What if masculinity wasn’t about fitting into a mold, but about playfully challenging everything you’ve been taught?
Beyond The Masc. is a community for masculine-identifying people and those exploring masculinity to engage in emotional honesty, vulnerability, and authentic connection through gatherings, retreats, and online spaces.
A space for emotional growth, relational practice, and
moving BEYOND disconnection through lived experience.
What is Beyond the Masc.?
Beyond the Masc. is a membership-based community for ongoing
personal exploration and relational growth.
It is not a course or a one-time workshop.
It is an ongoing practice of showing up more honestly, with yourself and with others.
We create spaces for real-time connection, reflection, and shared growth.
What you can expect
A space to show up, speak honestly, and be in
real-time connection with others.
Conversations with voices expanding perspective and challenging inherited norms.
Ongoing connection with people practicing honesty, presence, and relational awareness.
Focused sessions exploring identity, emotion, and patterns of unlearning together.
A space to slow down, reflect, and be witnessed without agenda or performance.
Tools and reflections to support your process between gatherings.
Why Beyond the Masc.?
Many of us were handed a version of masculinity shaped by systems
like patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism.
In that version, strength meant control, success meant performance,
and worth meant emotional restraint.
Over time, we learn to suppress parts of ourselves that don’t fit that mold,
especially softness, vulnerability, and emotional honesty.
Beyond The Masc. exists for people who feel that disconnect, not because something is wrong with them, but because something in the framework they were given was incomplete.
This is not about fixing yourself or becoming someone new.
It is about letting go of inherited rules, remembering ways of being rooted in care and connection, and getting curious about who you are BEYOND performance.
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How We Do What We Do
Beyond The Masc. creates spaces, not solutions.
We don’t approach growth as something to fix or optimize. We treat it as something to be experienced together, in real time.
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Each gathering is guided, but not rigid. There is structure, and there is space for what is actually present.
You don’t need to perform, prepare, or show up in any particular way. You just need to show up as you are.
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What to expect:
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real conversations, not lectures
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guided reflection, not instruction
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emotional honesty without pressure to perform
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group connection that is participatory, not performative
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space for both silence and expression​​​
There is no requirement to be “good at this.”
Just willingness to be present.
Who is Beyond the Masc. for?
This space is for people who feel the tension between who they’ve been taught to be
and who they actually are.
You may not always have language for it, but you feel it in your relationships, your body, and the way you move through the world.
It often shows up as:
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holding it together on the outside while feeling disconnected internally
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performing strength even when you feel uncertain or overwhelmed
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struggling to be fully honest in close relationships
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feeling like parts of you don’t have space to exist
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wanting deeper connection but not always knowing how to access it
If you are tired of performing versions of yourself,
and curious about what’s underneath,
you are in the right place.
What You May Experience Here
As you participate in this space, you may begin to notice shifts that are subtle but meaningful.
Not as instant transformation, but as gradual change in how you relate to yourself and others.
YOU MAY EXPERIENCE
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Feeling less alone in what you’ve been carrying internally
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Practicing honesty in real time without needing to get it right
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Becoming more comfortable with a wider emotional range
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Experiencing connection that is not based on impressing or proving anything
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Reconnecting with parts of yourself that have been shut down or ignored
There is no expected outcome here.
Only the possibility of returning to yourself more fully, over time.
Start Here
If this resonates, the best way to begin is by joining a free monthly circle.
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This is a simple, low-pressure space to experience the work, meet others, and see if this feels aligned for you.
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You do not need to prepare anything.
You do not need to know what to say.
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Just show up as you are.
Go-Beyond Membership
Membership is a commitment to your own growth, your relationships, and your willingness to stay engaged in the ongoing practice of living more honestly.
This is not about consuming content.
It is about practicing presence, reflection, and connection over time.
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What’s included:
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Monthly community gatherings
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Quarterly workshops
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Guest speaker sessions
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1:1 reflective check-ins
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Private online community space
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Resource library for ongoing support
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This is for people seeking not just insight, but ongoing practice.
A place to return to, not just visit.
If you are unsure where to place yourself, choose the level that feels honest, not strained.
You can always adjust later.
About
Erik “Joel” Pye (he/him) is a facilitator and community builder who creates spaces where people can show up fully, without needing to perform, impress, or hold everything together.
His work explores masculinity, identity, and the stories we inherit about who we are supposed to be.
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He believes that unlearning is part of healing, and that emotional honesty is a practice, not performance.
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Rooted in social justice, ecological thinking, and community care, Erik’s approach blends structure with softness, inviting both depth and ease into the spaces he holds.
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He has facilitated conversations in community spaces, virtual circles, and in-person gatherings, always centered on presence, listening, and relational awareness.
This work is not about fixing people.
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It is about creating spaces where people can meet themselves more honestly.
“We don’t have to have all the answers,
we just have to be willing to stay in the questions.”