A MEN’S RETREAT AT 7 OAKS RANCH & RETREATS · KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN
Homecoming
less performing. more living.
A four-day somatic retreat for men who are done performing seriousness and ready to feel alive again, at home, with their partner, and with their kids.
THE PROBLEM
You’ve built the career. You’re respected at work, maybe even looked to for answers. And at home, something’s off, and you can feel it more than you can name it.
Maybe it’s the argument with your wife that keeps happening in a different costume. Maybe it’s the resentment neither of you says out loud anymore, the kind that just sits at the dinner table. Maybe it’s a compulsive habit you turn to when the pressure gets too loud, or a frustration that lives just under your skin and comes out sideways with your kids.
None of that makes you broken. It makes you a man who was never taught what to do with joy, play, or the parts of life that don’t have a scoreboard.
Most of us learned how to work from our fathers. Few of us learned how to play, rest, or stay open when things got hard — and what we didn’t learn, we usually inherited as an absence. This retreat is where you go to look at that directly, with other men doing the same thing, and come home different.
what homecoming is
What did your father teach you, on purpose or by default, about whether you’re allowed to enjoy your life?
Over four days at 7 Oaks Ranch & Retreats, you’ll work with the grief and resistance around play that most men carry without knowing it, using the body, not just conversation, to get there. Daily yoga, qigong, and breathwork ground the work in your nervous system instead of just your head. Facilitated somatic practice, including laughter work, the Four Gateways model, and archetypal coaching, opens the door to grief, joy, and everything in between.
This isn’t a retreat about becoming a different man. It’s about finding the one who got buried under provider, protector, and performer, and giving him room to breathe.
The Work
Through these practical tools, the program equips participants to cultivate honest connections and remain fully present in their everyday lives, marriages, and parenting.
Somatic tools,
not just talk
Daily yoga, qigong, and breathwork sessions build the physical foundation for everything else. You’ll leave with practices you can actually use on a Tuesday morning at home, not just concepts.
Grief and the
father wound
Facilitated work looking directly at how your father modeled (or didn’t model) play, joy, and deserving good things. This is where the real shift happens, not by blaming him, but by finally understanding what you inherited so you can choose differently.
Real community,
real vulnerability
Structured interpersonal work builds the kind of trust between men that most of us never get to practice. That capacity for honest, unguarded connection is what you’ll carry back into your marriage, your parenting, and your friendships.
Presence with your kids, not just performance
for them
You’ll build the capacity to be with your children both when you want to spark joy and when you’re in the middle of a meltdown or a hard conversation, without checking out or shutting down.
The horses
7 Oaks is home to a herd used for equine-assisted coaching. Horses don’t respond to your job title or your explanation. They respond to your nervous system. It’s some of the most honest feedback you’ll get all weekend.
The Facilitators
Simeon Darwick Birnbaum
LMT, IIN CHHC, RYT
Simeon has worked in massage therapy, embodiment coaching, and men’s work since 2006, in settings ranging from hospice care and cancer resource centers to collegiate athletics and retreat centers like Omega Institute and Blue Spirit. Drawing on this breadth of experience, he brought a somatic approach to the Four Gateways coaching model, founded by Tom Daly, which helps men and fathers break the cycle of seriousness through humor, embodiment, and Jungian-based work. A husband, father, and practicing bodyworker and coach based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Simeon leads from lived experience — he’s done this work in his own life first, not just studied it.
Terry Nathanson
Therapist
Terry is a therapist trained at NYU with a specialization in somatic therapies. He brings clinical depth to the retreat’s grief and nervous-system work, holding space for what comes up when men finally stop outrunning it.
Jeff ROSS
EQuine coach
Jeff is an Equine-Assisted Learning practitioner holding a Master’s degree from George Williams College and nearly four decades of experience in financial advising and wealth management. He brings grounded wisdom and real-world clarity to 7 Oaks Ranch & Retreat, holding space for participants to step out of their lifelong roles and reconnect with their true, authentic selves.
Simeon holds the body — daily yoga, qi gong, laughter yoga, and somatic practice that grounds the group before the deeper work begins. Terry, a clinically trained therapist, leads the internal family systems and process work, holding what surfaces when the armor comes down. Together, they hold both the depth and the safety this work requires.
The setting
7 Oaks Ranch & Retreats sits on 18 wooded acres outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, with trails through the woods and a herd of horses used for equine-assisted coaching. It’s private, quiet, and built for exactly this kind of work.
