About this site

I built this site for one reason: to help any man, anywhere, put together a local group of men he can count on.

Most men's friendships thin out with age. Work ends, families move, the phone goes quiet. I've watched it happen to good men for years. It's common, it's costly to a man's health, and here's the part that keeps me going: it's fixable. The fix is well understood, and it isn't complicated. It just isn't taught anywhere.

So I teach it here, step by step, for free.

What this site stands on

Every claim in the guide traces back to published research. I keep the whole evidence basis out in the open: you can read or listen to all of it, with every source cited, and the numbers behind it are summarized in.

• Nothing here is for sale. No course, no membership, no sponsorships, no affiliate links.
• Claims are cited. If I put a number on the page, you can follow it to the study it came from.
• I correct mistakes. If the research changes or I got something wrong, I update the page and the "last updated" date.

The only thing I ask for is an email address if you want the free First Meeting Kit, so I can send you the occasional useful follow-up. You can leave that list anytime, no hard feelings.

Who writes this site

I'm Robert "Bob" Manthy, LPC. I'm a licensed professional counselor, and for 15 years I've been starting and facilitating men's groups in Boulder, Colorado: founding new groups, keeping the ones that take root healthy, and sitting in the chairs week after week alongside the men in them. The first group I ever started, I almost didn't. I sat on the idea for weeks before I sent the first invitation. I'm glad I sent it.

I check every page here against two things: the published research, and what those 15 years in real rooms with real men tell me actually works. Where the two disagree, I say so plainly.

Who it's for

Grown men, roughly 40 to 90, who want real friends within driving distance, and the people who love those men and want to help. The guide works whether your group is faith-based or secular, whether you meet in a living room or a workshop, in any country.

Start here

The whole method sits on one page: How to Build a Men's Group. And if you're ready to act, the First Meeting Kit hands you the invitation scripts and the first meeting plan, word for word. You don't need anyone's permission to start.