OPEN · The Retreat

28 April – 2 May 2027 · Easton Mountain, NY

Present at OPEN 2027

Every session at OPEN is led by someone who's there with us. It's what makes it a retreat built by our community, not delivered to it. If you're coming in 2027, we'd love you to think about leading a session.

Our 2027 theme: OPEN

  • Lay bare and heal from the shame that's held you back
  • Uncover what's true, held in community
  • Reveal who you are, and coach without performance

Propose a session Proposals close Monday 18 January 2027

Our 2027 theme grew partly out of a session on shame at the 2026 retreat, which had a profound impact on many of the men in the room. Shame is something all gay men experience, and something we all need to heal from in some way. So we want the OPEN program to explore it from every angle.

We're looking for sessions that sit within this theme, for mind, body and spirit. That might be body-based or somatic work, space for reflection and connection, or a coaching tool or approach you use with your own clients that you could lead a session on. A session can be purely about healing the shame we carry as men, and that's enough on its own. It might also spark ideas for your work, or help you grow in ways that change how you show up with your clients. Both are welcome.

Need some inspiration?

Treat these as a starting point, not a checklist, and feel free to bring something completely different.

  • Identifying limiting beliefs you've carried for years, and finding more empowering ones
  • Tools to name shame, understand where it came from, and reframe it
  • Healing painful experiences from when you were younger, so you can live more freely now
  • Healing grief for what shame has cost us, including in our relationships with the people who matter most
  • Bringing how you see yourself closer to the person others see
  • Being a gay man at different ages: how shame shows up at each stage of life, and what we can learn across generations
  • Bodywork to help you love your own body more
  • Being kinder to your body, and breaking unhealthy habits
  • Moving past guilt about how we use our bodies sexually, so we can enjoy sex more
  • Breaking unhealthy patterns around sex that grew out of shame
  • Shame around sexual identity and orientation, such as the ace spectrum and differing levels of sexual interest
  • Mindfulness to calm the mind and grow self-compassion
  • Widening our emotional range, so we can name and understand what we feel
  • The power of language: the words we hear, and the words we use
  • Plant medicine and healing: what the options are and how they can help
  • Shame at work: building self-esteem, confidence and assertiveness to grow your career

OPEN is a retreat first, but there's still room for the practical side of our work. If you've learned something about growing a coaching practice that could help others, we'd love to hear how you'd share it, especially if it connects with the theme: showing up more fully in your business, with less performance.

Who can present?

Anyone who's coming to OPEN. You don't need to be an experienced presenter, and you don't need a coaching qualification or ICF credential. Our presenters range from men who are new to their work to people with decades of experience. Alongside coaches, we warmly welcome therapists, bodyworkers, sacred intimates and others whose work speaks to gay men who coach. What matters most is that you're skilled in what you do and your session fits the theme.

Guidelines for presenters

  • Your session fits the OPEN theme and GCA's values.
  • You can hold the room and keep people engaged throughout.
  • Your session is relevant to GCA members and the men coming to OPEN.
  • You're coming to OPEN in person, and you've booked your place or plan to. Everyone pays for their own place, presenters included.
  • Presenting is voluntary and isn't paid.
  • Each session stands on its own and runs for 75 minutes.
  • It isn't a chance to sell. Please don't promote your own services, or those of any organization you represent.
  • After the retreat, we submit the program to the ICF. Sessions the ICF approves earn CCEUs, and we send a certificate to everyone who attended them. The proposal form asks how your session links to the ICF Core Competencies, but sessions that don't qualify are just as welcome.

How to propose a session. Fill in our short proposal form. Proposals for OPEN close on Monday 18 January 2027.

Propose a session

Questions?

If you'd like help with your proposal, or to talk an idea through, email conference.thegaycoaches@gmail.com.