HalaxyLive listing
Counsellor, Essendon
Michael's practitioner profile on Halaxy, the Australian health-practice directory: Counsellor, Essendon Counselling Rooms, Level 2, 326 Keilor Road, Essendon.
Photo taken professionally whilst on holiday in Scotland
Proof of Human
Twenty years of work, in public.
Anyone can generate words now. No one can generate a past.
Michael Lauria has been doing this work since 2006, first as a counsellor in Melbourne, then under the name Forging Excalibur, and now as The Architect. The book was published in April 2019. The podcast ran across 2020 to 2022, close to a hundred and fifty episodes. Those records sit on Amazon, Goodreads and the Internet Archive, on platforms he does not own and cannot backdate. This page gathers them in one place so you can check for yourself. Forging Excalibur was where this work first became public and built its largest footprint. It has since evolved into The Architect, which is where the current work lives, so this record sits here with it.
One person stands behind three sites: this record at forgingexcalibur.com, the current work as The Architect at codexofthearchitect.com, and the books under his own name at lauriareads.com.
The timeline
Twenty years on one line.
Four stretches of the same work, each one growing out of the one before it.
- From 2006Where it started
The counselling room
Face-to-face counselling in Melbourne, most of it at the Essendon Counselling Rooms on Keilor Road. Thousands of hours with men and couples, two years with the dying in hospice, and a year on a suicide hotline. He saw clients until 2022.
Diploma of CounsellingEssendon, Melbourne - 2019-2022The work goes public
Forging Excalibur
The book in April 2019, then close to 150 podcast episodes, the Hero's Journey and Knights Code programs, and live workshops for men.
Book, April 2019~150 episodes - 2022-2025Away from every audience
The quiet years
Late in 2022 he stepped back from social media and public life, and wrote. The thirty-three books of The Architect come out of these years.
Late 2022 to May 2025 - 2025-nowThe work today
The Architect
The Architect Speaks began in May 2025, followed by the books and the Atlas. In 2026 he began publishing under his own name again: How to Be Michael Jackson, Obsolete and Twenty Years in the Chair.
codexofthearchitect.comlauriareads.com
- 2006Begins practising as a counsellor in Melbourne.
- c. 2012Two years sitting with the dying in hospice.
- 2017A year on a suicide hotline.
- April 2019Forging Excalibur, the book, is published.
- 2020-2022The Forging Excalibur Podcast, close to 150 episodes.
- 2022He stops seeing clients. The last guest interview is in August and the last podcast episode in November. Then he writes.
- May 2025The Architect Speaks begins.
- June 2026How to Be Michael Jackson, his first book under his own name since 2019.
- September 2026Obsolete is published.
- 4 November 2026Twenty Years in the Chair is published.
The arc
One line of work, under three names.
The counsellor, Forging Excalibur and The Architect are not three ventures. They are one practice carried forward, each stage feeding the next.
From 2006
Stage 01
The counsellor
Michael began practising as a counsellor in Melbourne in 2006, with a Diploma of Counselling, working mostly with men and with couples. Most of that work was done in one place: the Essendon Counselling Rooms, Level 2, 326 Keilor Road, Essendon. For a short time he also ran a clinic in Moonee Ponds, and for a period he kept a room in Geelong for men's groups and one-to-one work with men. Along the way he spent two years sitting with the dying in hospice, from around 2012, and a year on a suicide hotline in 2017.
Years of sitting across from people in real difficulty came first. Everything after this grew out of that room.
The public trace is a professional one: directory listings under his own name at the Essendon address, linked below. Nothing from a client's sessions appears here. The only client words are testimonials they chose to give at the time. He saw clients until 2022. The listings remain as a record.
2019-2022
Stage 02
Forging Excalibur
The counselling work became a body of work. Forging Excalibur, the book, was published in April 2019, and the work widened into coaching and mentoring for men under the same name, alongside the counselling practice. The podcast followed and ran across 2020 to 2022, reaching close to a hundred and fifty episodes. Alongside it came the Hero's Journey and Knights Code programs, a run of workshops, and a short-lived television format.
This is the stretch with the heaviest paper trail. Most of the dated evidence below belongs to it.
2022-2025
Stage 03
The quiet years
In 2022 Michael stopped seeing clients, and late that year he stepped away from social media and public life on purpose. For the next two and a half years he wrote. The books of The Architect were written in that time, away from any audience.
He counts these years inside the twenty. The room had closed, and the work went on at a desk: everything two decades of sitting with people had taught him, written down.
2025-now
Stage 04
The Architect
The same work continues under a different name. The Architect Speaks, the podcast, began in May 2025. The frameworks are sharper, the writing is more exact, and the intent is the one it always was. The Architect is where the practice lives today, at codexofthearchitect.com.
