One life coach Ben Davies is setting up special men’s “growth groups” in Kingsbridge.

Ben, who is South African, has been a coach for over four years and lived in London where he said he felt sad and lonely himself.

He went to gyms and other classes but found there were different people going each time which was very different from the small town where he used to live.

He decided to set up men’s day events in London, Vancouver and there are plans for one in South Africa.

The next London event will be on April 21.

It is said to be carefully designed to ease people in and make them feel safe.

The day includes an ice-breaker, breathwork and ice bath, a hit workout, group discussion and a guided visualisation.

Its mission is to “break the trend of men going through life alone”.

|Ben predicts in the six hours men will walk away with new friendships, be excited for the coming work week, gain insights into what needs pursuing and what needs dropping in life, and feel a new sense of energy for their futures.

Ben said: “I decided to set up the groups because the rates of suicide amongst men are rising exponentially. I wanted to provide a safe space to explore what it means to be vulnerable and what it is to be a man.”

Ben described the way he envisaged the groups working: “There will be open groups at The Harbour House on the Quayside that anyone can join then, like with Teams when you can spin off into break out rooms, groups can go off into closed groups where they can explore issues in more depth without new people arriving.”

Ben added: “Men generally offer ‘solutions’ to problems which negate what people are saying so we prefer to offer support.

“Men also don’t like talking about their personal experience but I encourage them to use the word ‘I’ and to give personal examples from their experience in a safe and reinforcing environment.

“We also want to go about tackling men’s fears.”

If you would like to find out more about the groups you can e-mail: [email protected]