Dismantling Patriarchy Workshops for Cis-gendered Men and Non-binary Male-assigned People

led by Hana van der Kolk

Thursdays 7-9pm April 20-May 18

While identities are not fixed or essential, being socialized as and identifying as male in this culture comes with some pervasive privileges and common challenges. Do you struggle with knowing and/or articulating how you feel and what you need? Do you feel like your body is primarily a thing you need to feed, bathe, exercise, and clothe so that it can accomplish tasks and jobs? Does it feel like other people’s emotions overwhelm, confuse, or anger you easily? Are you seeking greater connection and trust with yourself, friends, partners, and/or children in your life? Are you curious about how your sexuality has been limited by your gender assignment/expression in this culture?

In this workshop we explore these topics through meditation, movement, reading and writing, group exercises, and more. Participants will leave this collaborative, playful, rigorous, and compassionate container with some tools, practices, and knowledge for living in more intimacy with others and in greater connection with oneself, body, and words.

Testimonials:

“I highly recommend this workshop. There were so many moments where I thought to myself: ‘Wow - I’ve never really talked about this with others, especially other men.’ It was eye opening that so many others shared similar sentiments. I feel comforted knowing that I’ve begun the work of healing and unlearning the lessons that were instilled in me through the ether of our patriarchal culture.” -workshop participant, 2019

“I so appreciated the invitations towards intimacy that Hana gave us in this workshop, and am grateful for the other participants showing up with the generosity that they did. I felt safe to explore parts of myself I am often scared to show - been seen and accepted in those parts by my peers felt like healing." - Steve, 2019

“The workshop was facilitated in a way that made for an open, engaging and even fun/light experience, especially considering some potentially threatening subject matter.” - workshop participant, 2019

“Time for change men. Let’s stop digging ourselves deeper.” - workshop participant, 2019

Upcoming Dismantling Patriarchy Workshops

5-week, IN PERSON series focused on Embodiment and Communication

at Refuge in Troy, NY

Thursdays 7-9pm April 20-May 18

Sliding scale: $100-500 for the entire series (no drop ins) (please see my financial transparency statement below)

Email hjvanderkolk (at) gmail (dot) com to register

Financial transparency statement: I make my living teaching classes like these and offering one-on-one counseling/coaching sessions. I also occasionally get paid for work as an artist and event organizer and guest artist/teacher in university settings. I come from class and educational privilege in my family of origin. I DO have to earn my daily living expenses independently, but I benefit from my class background and from white supremacy as a so-called white person in many ways. I am also a queer, non-binary, single, middle-aged person living with chronic health challenges and I regularly participate in mutual aid practices in my home community of Troy and in other places where I spend time and enjoy the land and culture. I consider all of these conditions, the cost to use the spaces I teach in, along with the economics of where I am offering things when pricing my work. Please consider your overlapping circumstances and identities when choosing your pricing option. Let’s get all of us what we need/more free one little and large effort at a time. Thank you! 

Hana van der Kolk

I am an artist, dancer, educator, Internal Family Systems and sex and gender expansion counselor, and an organizer of community events and spaces. I have been based on the unceded homelands of the Mohican people (now known as the Stockbridge Munsee community) in what is called Troy, NY for nearly eight years. A life-long dancer/performer, I have taught my community dance class “radial diamond kinetics” and other dance/movement/performance practices internationally for over 10 years to a wide range of populations. I also facilitate others in learning to teach rdk and other body-based tools for personal and group transformation. 

I taught yoga from 2002-2012 (primarily in Los Angeles and NYC), having studied with many renowned teachers/schools, and have practiced meditation in the Burmese and Thai Forest traditions for twenty years. I have also studied numerous dance forms, Body Mind Centering, Alexander Technique, Gyrokinesis, fitness, Contact Improvisation, ritual facilitation, Dream Lab method, astrology, Bondassage (certified in 2015), Urban Tantra (certified in 2021), and the Internal Family Systems method (level 1-trained in 2016). My approach to facilitating groups and counseling/coaching individuals is informed by these above methods, years of practice and study, and many phenomenal teachers, and is first and foremost fueled by my delight in learning, love of people and community, and deep curiosity about pleasure and what it means to live in a body and be human.

I worked with Troy Bike Rescue for 5 years building community coalition and helping to facilitate the shop’s youth program, threw Troy’s underground dance party Polly with many others, am part of the FlagSSS Day collective, recently initiated the new Club SPA spa, hold an MFA in dance, and just completed my practice-based PhD in art. My dissertation, which will come out in book version in 2023, focuses on queer friendship and body-based approaches to re-enchantment/the interruption of capitalism, individualism, human-centrism, and the gender binary.

For more information about Hana visit: https://www.hanavanderkolk.com/current