At first the work was published as The Architect with no author named, so that it would be judged on what it said. His name is on all of it now.
In June 2026 he published How to Be Michael Jackson, his first book under his own name since 2019. Obsolete followed in September 2026, and Twenty Years in the Chair is published on 4 November 2026. Those books live at lauriareads.com.
Read end to end, it is one person's evolution. The names change. The hand behind them does not.
The evidence
Dated records, held by third parties.
This is the actual proof. Each item below lives on a platform Michael does not control. Where the platform shows a date, the date is given. Where it does not, an archived copy is linked so the record is fixed from here on. Follow the links and read them for yourself.
RightCounsellorLive listing
Diploma of Counselling
His entry in the RightCounsellor directory, giving his qualification as a Diploma of Counselling, the same Essendon address, and his areas of work.
Centre for Optimism21 Dec 2019
“Local author and counsellor”
Victor Perton's interview with Michael at the Centre for Optimism in Melbourne, published on Perton's own site, which introduces him as a “local author and counsellor”.
YouTube5 Oct 2020
“A qualified counsellor”
The Hustle & Flow Podcast, episode 7, on the host's own channel. The description calls him “a qualified counsellor, men's mentor and relationship guide”.
Internet ArchiveAug 2019
His 2019 website
A Wayback Machine capture of michaellauriacoaching.com from August 2019, where he describes himself as a qualified counsellor, men's mentor and relationship coach.
Internet Archive21 Aug 2019
What clients said in 2019
Four testimonials on his website as it was captured in August 2019, signed with first names: three men on being mentored by him, and a wife on the work she and her husband did with him on their marriage.
Internet Archive2022
michaellauria.com.au
Captures of his own-name website as it stood across 2022. The site has since been taken down, and the archive still holds it.
National Library of Australia2021-2022
Held by the national library
The Australian Web Archive, run by the National Library of Australia, holds its own dated copies of forgingexcalibur.com.au from March 2021 and of michaellauria.com.au from November 2022.
Goodreads26 Apr 2019
First edition and first readers
The book's Goodreads record gives the first edition's date as 26 April 2019, with reader reviews from 2 May 2019 onward.
Amazon · AU1 May 2019
First reader review
The book on the Australian store. The earliest review shown there is dated 1 May 2019, a few days after release.
Amazon · US2019
Forging Excalibur
The book on the world's largest bookstore. Amazon shows the date of the current edition, 22 September 2019. The first edition came out in April 2019, as the Goodreads record and the first reviews show.
Listen Notes30 Apr 2020
Episode 1 of the podcast
A podcast directory's own record of the first episode of The Forging Excalibur Podcast, dated 30 April 2020.
Spotify2020-2022
The podcast
The Forging Excalibur Podcast archive, re-published on Spotify episode by episode.
Internet Archive8 Aug 2022
The podcast, archived on Apple
A Wayback Machine capture of the show’s Apple Podcasts page, its episode list running to Episode 136, dated and held by a third party.
Internet Archive2020-2022
The old website
The Wayback Machine's captures of forgingexcalibur.com.au, holding the shop and the Knights Code as they stood then.
None of these were made for this page. They were made at the time, by other people and other companies, and left where they fell. That is what makes them worth anything.
The body of work
What was actually made.
Proof is one thing. The work itself is another. Here is what the years produced.
The book
Forging Excalibur
Published April 2019. It is now read as Book One of the Excalibur Trinity, the foundation the later writing builds on.
Same ISBN, same date, still on sale.
The podcast
Close to 150 episodes
Recorded across 2020 to 2022. A long, unhurried body of conversation on men, meaning and the work of growing up.
The archive is being re-published to Spotify now, episode by episode.
The programs
Hero's Journey & Knights Code
Structured programs run with real groups, alongside the Standards of Men material and a series of workshops.
The frameworks in The Architect trace straight back to these.
Appearances
Interviews, as host and guest
Conversations recorded with other hosts across those years, on their shows and their platforms, including an interview with Jack Canfield around the podcast's hundredth episode.
They are listed below, each one on the host's own channel.
On the interviews
These conversations live on the hosts' own channels and platforms. Each is linked to its original source and stamped with its date. Nothing is re-hosted, and each is added only after Michael has reviewed it.
