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1:1 Coaching
Individual support for bringing this work into everyday life, with Louis or Jack.
Explore coachingA global community of men
For a life well lived in good company
Mindful practice. Honest conversation. Real brotherhood.
Join us on SubstackWhat we are
A growing guild of men learning the craft of living well, with each other and in the world.
A guild is a community built around a shared craft. For us, that craft is living with presence, honesty and care at home, at work and in our relationships. We share ten principles, learn from one another, look out for each other and have adventures together.
You don't have to become a particular kind of man to belong here.
The Guild began with a retreat in 2024 and a group of men who didn't want to lose what they'd found. Today most of us gather around our monthly letters on Substack. We also meet in person on retreat, and offer one-to-one coaching for bringing what you learn into everyday life.
At the heart of it are our inner circles: small, facilitated groups of men who meet every month to practice together, speak honestly and show up for each other in between. Our founding circle is full. Future circles will open to men who have joined us on retreat first, because we want those relationships to begin in person.
And you don't need an inner circle to belong to the Guild.
What we believe
Men don't need another ideal to live up to.
Most of us inherited a narrow script for being a man. A lot of men's work hands us a new one. We think there's another way for men to heal and grow.
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The old script is too small.
Be strong, be successful, don't need help. Expectations around sex, anger and vulnerability are hard to see, let alone loosen, and they quietly cost us our health, our relationships and our honesty.
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A new script isn't the answer.
Kings, warriors, the divine masculine. If it helps a man become more caring, honest and responsible, good. But another ideal of manhood can become one more thing to perform, and one more place to hide.
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All of you is welcome.
Including the parts that don't fit neatly into “masculine” or “feminine.” We want room to discover how we actually want to live, not a new role to play.
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Men can learn to care for each other.
There's something moving about receiving care from men when you've learned to expect competition, advice or distance. That's why we do this work with other men.
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Healing and growth reach beyond ourselves.
Self-development can become an endless project with the self at the centre. We also ask harder questions: which systems we benefit from, what harm we're part of, and what our resources ask of us.
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It has to change how we live.
The measure isn't whether we embody an ideal. It's whether we're becoming more available to the people we love, more willing to acknowledge harm, and more able to follow through.
Why mindful
It begins with paying attention.
To the living body. To the emotions we'd rather explain away. To the stories we tell about ourselves, and the gap between our intentions and our behaviour.
Meditation gives us a place to practice that attention. Our relationships give us somewhere to put it to use.
The Guild isn't Buddhist, though the Dharma runs through much of what we do: an invitation to examine our experience, understand how suffering arises, and respond with greater compassion and care.
- Can I notice myself getting defensive while someone tells me I've hurt them?
- Can I stay present with another man's sadness without rushing to fix it?
- Can I tell when my pursuit of growth has become another way to avoid discomfort?
What we offer
Three practices. One purpose.
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Honest Council
Men speaking truthfully about their lives: their struggles, wins, and the questions they don't ask anywhere else.
About inner circles03
In-Person Retreats
A few times a year, we gather in the real world. Expeditions, adventures, and time together that deepens everything.
About retreatsGuild Principles
Ten principles. A compass for the journey.
Designed with our founding members, these are the principles we strive to live by. None of us are perfect. They mark a direction to move toward, not a bar to clear.
Recognize that you are part of something larger than yourself. Your choices ripple outward into your family, your community, the world. Act accordingly.
Self-knowledge is the foundation of everything. Understand your patterns, your wounds, your gifts. Know where you stand in the web of relationships that sustain you.
Wholeness demands all three. The disciplined mind, the capable body, the cultivated spirit — each one serves the others. Don't neglect what is inconvenient to develop.
Do what you say. Say what you mean. And when you act, let compassion lead. Integrity is not about being perfect. It's about being honest when you're not.
The Guild doesn't define what's sacred. It might be God, a forest, a plant medicine ceremony, or your own inner life. Treat it with reverence, and respect what others hold sacred.
The man who can be seen — truly seen — is stronger than the man who hides. In this guild, you practice letting yourself be known.
Your success is only as meaningful as what you do with it. Look for ways to give back to your community, your brothers, to life. Service is not optional; it is what gives everything else its weight.
Extremes are easy. Balance is hard. What looks like weakness is the work of holding contradictions without collapsing into one side. Discipline and ease. Ambition and contentment. Strength and softness.
Spend real time outside, away from screens. Sit still until the birds come back. Nature isn't a rulebook, but it teaches what's easy to forget: everything changes, nothing lives alone, and you are a body with limits.
There is no destination. The work continues for as long as you're alive. Stay curious. Stay humble. The moment you believe you've arrived is the moment you stop growing.
Our founders
Meet the men behind the Guild.
Louis Belleau, MA
Co-founder
Louis has always been curious about the nature of mind, the mysteries of life and what it means to live well. Creative, adventurous and rarely content to take things at face value, he was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and spent much of his early life struggling to sit still and pay attention in class while being endlessly fascinated by the world outside of it.
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That curiosity has taken him across the world and deep into meditation, yoga, psychedelics and the study of consciousness. What began as a search for answers gradually became something simpler: learning to pay closer attention to himself, to others and to the life unfolding around him.
Louis is the founder of Psygaia, a nonprofit advancing an ecological approach to psychedelic medicine and practice. After years of building projects around the ideas and practices that have shaped his own life, he is now bringing that experience and curiosity to the Mindful Men’s Guild alongside Jack.
In his free time, Louis enjoys freestyle and backcountry skiing, trail running, designing websites, writing and spending time with the people he loves.
Jack Bunce
Co-founder
From a young age, Jack has approached life with a sense of curiosity and adventure. While that spirit has taken him across the globe, much of his exploration has also been about going inward. Growing up as a highly empathetic “people-pleaser,” Jack began seeking a deeper understanding of himself and the patterns shaping how he related to others.
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Over the years, that journey has led him through somatics, breathwork, Jungian psychology, inner child healing and mindfulness. By bringing these different practices and perspectives together, Jack has found greater fulfillment and healing in his own journey as a man, while developing a deeper understanding of relationships, emotional wellbeing and what it means to show up more fully as himself.
For the past four years, Jack has been building his work as a men’s emotional healing coach through Wholesome Guide. He is now focused on expanding that work through a growing team of coaches while building the Mindful Men’s Guild alongside Louis.
In his free time, Jack enjoys backcountry skiing, hiking, dancing to house music and being in community.