Transforming the Man Cave

Where did this workshop come from?

Dee Wagner has spent years studying gender issues with an appreciation of the Men’s Movement of the 90’s. You can read more about this perspective in Why Chi for Two Now?

The Men’s Movement spawned an organization called The ManKind Project, whose goal is to help men heal from harmful societal messaging. This organization drew from a book written by Robert Bly called Iron John, based on the folktale Iron John.

In 2019, Wagner invited local members of The ManKind Project into a new perspective and they were appreciative. Wagner’s new perspective invited an exploration of Robert Bly’s later book, The Maiden King, which he wrote with analytical psychologist Marion Woodman.

Transforming the Man Cave uses those stories plus two stories from psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book Women Who Run With the Wolves. These stories set the stage for Chi for Two practices. The practices invite key developmental movements identified by movement artist, researcher, educator and therapist Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen held in Circles of Support identified by movement therapists Marian Chace, Janet Adler, Al Pesso and Diane Boyden Pesso.

In 2020, Wagner and her son Stephen Wagner, one of the three co-developers of Chi for Two, presented Tai chi and dance/movement therapy: The Son/Mother Dance within Every Body at the American Dance Therapy Association conference.

• All bodies have the hormone testosterone. It creates sexual arousal.

• All bodies have the neuropeptide oxytocin, which was formally known for its role in birthing and nursing, but now is known for its role in social engagement.

In October of 2025, Wagner’s article, written with Mukti Jarvis and Fred Shelton, Re-patterning the Lover Dance: Chi for Two Awareness of our Polyvagal Anatomy, “biting/snapping,” and Language was published in The American Journal of Dance Therapy. Creator of the polyvagal theory of nervous system functioning Stephen Porges said this article demonstrates how “seamlessly” polyvagal theory is integrated into the mindful embodiment method Chi for Two.