Young Men
Awake
Retreat
Four days in the Green Mountains.
A brotherhood of young men coming home to their own power and purpose.
A brotherhood of young men, gathering in the Vermont mountains to do real work and remember who they are.
We believe every young man carries innate power, purpose, and the capacity to lead. Not something to be installed or fixed — something already in him, waiting for the conditions to come alive. And it comes alive the way it always has: in the company of other men willing to go there with him.
This isn't therapy and it isn't a workshop. It's a room where the performance drops, the truth gets to happen, and men remember they were never meant to do this alone.
All men are welcome.
Lincoln, Vermont
A man at home in his own power — and in his brotherhood.
A man who knows his own mind and walks into a room at ease in his own skin. Who has brothers — real ones — who know what he's made of and hold him to it. Who isn't running from anything, because he's faced it alongside other men who've faced it too.
That man isn't built by grinding harder or figuring it out alone. He's built in brotherhood — through honest challenge, in the company of men who won't let him settle for less.
That's the work. That's what we're here for.
Men who almost didn't come get the most out of this.
We've done this work for a long time — with young men in the mountains, in military settings, in community programs, in circles where something genuine got to happen.
We've watched men arrive guarded and skeptical and leave standing taller, carrying themselves like men who know their own worth. The guy who sat with his arms crossed the whole first morning, holding the circle together by day three. Men who went home and had the conversation they'd been avoiding for years. Who ended what was draining them. Who started what they'd been putting off.
Not because we did something to them — because they finally had the brotherhood, and the ground, to do it themselves.
None of us comes home alone. We do this work together, for each other. What we touch fully resolves — and it resolves in good company.
Four days.
No script. No performance.
We won't lay out the full itinerary — the best things that happen aren't plannable. Here's what we can tell you.
Private farmland.
Green Mountains.
Vermont sky.
Lincoln is a small town in the Green Mountains of Vermont — the kind of place that does something to you just by being in it. We gather in a barn set in the hills, camp outside under the Vermont sky, and spend real time in landscape that has a way of cutting through noise.
Late July in Vermont is as alive as it gets. That's not incidental — the land is part of the work.
Bring a tent. Basic amenities on site.
Full address shared upon registration.
Any man ready to stand with other men.
Men between 18 and 30, from across New England and beyond, ready to do real work in real brotherhood.
Maybe you're between things — chapters, relationships, versions of yourself. Maybe you've got good friends and a decent life and still sense there's more in you than you've been living. Maybe you've been carrying it all alone and you're ready to stop.
You don't need experience with this kind of work. You don't need to know exactly why it's calling you. You need to be willing to show up, be honest, and stand alongside other men doing the same.
All men are welcome here. None of us comes into our power alone.
The four days open something.
The brotherhood is what carries it.
After the retreat we gather online once a week for a 90-minute integration circle — the same men, the same honesty, continuing the work and staying in relationship. Making sure what happened in Vermont doesn't fade when ordinary life rushes back.
Because the work was never meant to end when the weekend does. Brotherhood is the part you carry home.
Four weeks of online integration included in all pricing tiers.
A sliding scale.
Pay what's honest.
This isn't about what you can get away with paying — it's about what honestly fits your situation. All tiers include the four-day retreat and four weeks of online integration. We never turn a man away for money.
Payment plans available on all tiers. If none of these work, reach out before assuming it's not possible.
Everything you need
to know.
The men holding this.
I sat my first silent meditation retreat at fifteen. By eighteen, I was living in Honduras working with at-risk youth — an experience that broke me open and set the course for everything that followed. I went on to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, sit over 500 days of silent retreat, and train as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner working directly with the nervous system to heal trauma.
I was empowered as a dharma teacher by Rodney Smith, trained military psychologists and first responders through Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training — including resilience trainings in Ukraine — and am an assistant to Dr. Fleet Maull's breakthrough training The Initiation. I work with justice-impacted men through All Kings and have spent more than a decade in men's circles, initiatory quests, and embodied leadership work.
But the credentials only tell part of the story. Life has thoroughly humbled me. I only offer what I know from firsthand direct experience — healing avoidant attachment, recovering a nervous system stuck in flight mode, rebuilding my marriage, and learning what it actually takes to stay open when everything in me wanted to shut down. Becoming a father in 2026 cracked me open in a whole new way.
I'm based in Lincoln, Vermont — tucked into the Green Mountains with my wife Brittany, our son Talon, and our dog Zelda.
When I was invited to my first men's retreat in 2016 I was terrified. It made sense: I had been bullied by other boys as a kid, and felt an insecure wound deep down underneath all my male friendships. Plus I grew up with an emotionally absent father and without any male role models I could point to and say: "I respect you. I want to be like you."
Now I've sat in healing circles with men for a decade in living rooms, community centers, schools and around campfires. This work has transformed all my relationships — my friendships, my partnership and my relationship to myself — through the courage to be vulnerable, to express my full, authentic self, and to stand in my own loving power. I've run men's groups in NYC for years as well as facilitated with All Kings, the NY-based men's healing collective that centers justice-impacted men.
My core training is in Somatic Experiencing trauma healing, Nonviolent Communication, and conflict transformation. When I'm not doing men's work I do other peace work — supporting people's healing and transformation to create lasting peace in our families, communities, and nations. At home I do this as a somatic therapist, facilitating the Brooklyn Insight sangha, and as a community mediator with the New York Peace Institute. I also mentor and teach teens and young adults with Inward Bound Mindfulness and the Contemplative Semester.
Fifteen spots.
Small on purpose.
The application is short. Tell us who you are and what's calling you here. If a brother comes to mind as you read this — send it to him.
Apply for a SpotOr reach out directly at james@jamesnepenthe.com
Men
Awake
Young Men Awake exists because young men deserve more than what they've been handed. More than the pressure to perform without ever being taught how to feel. More than the isolation that gets called independence. More than models of strength that quietly cost men their aliveness.
We build brotherhoods where real work can happen — honest, grounded, and shared. Where young men discover their own power and purpose and build lives of connection, meaning, and contribution. The Vermont retreat is one piece of it.
If you want to know about the larger program we're building — the Young Men's Embodied Leadership Fellowship, starting this fall — it's here.