Every meal is prepared by a four-star chef: dinner Thursday night, three meals a day Friday and Saturday, and breakfast Sunday before you head home. You will not be doing dishes. You will not be managing logistics. Your only job this weekend is to show up.
the schedule
general outline for the retreat
Thursday, October 8
ARRIVAL, ORIENTATION: MAKING LAUGHTER SAFE
5:00–6:30PM Arrival / Check-in / Somatic Grounding / DINNER
7:00–9:00PM Welcome & Enter the Work
Friday, October 9
ACTIVITIES
7:30-8:30AM Movement / Orientation / Breath Work
8:30-9:30AM BREAKFAST
9:30-11:30AM Laughter of Origin
12:00-1:00PM LUNCH
2:00-3:30PM What was Missing & the Parts that Protected Us / Bypassing Vulnerability
3:45-5:45PM Archetypes & Masks
Saturday, October 10
ACTIVITIES
7:30-8:00AM Movement / Orientation / Breath Work (Yoga Room)
8:00-9:00AM BREAKFAST
9:00-9:30AM Inner Gold, Freedom, & Power Processing
9:30-11:15AM Inner Gold Process Visualization
— BREAK —
11:00-12:30PM Giving Power Away / Holding Power Too Tightly
12:45-2:00PM LUNCH
2:00-4:00PM The Ambivalence About Power & Freedom
4:00-5:30PM Somatic Dance / Breath Work w/ Drumming & Music
6:00-7:00PM DINNER
7:00PM onwards Fire Circle / Pack Up
Sunday, October 11
ACTIVITIES
8:00-9:00AM BREAKFAST
9:00-11:00AM Taking it Home in the Hot Tub
Who This Is For
This retreat is built for ambitious professionals, business owners, executives, and fathers who have already done the “success” part and are ready to do the deeper part: looking honestly at the resistance and blocks that keep you from living easeful, open-hearted, and fully connected with the people who matter most.
You’re likely a six-figure earner, an executive, a founder, or a leader who wants to make a real difference in the world and keeps catching yourself performing steadiness instead of actually feeling it. You’re ready to set boundaries you can actually hold, communicate instead of shut down, and bring your full range, not just your competent range, home to the people who love you.
This is not a retreat for men looking for a passive weekend away. It’s for men ready to look directly at what’s underneath the seriousness, and leave with the tools to live differently.
the investment
$850 – $1,250 depending on accommodations, and includes:
• Three nights of lodging at 7 Oaks Ranch & Retreats
• All meals, prepared by a four-star chef, from Thursday dinner through Sunday breakfast
• Full facilitation from Simeon Darwick Birnbaum and Terry Nathanson
• Daily yoga, qigong, and breathwork
• Equine-assisted coaching
• Access to trails and grounds throughout the retreat
Space is limited to 7 men. This retreat is intentionally small so the work can go deep and every man gets seen.
what you'll leave with
By Sunday morning, expect a real, felt sense of rejuvenation, in your body and your nervous system, not just your mood. You’ll leave with practices you can use immediately: somatic tools for staying present under stress, a felt understanding of what you inherited from your father around play and joy, and a new baseline of vulnerability and connection to bring home to your partner, your kids, and your community.
This work is deep and it is also, deliberately, fun. Joy and rigor are not opposites here.
Frequently Asked Questions
here are some answers to questions we get asked a lot about our practice
1. Due to our limited appointment openings, we ask for a minimum of 48 business hours (not including the weekend) notice for reschedules or cancellations.
2. This may allow us enough time to fill your practitioner’s opening and allow the booking of another client who may be waiting for an appointment. Please be aware that cancelled appointments that we are unable to fill directly impact your practitioner’s income.
3. Any appointment rescheduled or cancelled within 24 business hours (not including the weekend) of the appointment will be responsible for 100% of the service booked.
4. No shows will be responsible for 100% of the service booked, before another appointment can be scheduled.
If you are experiencing symptoms of contagious sickness such as fever, body aches, uncontrollable cough, etc. or have had a recent COVID diagnosis, please notify your practitioner. Cancellation fees may be waived one time due to these circumstances.
If you are experiencing migraine, grief, or other issue for which you may be hesitant to come to your session, we can assure you that your session will be tailored to fit your needs and body condition on that day and accommodations to body position or techniques can be used to support your greatest health and well being.
My services are not covered by insurance but I do accept HSA’s and FSA’s though I can’t guarantee JYFL will be accepted by these companies.
Yes, session packages are available through my booking platform. Please reach out to me if you do not find what you need.
Don't take my word for it
- Mark
Sim’s Fun Fit Father’s coaching changed my life! The greatest benefit I got from the coaching was doing daily actions that transformed my lifelong procrastination into a work ethic that me and my family Joy. The coaching also gave me the confidence to change my employment – where I can be there for the family, and have a better work/life balance.