Pulling back the sleeve of his black button-down shirt and holding his arm aloft, Dan Berger is explaining the black tattoo on his forearm—about the size of a beer coaster—that makes out a circle containing three intertwined diamond shapes. “It’s a reminder of the Hoffman Process, that I need to take into consideration my spiritual self, my emotional self, my intellect, and my body before I act,” he says of the Quadrinity Symbol, designed as a visual representation of the aspects of the self. “It’s kind of like having a board meeting between the four components.”
The origin story behind this tattoo began when Berger heard about the Hoffman Process—a week-long personal growth retreat—through an online community for chief executives. This was two years after the 44-year-old CEO of Assemble Hospitality Group, had sold his previous startup for $100 million. “I was talking about whatever was going on and this guy Chuck, who’s like an OG, he was like, ‘You’re broken, and you should go do the Hoffman Process.’”
The $6,200 intensive practice, where participants must surrender their phones and abstain from talking about their jobs, sports, or politics, is an experimental program designed to reveal unhealthy patterns originating in childhood. The completion of which is increasingly being seen as a badge of honor among tech entrepreneurs who might be reluctant to sign up for ongoing weekly sessions with a therapist.
“I work with executives in Silicon Valley, so I’m very aware that Hoffman is becoming more and more popular in recent years,” says Dr. Ling Lam, a licensed psychotherapist and business coach who lectures at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Santa Clara University. He estimates that 70% of his clients who have completed the Hoffman Process are men, and that they view it in the same way they would biohacking or a fitness retreat. “[They think] ‘I’m going for this intensive to really improve my brain functioning and heal.’”
Research shows that men are significantly less likely than women to seek mental health treatment or receive therapy. Only 8% of men did so in the span of 12 months versus 12% of women, according to a 2020 survey from the Center for Disease Control. So why has the concept struck a chord with so many in the male-dominated world of tech startups 40 years after the creation of the Hoffman Process? And does it really work?
Click here to read more about how the Hoffman Process became the go-to mental health retreat for celebrities and entrepreneurs.
