From EVRYMAN
to MELD
“Men have asked me for years: where did this start, how did you build it, and why does it work so well? This page is my answer. It is not a pitch. It is a history.”
Thirty Years in the Making
This work began in Boulder, Colorado, in the late 1970s. I trained for four years with the early developers of somatic psychotherapy and body-based healing — including Ron Kurtz (Hakomi) and Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing). That training shaped everything that came later.
In 1980 I moved to Phoenix to work as a Rolfer, then expanded into leading integrative health clinics. That’s where I made the discovery that became the foundation of everything: when I asked men how they felt emotionally, they avoided the question. When I asked what they felt in their bodies, they engaged. Men connect to emotion through the body. Not the other way around.
That insight became the thread running through three decades of work — through men’s groups, trainings, programs, and eventually organizations — all the way to where the work lives now, at MELD.
The Arc of the Work
The Sandpoint Men’s Group
In 1995, while running my clinic in Scottsdale, I started my first men’s group. After moving to Idaho in 1997, I kept building. In 2005, I invited 11 men into my straw bale home in Sandpoint — this time with a fully developed somatic model. That group became the Sandpoint Men’s Group.
Over the next 20 years, it grew to 500+ alumni and 60+ active members across six groups. It sparked a documentary, a book for men, inspired groups across North America, and became the seedbed for three businesses. A peer-reviewed study of the work was published in the American Psychological Association’s premier journal — one of the first studies of its kind.
EVRYMAN
After years of men asking me to teach them to lead groups, I formed Free to Win — traveling North America like the Johnny Appleseed of a new kind of men’s work. In 2017, I co-founded EVRYMAN. I created and led every program, and trained others to do the same. The media took notice — the New York Times, NPR, GQ, ABC News. That attention helped and hurt. But it brought the work to thousands of men.
EVRYMAN became one of the most recognized men’s organizations in the world. The retreats, the training programs, the methodology — all of it was built from the somatic, relational, communal foundation developed in Sandpoint.
MELD — Men’s Emotional Leadership Development
By the end of 2023, it was time to evolve again. I left EVRYMAN — along with my core team and every program and method I had created. With co-founder Duncan Rich, we launched MELD.
Everything I developed at EVRYMAN now lives inside MELD, including what was once the EVRYMAN Method: now the MELD Method. We have expanded — creating offerings for therapists, leaders, couples, and men integrating plant medicine. The work is deeper, wider, and more complete than it has ever been.
“I didn’t expect men to tell us this work saved their marriages. Or that it kept them alive. I didn’t expect to see a movement grow out of one small Idaho group.”
If You’re Looking for What EVRYMAN Used to Offer
EVRYMAN today is a different organization than the one I built. After my departure with the core team, programs, and methodology, EVRYMAN restructured around a membership model — currently a $30/month community offering a few weekly calls and no in-person events.
Many of the top facilitators and trainers who led EVRYMAN’s most impactful programs have followed the work to MELD. The methodology, the faculty, and the depth of practice are here.
Community Membership
- $30/month membership
- Weekly online group calls
- Private community chat
Learn more at evryman.com ?
Full-Spectrum Men’s Development
- MELD CORE — 10-week online foundation program
- MELD PRIME — 4-day immersive retreat
- MELD FORGE — Advanced ongoing group coaching
- Facilitation & somatic coach certification (IT)
- Ongoing men’s groups — local and virtual
- Couples intensives and Hold Me Tight® workshops
- Private coaching with Owen Marcus
- International retreats
Explore at meld.community ?
The Trainers, the Method, the Community — All at MELD
When I left EVRYMAN, I didn’t leave alone. The core team and lead facilitators — including Duncan Rich and Mike Sagun — came with me. Many of the top EVRYMAN trainers are now working with MELD, bringing the same depth of practice, the same somatic foundation, and the same relational skill that made EVRYMAN’s best programs transformative.
The MELD Method is the direct continuation of what was built at EVRYMAN — refined, expanded, and now offered in a more complete system than was ever possible before.
If EVRYMAN changed your life, the men who helped make that happen are here.
Why We Left — and What We Built Instead
Duncan Rich, who co-founded MELD with me, wrote about his experience leaving EVRYMAN with honesty and vulnerability. His piece — Why I Left Evryman — opens a window into what was happening inside: the emotional weight of stewardship, the cost of real change, and what it means to let go of something you built in order to build something truer.
Reading Duncan’s words is its own form of the work. The willingness to be honest about what happened — and why — is exactly what MELD is built to make possible for every man.
Functional Men’s Work
When I gathered those first 11 men in my living room in Sandpoint, I didn’t expect it to become a movement. It was personal. I wanted to learn how to connect in real, grounded ways — and when I started learning, I wanted other men to have the same access.
I didn’t expect men to tell us this work saved their marriages. Or kept them alive. I didn’t expect to see a movement grow out of one small Idaho group. And I didn’t expect that, in my 70s, I’d have more energy and passion for this work than ever — or that every week I’d hear how it’s still changing lives.
This is what we now call Functional Men’s Work.
It’s not therapy. It’s not another self-help trend. It’s a living system that brings men back into connection with themselves, with others, and with what matters most. It began in a living room in Idaho. It now reaches men globally, through MELD.
The Work Continues at MELD
Retreats, trainings, men’s groups, couples work, and professional certification — everything that defined the best of this work, now in its most complete form.
Explore MELD Work With Owen