A life enhancing, playful space to meet men without the masks.
A place to learn how to relate, communicate and connect. And to practice being seen, known and witnessed just as you are.
💭 What Is It?
The Connection Lab is a warm, welcoming space for gay, bi, queer and trans men to put down the phones, get off the apps, stop the swiping and explore real, authentic connection, emotional intimacy and communication through play, curiosity and embodied practice.
If you’ve ever thought “I just wish I could be more myself around other gay men”, this is the space to practice doing it.
It’s a relaxed and playful, ‘living-room-style’ lab for real conversation, deeper connection and powerful presence with gay men that want the same things as you…
Everything and anything is on the table at The Connection Lab: a place to make new friends, new chosen family and create community. But you might also be looking for love, romance and intimate connections. Or just a sense of belonging in a space that gets you.
No pressure. Just let go, dive into the experience and let nature take its course…
💬 What Happens?
Each session has 3 chapters to the journey designed to gently guide you from head to heart, from performing to presence:
✨ 1. INNER VISIONING
A guided meditation and gentle embodied movement practice to drop into your body, open your awareness and start to work on the subconscious parts of you to let your authentic self emerge… the part of you that wants to be seen, felt and expressed.
🧩 2. AUTHENTIC RELATING GAMES
We move into light, playful yet profound games and communication practices that foster deep, genuine connections by openly expressing your true inner experience (feelings, thoughts, sensations, intentions, stories, emotions) in a safe, intentional space.
You move beyond superficial conversation to build vulnerability, trust and deeper intimacy in relationships. It involves 'unmasking' and integrating different parts of yourself, allowing for all of you to be welcomed (the wonderful, interesting, radiant and fabulous as well as the vulnerable, awkward and nervous parts of you), creating a more fulfilling way to relate to yourself and other gay men.
You’ll practice:
- Speaking your truth with confidence
- Listening with openness and empathy
- Sharing what’s real instead of what sounds good
- Connecting with other men beyond roles, stories, performance and masks
These are the tools of deeper friendship, intimacy and love all learned through laughter, presence, depth and play.
🤲 3. TOUCH ME
A guided invitation into safe, consensual, non-sexual touch, gentle clothed massage and holding. You give and receive presence. You feel connection through the body, not just the mind. You soften into the simple medicine of being held, asking for what you want and need and receiving it. Inspired and bassed on The Wheel of Consent by Betty Martin.
💛 Why The Connection Lab?
So many of us grew up hiding parts of who we are. We learned to perform, to impress, to censor, to edit and change ourselves to fit what others needed or wanted from us. This has hurt us in many ways. Mostly through the way we treat and relate to each other as gay men.
Deep down we long to be seen, witnessed and known.
The Connection Lab is your space to unlearn the conditioning that has blocked you from being yourself and meeting others truthfully and lovingly.
The Connection Lab is a place to practice belonging and to discover that you’re enough exactly as you are whether you're being expressive, shy, silly, fabulous, feminine, akward, confident, vulnerable, sensitive, loud, quiet and everything in between.
About Your Facilitator
Gary Albert is an embodiment practioner and therapist with over a decade experience working with clients and holding workshops for freedom of self-expression. He is devoted to creating spaces and places for GBTQ+ men to feel safe, free, joyful and together. With his capacity to hold an energy of profound depth with the lightness of humour and fun makes his evenst London's a beloved and growing part of London's gay community.