The Five Shifts Programme 12 Weeks Online
You didn't choose the man you became. But you can choose who you're becoming.
A practical, grounded 12-week programme for men who are tired of reacting, disconnecting, shutting down, or carrying everything alone. At work, you’re dependable and known for getting things done. At home, you’ve tried to stay strong, but underneath the surface, you know something isn’t working. The arguments keep happening. You get angry and regret it afterwards. You shut down when things get difficult and feel distant from the people you love.
Men aren't broken. They are burdened by years of conditioning that taught them to “man up, suck it up, and never ask for help", and it’s hurting them and everyone who loves them.
These patterns aren't your fault
But they are your responsibility
How you learned to handle anger, avoid difficult conversations or shut down under pressure wasn’t a choice. It was survival. You learned what worked when you were young, and you've been running with it ever since. Understanding that is the beginning of everything.
The people closest to you are experiencing the impacts of these patterns you've probably not examined before. Not because you're a bad man but because nobody ever showed you another way. This programme does.
"A grounded 12-week programme for men who want to understand themselves more deeply, regulate their reactions, improve their relationships, and become more present in the moments that matter most."
This programme might be for you if:
You react quickly and struggle to pause in difficult moments, becoming defensive, angry, controlling or withdrawn. Arguments seem to go around in circles without being resolved
You want a better relationship with your partner and you're tired of carrying everything alone
You’ve read the books and perhaps attended a training in Nonviolent Communication and yet familiar patterns keep repeating themselves at home
Part of you knows what you need to change. You just don't know how to do it in real life, under pressure, in the moments that count
You are willing to commit to attend the full programme and join all the live calls and sessions
This work isn't for you if…
I hold deep compassion for every man who finds his way here and ManKind Rising isn't the right fit if:
You're currently drug and/or alcohol dependent.
You have severe, untreated mental health needs that require specialist clinical support.
This isn't about judgement, it's about safety and readiness. The inner work we do together requires a certain kind of presence. When addiction is active or severe mental health needs are unmet, that presence often isn't possible and pushing forward can cause harm. If this is you, I'd encourage you to seek specialist support, if you haven’t already. When you're ready, and if we are a good fit, we’ll be here.
It's also not a fit if…
You're looking for someone to fix you, rather than walk beside you
You're not open to being gently challenged or reflecting honestly
You're unwilling to sit with discomfort or look at the parts of yourself you've learned to hide
You want transformation without tenderness, or growth without grief
You can’t attend the live calls
The Five Shifts
Five things that change everything else.
The programme is built around five simple but powerful shifts that help men interrupt old patterns and supports them to respond, relate, and show up differently in the moments that matter most.
01
From Reaction to Pause
Learning to recognise your stress response, regulate your nervous system, and create space before reacting, instead of dealing with the consequences of your reaction.
"I have a choice in that moment."
02
From Blame to Responsibility
Moving away from defensiveness and towards ownership, awareness and emotional maturity. Owning your part, fully, honestly and without collapsing into shame or self-criticism. Understanding what is driving your perceptions, thinking and actions.
"I can own my part and still respect myself."
03
From Control to Curiosity
Letting go of needing to win, fix or control, and learning how to listen and understand in a way that changes things.
"I wonder what's really going on here."
04
From Performance to Presence
Putting down the version of yourself you thought you had to be. Showing up without the mask and perfectionism and discovering how much more powerful that is.
"Being real is enough."
05
From Isolation to a Community of Practice
Doing this work alongside other men, being witnessed, holding each other accountable, and discovering that you were never as alone in this as you thought.
"I'm not the only one and that changes everything."
HOW THE WORK IS DONE
Three proven approaches One integrated practice.
The Five Shifts aren't built on opinion or theory. Each one is grounded in three disciplines that have decades of evidence behind them, brought together in a way that's practical, accessible, and designed for real life.
Nonviolent Communication
Developed by Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication is a framework that changes that. It gives you a structured way to look inward, to notice the story you're telling yourself, question whether it's true, and trace it back to what you're actually feeling and needing underneath. At its heart, it teaches us to move beneath the surface of conflict, beneath the blame, the accusations, the defensiveness, to the feelings and needs that are actually driving us.
In this programme, NVC is used as a tool for self-understanding. You'll begin to recognise the thoughts that precede your reactions, the perceptions that fuel your defensiveness, the unmet needs driving behaviours you've never been able to explain, even to yourself. From this place of clarity, how you speak and listen to the people you love naturally changes too.
Mindfulness Practice
Most men are experts at being somewhere else. Physically present, mentally somewhere entirely different, replaying the argument from last night, rehearsing what they should have said, braced for the next thing to go wrong. That constant movement away from the present moment isn't laziness or weakness. It's a habit, because staying present, especially in difficult moments, never felt safe.
Mindfulness, in this programme, is the practice of coming back. Back to what's actually happening right now, inside you. The thought that just fired. The assumption you almost acted on. The moment you felt yourself starting to close down.
