comprehensive freedom.
tethered only by love.
all over the world.
For men+ domesticated
by the plastic, predictable, clickable, and fluorescent,
we dream of rewilding.
For any whose empathy’s been blunted by numbing and compulsions,
we envision a freedom to love.
Imagine a universe with an abundance of:
-> wilder men, super-charged with indiscriminate empathy.
-> unencumbered men, compulsions wilting
-> utterly alive men with an expansive love exploding in every direction.
-> shape-shifting men, growing into their truest selves
Rooted in Recovery Intelligence and Ancient wisdom, we companion you:
-> SUPPORTING JOURNEYS // Soul Companionship, poetry, and prayer
-> NURTURING RECOVERIES // Recovery Mentoring, Online Courses, Weekly Gatherings, and Immersions
-> CRAFTING COMMUNITIES // Wild Church, Online workshops, Men’s Estuaries, and Nature-Based Immersions
-> GUIDING TRANSITIONS // Rites of Passage and Soul Companionship
My name is Matthew Ray Lyda, and I am a goofy goober who drives a 2012 Honda minivan sporting a unicorn license plate. Secondly, I am an inhabitant of the foothills of South Carolina, the former hunting grounds of the Cherokee people, and thirdly, a fan of many Kevin Cosner films (esp. Robin Hood & Dances with Wolves). I’ve loved and lived overseas in Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, and Kolkata.
Married to my best friend and college sweetheart, I father three gloriously exuberant children who could not care less about my certifications/training/qualifications, including:
Authorship of Defeated by Great Waters & Recover The Wild
Certification as a Spiritual Director // Oasis Ministries
Ecopsychology Certificate // Pacifica Graduate Institute
PSAP // Pastoral Sex Addiction Professional training
RAE // Rainbow Advocate Educator
MATS // Masters in Theological Studies
Membership with IITAP // Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals
Formation in CIT // Center for Intercultural Training
Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies // Trauma Research Foundation - in process
Co-founder of Recover The Wild
Work as an educator // 6+ years
If you made it this far, you are not one of my gloriously exuberant kids! 🤪 When not playing pickleball at the YMCA with Brittany, cleaning up debris from the kitchen floor, or cooking Beyond Meat Tacos on Wednesdays, I companion men+ to live utterly free, tethered only by love. This type of masculinity has flavors of:
wild
empathetic
poetic
intimate
enchanted
Ways of living that are mutually enhancing for the creature and creation.
What if you could start again?
Spitting out the sour taste of unmet expectation
What if the world needs less more mischief from you?
A wild, loving, holy mischief
“The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper”
Ancient Wisdom: We pair the treasures of science with the gems of ancient wisdom. Whether it be time-worn Judeo-Christian practices, lessons from indigenous peoples, spiritual community, storytelling, or heroic journeys, we root our work in a grand story. Considering meaning, purpose, vision, and values.
Vintage, an age-old path.
Body-Based: This stance is faithful to mindfulness, experience, the sensual, and the imaginative; As the wisdom of the body is accessed, an opportunity to heal age-old rifts between the sexual and the spiritual opens
Hospitality: Unsubscribing from perfectionism and backspacing the blunting of empathy (mostly resulting from numbing behaviors Ad nauseam), this posture is faithful to see wounds morph into sacred wounds, a with(ness) to suffering, common humanity, and kindness. This is the call of hospitality to self and others.
Trauma-informed: This stance is a commitment to address systemic issues, hone honesty, craft ‘safe-enough’ settings, and foster collaboration. Dipping deeply from research-based recovery intelligence.
Embrace the Unexpected: The predictable, comfortable, and business-as-usual is death to our souls. The deepest transformations often occur outside of our expectations, and all our oh-so-cherished ways of thinking and behaving. Often, what is needed is the unexpected, the ridiculous, what’s ‘off the beaten path.’
Belonging: the domestic takes us only so far. As Thoreau said, “In the wilderness we have our tonic.” Nature is more than “out there”, but a reality that pushes past the boundaries of our skin, including us! Encounters with land, with more-than-human realities of life are Non-Negotiables to heal outdated myths of man greater than nature and man vs. nature. What we discover is: we belong to this organic reality, awe, and wholeness. We are more connected than we could ever have imagined.
