Questions and answers with Armin Heining about GAY-TANTRA® and the Job-Trainings:
Q: For how long have you been offering the GAY-TANTRA® Programs?
A: My very first class I offered was a day-long workshop in September 1992 in Nuremberg/Bavaria, already named GAY-TANTRA. Since then I developed dozens of different programs and group gatherings, what made me a lot of joy and is still today a deep satisfaction.
Q: How many have participated in your GAY-TANTRA® Programs?
A: Sorry, I can no longer count them all! My best estimate is at least 15,000 over the past 32 years! I am very glad about the development and continuation of all my programs. And it is always a great joy for me when men come back after a break of fifteen or twenty years or write me an email that the experience of many years ago is still influencing their life today in a positive way!
Q: Where did you learn the techniques that have evolved into the GAY-TANTRA® Program?
A: In 1983 I became a Benedictine Monk and practiced Zen meditation for over 8 years. Then, in 1990 I was introduced to Margot Anand, the founder of SkyDancing Tantra and began to study with her. I completed her SkyDancing-Tantra Teacher’s training program and was certified as a SkyDancing Tantra teacher in 1992.
I was associated with SkyDancing Tantra till 2008, when I asked to be released from that community. The reason for leaving was to take a further step into my gay identity and to develop my GAY-TANTRA practice completely independent from a straight point-of-view.
F: For whom are your Trainings suitable?
A: Essentially anyone who deals with gay men in his professional life can profit from the GAY-TANTRA Trainings: whether he is a journalist, coach and counsellor, masseur, bodyworker, psychotherapist, porno actor or escort. GAY-TANTRA Trainings are also very suitable for anyone who likes to touch or for whom sexuality plays a key role in his life.
Whoever wants to develop himself professionally or privately, or seeks a really soundly based tantric training in order to pass on a correspondingly high quality to others, is in the best hands with the GAY-TANTRA Job-Trainings.
F: What is the general benefit that your participants have from your Trainings?
A: To start with, you come into contact with likeminded men. Men with similar or the same aims, with similar inner values and mind-set. What is important for all is an aware, respectful and appreciative approach. You come into contact with potential professional colleagues. Together with Armin you can bring GAY-TANTRA forwards and develop it. You remain in constant contact with the origin of GAY-TANTRA and its creator.
On a personal level I see how participants gain self-confidence. Their ability to project themselves into the situation of other people grows and the resulting connectedness enables them to give and receive feedback in an authentic manner. They learn to adapt to various kinds of people and character and to treat them successfully.
Each Job-Training has its own particular goal set out in detail, as you can glean from the description of each particular Training.
F: After finishing one of your Job-Trainings are the participants successful in applying what they have learned?
A: I see masseurs and bodyworkers around the world who have gratefully embraced the contents of GAY-TANTRA Trainings and who have understood how to internalize them and make them fruitful in their own lives.
Ultimately it is of course beyond my power to control whether success after completion of a Training is sustained or not. For my part, I give my wealth of experience, my enthusiasm, all my educational skills and my determination to incorporate constant change and improvement so as to achieve the best possible results for my participants.
Q: Is it true that Tantra Massages in Germany are subject to the Prostitute Protection Act?
A: That’s right. Since July 1, 2017, the stricter ProstSchG has been in force, which already classifies the contact of the intimate area in the non-medical area as prostitution. Prostitution is understood as a sexual service for remuneration.
In 2019, the association GAY-TANTRA e. V. was founded, which received its registration in the register of associations Berlin-Charlottenburg on February 11, 2020.
The aim of the association is, among other things, to network GAY-TANTRA practitioners and interested parties. Under the umbrella of the association, which is not subject to this law, practitioners (masseurs) introduce interested persons to GAY-TANTRA massages. Both encounter each other on the same level.
As a certified GAY-TANTRA masseur, you can join the association, regardless of your place of residence and country of origin, in order to be legally protected worldwide.
F: Is there anything else that you would like to inform readers who are interested in a GAY-TANTRA Job-Training?
A: I profited highly from my completed training as a SkyDancing Tantra teacher from 1990 to 1992 with its numerous training modules and my own personal study, focussed instruction from Margot Anand, my written end of training assignment with reflection and feedback and the diploma I was awarded. That all culminated in 2015 when I had to submit my diploma for an application to the Federal Ministry for Education and Research for admission to training grants for the participants of the Tantra Masseur Training (certified). Likewise, when I had to prove my qualification as head of training in order to receive VAT exemption for the Masseur Training from the Berlin Senate.
Using my own experience as an example, I would like to encourage people to invest money and effort in their own training and continued training. At the end of the day a completed job-training is always worth the money.