- Australian Dads Network PodcastJanuary 2019 “Interview with Michael Lauria” (listed on his 2019 site, archived)
- Beyond HomosapienFebruary 2019 “Sex With Robots”
- Stories Behind the GrindMarch 2019 “Success, Alignment and Men’s Mental Health”
- The SuperDad ShowMarch 2019 “Forging Excalibur with Michael Lauria (#36)”
- We're TalkingApril 2019 “Michael Lauria, Forging Excalibur (Episode 15)”
- Get Invested with Bushy MartinApril 2019 “Michael Lauria on Relationships, Masculinity and Success (Episode 59)” (archived copy)
- Julian Van der WaalApril 2019 “Julian Van der Waal and Michael Lauria: Forging Excalibur”
- The Inner Warrior PodcastMay 2019 “Interview with Michael Lauria” (listed on his 2019 site, archived)
- The Limitless PodcastMay 2019 “Interview with Michael Lauria” (listed on his 2019 site, archived)
- Become a Fearless FatherJune 2019 “Forging Excalibur: Interview with Michael Lauria”
- The ManBits PodcastJune 2019 “Michael Lauria, Forging Excalibur (MBP 101)”
- The Underdogg PodcastJune 2019 “Interview with Michael Lauria” (listed on his 2019 site, archived)
- The Business and Marriage PodcastSeptember 2019 “Forging Excalibur with Michael Lauria (Episode 107)” (archived copy)
- Darren LarkmanSeptember 2019 “Forging Excalibur: The Round Table Immersive Experience” (film of the retreat)
- Expert Authority EffectOctober 2019 “Elevating the Men of the World by Rediscovering Their Masculinity (0077)”
- The Centre for OptimismDecember 2019 “Michael Lauria’s Optimism” (interview with Victor Perton)
- 3WBC 94.1FM, with Rae BonneyDecember 2019 “Michael Lauria, Forging Excalibur” (radio; archived copy of his post)
- The Modern Masculine TVApril 2020 “Michael Lauria Summit Interview”
- Dads Supporting DadsMay 2020 “Dad of the Week: Michael Lauria” (feature)
- Healing Through LoveMay 2020 “The Effect of COVID-19 on Relationships and the Increased Likelihood of Domestic Violence” (panel)
- The One Shot MovementJuly 2020 “Interview with Michael Lauria” (since removed by the host)
- The Hustle & Flow PodcastOctober 2020 “Interview with Michael Lauria (Episode 7)”
- The Mosaic with Daniel LevinOctober 2020 “Men, Integrity and Honor (Episode 71)”
- Zarah Windy, the PodcastNovember 2020 “Season 1, Episode 6”
- La Dolce Vita with Virginia RoseFebruary 2021 “The Five Love Languages and Relationships”
- The John Templeton Show2021 “Why Our Success-Driven Society Is Toxic to Men” (episode no longer online)
- Thought Leaders To WatchMarch 2021 “Being the Best Man You Can Be”
- Eight BillionApril 2021 “What Men Unconsciously Chase (Episode 24)”
- Business Minds Coffee ChatAugust 2021 “Living a Life of Greater Purpose (Episode 84)”
- The Universal ManAugust 2021 “Michael Lauria on Responsibility and Your Hero’s Journey” (since removed by the host)
- Don't Believe The Hype PodcastAugust 2021 “Redefining Manhood and Masculinity”
- The Campfire ProjectAugust 2021 “Panel discussion #002” (panel)
- The ShiftOctober 2021 “Forging Excalibur (Episode 96)”
- The Campfire ProjectOctober 2021 “Panel discussion #015” (panel)
- The Campfire ProjectOctober 2021 “Panel discussion #022” (panel)
- The Embodied Business ShowNovember 2021 “Understanding Perspectives in Relationships”
- The Embodied Business ShowDecember 2021 “Roles in Relationships”
- The Campfire ProjectFebruary 2022 “Panel discussion #067” (panel)
- Journey to the FringeFebruary 2022 “Introducing the podcast” (co-host, with Paul Wallis)
- Artists On PointMarch 2022 “Why Most Men Are Lost and Living Unconsciously”
- The Modern Warrior PodcastApril 2022 “Coming Back from the Brink”
- The Recovered Dad PodcastApril 2022 “Overcoming Addiction Through Purpose”
- The Embodied Business ShowMay 2022 “Leadership and What It Means”
- Thoughts On PurposeAugust 2022 “Connecting to Your Greatness”
- Journey to the FringeAugust 2022 “Episode with Brendan D. Murphy” (co-host)
2022 to 2025
The quiet years. The interviews stop in August 2022 and the podcast in November 2022, because Michael stepped away from social media and public life on purpose. For the next two and a half years he wrote. The books of The Architect were written in that time, away from any audience. He came back in May 2025, when The Architect Speaks began.
Where the work lives
One record, several doors.
This page is the hub. The work runs across a few places, and each one points back here.
The hub
Forging Excalibur
This record, and the home for the archive it draws on.
forgingexcalibur.com › The current workThe Architect
Where the practice lives today. The frameworks, the corpus, the writing.
codexofthearchitect.com › The booksLauria Reads
Michael's own voice and his catalogue of books, on their own imprint.
lauriareads.com ›