Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts

I did their programs (Mastery and Creation). I loved Mastery. I would re-​do mastery anytime. Creation I would hold off on just out of personal preference. Different strokes for different folks. Creation might be the best thing you ever do though. The courses are definitely worth looking into and experiencing at least once in your lifetime. It’s very empowering for women. Very. I would just caution on the money. If you are a spendthrift, you may be tempted.

I flew in from SF to take the free January workshop. I have 2 close friends who did Mastery and Creation. I want a lot from life even though I have the dream job and husband, and so many great things in life. I want to step into my ambitions as a writer and artist — and I want most to have more happiness and joy in every level of my life. I signed up for Mastery — March-​April-​May-​June weekends) and yes it is expensive. My realization that I am worth that expense and effort (flying 12 hours each weekend!) is essential to where I want to go in life. I am disturbed by the details shared in other reviews. Participants agree to confidentiality when they sign up and not to describe some very personal activities. That says a lot about the lack of integrity from reviewers below. I share with people about my experiences and insights without breaking that confidentiality — which is necessary due to the personal nature of the efforts to interrupt negative body image and destructive aspects of a culture that disenfranchises women. Definitely buy and read the books — they do give a clear and broad perspective on the work. Sign up for Mama Gena’s posts to get a flavor of the community. I find that Mastery is empowering me on so many levels — even after a really hellion month with major health problems and financial chaos from fraud. Extremely stressful — but the tools and community support have me realize that my happiness, like centering myself through meditation, is available to me at any moment. This is revolutionary for me. Layers of grief from deep life losses came up this weekend unexpectedly — and the community and activities are now powerful tools for me to release stress, grief, anger on many issues to allow me to recover my balance and wellness. I also scheduled an annual checkup and counseling session to use traditional medical tools for wellness. The workshops provide activities to support the foundation for building happiness and pleasure into daily life and empowering me to move toward desires and dreams that I want. The greatest gift is to now see women as a rich community of sisters and develop the habits for a new way of thinking and BEING in the world. The speaker this week — Barbara Staney — supports this framing of our lives — to do what we love, express our joy in work that we value, and enrich others through that legacy of personal passion. I bought her books but to hear her personally and ask questions directly — what a gift! Each session a professional speaker addresses different aspects of living a rich life. Last session Debbie Rosas talked about the importance of body movement and lead a class in Nia Technique. Great information for me as I rebuild my strength after a major leg injury! So unexpected — but just what I need. I do the 7-​daily moves that Debbie showed us to great benefit. The power of the Mastery class is the Wholistic approach of mind, body, finances, and all the components with which we build our lives. The work empowers us to understand a variety of tools, use and experiment with them in a community of women who support each other and making the world a better place for everyone. Is this worth the price — definitely for me. I am looking forward to the weekend for the men on our lives — the whole system enriched for my benefit and the benefit of my family, friends, students, and everyone I meet.