Week by week, the mindfulness practices here build a particular kind of self-awareness, the ability to observe your own mind as it moves, rather than being swept along by it. That observers' perspective is what creates choice. And choice is what this entire programme is built on.
Body Awareness
Your body has been trying to tell you things for years. The jaw that tightens before you even know you're angry. The chest that closes when you feel criticised. The shallow breathing that arrives the moment a conversation starts to feel threatening. These aren't random physical sensations, they're information. A map of your inner world, written in the language most men were never taught to read.
That's what body awareness practice develops: the ability to notice what's happening in you at the level where it actually starts, before the thought, before the reaction, before the words come out that you'll wish you could take back. Most men try to manage their behaviour from the outside in. Body awareness works from the inside out, learning to catch the signal early, when there's still time to choose differently.
Throughout the programme, these practices are woven in gently and practically. No special equipment, no prior experience needed.
Together, with consistent practice, these three approaches give you something most men never get: a way of understanding yourself that works in real time, not just in reflection, but in the moment, under pressure, when it counts.
The 12 Week programme
Three Chapters Empowering change.
WEEKS 1 -2
Chapter One: Seeing clearly
Before anything changes, you need to understand where you are and how you got here. This phase isn't about fixing or erasing, it's about seeing your patterns honestly, without shame, perhaps for the first time. You’ll understand your conditioning, inherited patterns and the messages you learned about being a man. You’ll also discover how your emotional triggers and stress responses show up in your relationships and daily life.
By the end of this chapter you'll be able to say: "I understand my conditioning and I can see the internal patterns that have been driving how I show up with my loved ones."
WEEKS 3 -10
Chapter Two: Doing the work
This is the heart of the programme. Week by week, you'll move through the five shifts, not as theory, but as a lived practice. You'll catch yourself before you blow up. You'll own your part in arguments without collapsing into self-criticism or shame. You'll listen differently. You'll show up as yourself. Your partner will notice.
By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to say: "I'm catching myself and often choosing to show up differently."
WEEKS 11 -12
Chapter Three: Living it
The final phase isn't a graduation, it's a beginning. You'll integrate everything you've learned, define the values you want to live by, and step into a community of men who will hold you to them long after the programme ends.
By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to say: "This isn't a programme anymore, I'm becoming the man I wish was there for me."
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Everything you need. Nothing you don't.
Live Weekly Sessions
2 hour zoom sessions. Sharing content that gets to the point, grounded, honest, and built around awareness building, developing skills and putting everything into practice.
Every Tuesday, 18:00–20:00 GMT
29 Sept – 15 Dec 2026 · Zoom
Live Men's Circles
Monthly group coaching calls, being witnessed, sharing honestly, and holding each other accountable.
Thu 15 Oct · Thu 12 Nov · Thu 10 Dec
18:00–20:00 GMT · Zoom
Reflection & Practice
Weekly journalling prompts, body-awareness practices, and practices to bring each shift into daily life.
Accountability Partners
Matched with another man in the group from Week 1. Someone who knows where you're starting from and holds you to where you said you wanted to go.
Dedicated Online Community Platform
An active group of men going through the same work, sharing wins, struggles, and honest reflections between sessions.
Home Practices
Challenges designed to bring your shifts into your closest relationships because the people at home feel the difference first.
The cost of the full programme
£1,249.00 Standard (12th August onwards)
£895.00 Early Bird (until 11th August)
- 12 weeks of structured live content, led by an internationally certified trainer in nonviolent communication
- Monthly live men's circle & group coaching
- Accountability partner from day one
- Reflection prompts, practices & weekly challenges
- Access to a dedicated online community platform throughout & beyond the programme
- Home practice resources
- Lifetime access to all recordings
NEXT COHORT DATES
Live Weekly Sessions
Every Tuesday, 18:00–20:00 GMT
29 Sept – 15 Dec 2026 · Zoom
Live Men's Circles
Thu 15 Oct · Thu 12 Nov · Thu 10 Dec
18:00–20:00 GMT · Zoom
Meet Barry
I Live what I teach.
My name is Barry Jones. I'm an internationally certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication, and I've been married for 24 years. I have two grown children, 23 and 19. On paper, that might sound like someone who had it figured out.
I didn't. For a long time, I carried what a lot of men carry, the unspoken instruction to chin up, man up, be strong. I learned to push through rather than feel, to perform rather than connect. That way of living caught up with me. I've had my own experience of addiction and mental health struggles. I know what it costs to keep the mask on.
What changed wasn't a single moment. It was a slow process of learning to see myself clearly, my patterns, my defences, the gap between the man I wanted to be and the man I was showing up as. The tools in this programme are the tools that changed my life. I don't teach theory. I teach what I practice.
I created ManKind Rising because I believe most men don't need to be fixed. They need to be seen, challenged with care, and shown a different way. That's what I'm here to do.
Over 12 Weeks, everything can shift.
Not because you'll be fixed. But because you'll better understand yourself and have the tools, the practice, and the men beside you to keep going.
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