Rick Belden - Iron Man Family Outing

Rick Belden has been writing for most of his life and exploring the use of creative expression, dreamwork, personal mythology, and listening to the body as tools for self-healing since 1989. He is the author of Iron Man Family Outing: Poems about Transition into a More Conscious Manhood, a book widely used in the United States and internationally by therapists, counselors, and men's groups as an aid in the exploration of masculine psychology and men's issues, and as a resource for men who grew up in dysfunctional, abusive, or neglectful family systems.

Rick's second book, Scapegoat’s Cross: Poems about Finding and Reclaiming the Lost Man Within, is awaiting publication. He regularly posts poetry, short essays, and other writing at his blog, poetry, dreams, and the body.

Rick's work has been featured on numerous websites, including the Good Men Project, Male Survivor, Mankind Project Journal, Secret Lives of Men, Masculinity Movies, Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, Poetry Super Highway, Austin Chronicle, and others. Excerpts from Iron Man Family Outing have appeared in multiple books, including Drinking the Dragon: Stories of the Dark Night of Soul and an upcoming book for psychotherapists about conducting psychotherapy with men.

Rick is a member of the Communities Advisory Board for New Male Studies, an online interdisciplinary journal hosted by the Australian Institute of Male Health and Studies for research and discussion of issues facing boys and men worldwide, and a member of the Editorial Board of the ManKind Project Journal.

In addition to his ongoing activities as a writer, Rick has been working in the information technology field for over 25 years as a software engineer/designer/developer, systems analyst, business analyst, and consultant for numerous organizations in both the public and private sector. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Rick and friend in early 1989 working on one of the journal entries that was a precursor to Iron Man Family Outing

Motivation, Intention, and Purpose

In a September 2009 interview with Dr. Chris Blazina on his weekly program The Secret Lives of Men, Rick spoke about some of the factors that motivated and inspired him to write Iron Man Family Outing:

"It’s the story of a period in my life that was highly transformational. And I had the sense, as I began to pull this all together, that this might actually be useful to other men as a pattern or a template or a map to kind of go into their own processes a little bit more deeply, and to give them some reference points in terms of feeling, in terms of developing a relationship where they get information from their bodies and their dreams, and to really give other people, men in particular, permission to open up to this stuff and share it with other people ... that they feel safe with.

"I was really moved to do a lot of this because I’d been in men’s groups and I’d seen men talk about things in ways that I’d never seen men talk before. I had close friends, we never talked like that, we never shared our emotions with one another. It wasn’t safe to do it. So I was really inspired by that, and my first purpose in doing this book was to open a window into my own process and complete the process for myself, but the larger purpose is to give the opportunity, the permission, and as I said, maybe a pattern or a template or a map for other men that feel ready to go a little deeper into themselves and find out what’s there ...

"Really, I guess what I would say is that, in probably the most elemental way, the book is about progressing toward, not so much a resolution … it’s not a how-to book … it’s more about progressing toward a greater understanding, a greater awareness."

For a transcript of the entire interview, click here.