about who we want to be in our relationships, knowing the characteristics that are important to us for the people we want in our lives, and setting the stage to make this happen.

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Barry Shaeffer
Homo for the Holidays: A Gay Man's Guide to Time with Family

For many gay men, heading home for the holidays comes with its challenges. This can be be true for many reasons including: differences in how we see social issues, politics, and religion just to name a few. In this week's video we'll discuss five strategies for taking care of yourself and making the most of your time with your family.

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Barry Shaeffer
Gay Men and Body Shame (Part 1)

This week we talk about how and why body shame shows up for gay men, what the antidotes are to shame, and how we can start to address shame personally and in our community. Next week we’ll continue the conversation with a deeper dive into the keys for developing healthy relationships with our bodies.

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Barry Shaeffer