I took the Mastery course a couple of years ago. The short version of my review is this: buy Mama Gena’s first book, choose the tools that really appeal to you, and use them. Find other women who dig the book. Hang out with them. Repeat. Explore other folks who are working in this sex-​positive space; Mama Gena is not the only game in town, although that’s kind of her schtick.
Should you spend the money for Mastery?
Well, first, if you can get on one of Mama Gena’s calls before Mastery (she usually does a few), do that. That’ll give you a feel for her approach.
There is a recent Unilocal review here, currently hidden, that gives you a good picture of the first weekend of Mastery. I would recommend unhiding it and reading it. This pretty much what I went through the first weekend. The remaining weekends cover money, health, men, makeovers, orgasm – there are a number of guest speakers. The class was always held in a large auditorium with at least 200+ other women. If it sounds like it’s for you, sign up for Mastery. Yes, the hidden review is accurate: You will be asked to decorate your vulva in a room full of several hundred women who are also doing the same thing. If you’ve read the book before you go to the class, this shouldn’t be a big surprise. I found it silly and fun. Full disclosure, I took a very early class of Mama Gena’s several years ago, so I am no stranger to sparkles. :)
You will not have to do it. There will be a number of other activities – doing a clothing giveaway, dancing, some ritual stuff – that you do in large groups – you don’t have to do any of them. I would say, however, between the noise and the music and the helpers (referred to as Big Sisters), and Regena’s charisma (she has a lot), it would be hard to refuse to do something. (I did refuse to do a couple of thing and felt fine about it.) Also: noise. I am not an introvert, but I did find the large group/​loud music/​noise part of the classes almost overwhelming. Nothing gets done in small groups. I would really, really recommend that the folks at Mama Gena’s look into that. Even the most extroverted of us need some quiet time to process.
If you have read Regena’s books, you’ll basically know her philosophy – and it’s something I heartily support: women focusing on their pleasure (not the man’s), sexual and otherwise, knowing their bodies, enjoying flirting, asking for what you want, connecting with their accomplishments (bragging). All awesome stuff.
What I found really disappointing was Regena’s claim that «no one was really researching women’s pleasure,» so she had to do it. This ignores any number of folks, from Masters and Johnson to the women who created «Our Bodies, Ourselves» to a number of sex positive feminists such as Susie Bright, Tristan Taormino, Betty Dodson, and of course, Eve Ensler, who were doing sex positive pleasure research before Regena took it up. She is standing on the shoulders of giants; everyone in her classes deserves to get to know their sex-​positive ancestors. (Watch «Masters of Sex.» Brilliant Virginia Johnson was getting women to take off their clothes and describe their orgasms in the *1950s.*) It gets even stickier when she claims that it was the courtesans of Europe (who would have been nowhere without their lawyers) who inspired women less fortunate to take up feminism. I believe Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and most historians would have a few bones to pick with Mama Gena on that point.
We can acknowledge history AND claim our power.
Dr. Christiane Northrup was also a featured speaker the year I took Mastery, and, again, your mileage may vary on this, but I found her negative, xenophobic, and just plain wrong about science. Her previous admirable criticisms of the current health care system were now mixed thoroughly with astrology, biting discussions of the tango and the Argentine people (Dr. Northrup admitted she didn’t speak Spanish), and finally – her theory that Alzheimer’s disease is «created» by people who don’t want to die because they haven’t gotten enough love. I found that last bit almost too painful to bear. It’s bad science and blaming the victim, all in one neat package. There was no time or place in the class to challenge Dr. Northrup, other than to leave the room. Which is what I did.
The upside of taking this class was it really challenged me to connect with my own values, and I met some really cool women. However, after Dr. Northrup’s Alzheimer discussion, I chose not to attend graduation.
I thought it was interesting that there was no attempt to follow up with me to find out why I hadn’t gone to graduation; there was no post-​course evaluation – that seems to me Business 101, and especially disappointing, since there’s such an emphasis on sisterhood. Mama Gena’s staff only contacted me this year… to see if I wanted to volunteer.

Just finishing up Boot Camp and I’m disappointed. It’s so much money and the info is really just what’s in her book, with the homework being to read another book and do it’s exercises. The weekly call is only 1 hour and usually less than HALF of that is her speaking while the other half is a couple of ‘questions’ from people who have clearly taken Mastery already or who have really un-​relatable circumstances. Then the last ¹⁄₃ is literally people saying what their favorite part of the call is. Regardless, the time spent with her ‘teaching’ is largely just info from that chapter in her book which is really, really disappointing.
I posted on the boards to get a partner for her recommended exercises and never had a single reply so I was unable to do those pieces. The call-​in questions have to be related to THAT weeks topic ONLY so that made it even harder. I never got to speak with her directly.
There is also a LOT of ‘jargon’ being tossed around and it is never explained. There was simply not a foundation laid for the program, so it ends up feeling like a set up to point you in the direction of paying the big $$ for Mastery.
I love what she stands for on the whole and I thought this would be a life-​changing program for me and really push me outside my comfort zone in great ways but for me, it was a flop.

This course has been said by many graduates, myself included, to be «life changing.» The course is starting this weekend (March 16, 2013), and I know a few women still on the fence about taking it, so I decided to write an entire blog post reviewing the program.
The full review is here:
In sum, the pros of the program are :
1. It is great for bringing back the joy, fun and sheer pleasure of living
2. It improves a woman’s level of confidence
3. It improves our relationships with men
4. It teaches us the art of conjuring (aka manifestation)
5. It gives you a great community of women for life
The cons:
1. It is expensive
2. It is not about getting a game plan and getting into action for the accomplishment of your goals — that’s just not the purpose of the program (more elaboration in the blog post)
3. It is radical, somewhat shocking, and not for the conservative or faint of heart.
Overall, I am very very glad I took it. I don’t think my life will be as joyful, my confidence with men as high, and my outlook quite as positive, had I not taken it.

I took the Boot Camp class a year ago. I’m going to second the comment made that it was a lot of money just to get exactly what was in her book. I love the book, and found great value in what I got from it. Boot Camp though… just wasn’t worth it. I’d still try mastery, maybe. A lot of people have enjoyed it. I still think Mama has a lot to offer the world.

Fascinating, Amazing, Inspiring, Life Changing, Rockin’, Big, Important, and if you are a Woman, I challenge you to have more fun in the Big City. I’m not sure it’s possible.
Well.. .anything is possible.. .and after attending here it’s decidedly more probable.
:D