Men’s Therapy Podcast

Social media addiction sits at the center of a growing mental health crisis among young men. In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay is joined by Peter Lear. He is a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor based in Boulder, Colorado. Lear has spent decades working with men and adolescents. His work navigates addiction, trauma, and identity development in an increasingly digital world. Peter speaks from lived experience, not just theory. He grew up without stable male role models. Addiction surrounded him. He searched for guidance early on. Therapy introduced him to a man who was emotionally present. This man showed genuine curiosity. “I remember being 15 and thinking, what’s this guy’s angle? Why does he care what I think and feel?” Lear recalls. That experience shaped his understanding of masculinity. It guides his work today with Gen Z men. Men who are deeply skeptical of authority, disconnected from real-world relationships, and heavily influenced by technology and social media. Throughout the episode, Marc and Peter discuss key issues. Social media addiction, marijuana addiction, and lost mentorship converge. This creates a masculinity crisis. It starts in adolescence but lingers into adulthood as anxiety, disengagement, and lost purpose.  For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

Josh Tomeoni, a men's coach who guides men through divorce recovery and codependency, shares hard-won lessons from his own divorce and recovery work. He discusses reshaping masculinity toward calm mastery, the loneliness of shallow male friendships, the role of 12-step honesty, and practical steps for rebuilding purpose, honor, and healthier connections.

Brett Zachman, founder of BeMen, a nonprofit focused on men’s wellness, shares his transformative journey from pain to purpose. He candidly discusses how divorce and emotional breakdown prompted him to create a space for authentic male conversations. Brett emphasizes the evolution of masculinity in 2025, advocating for vulnerability over ego. He outlines the five pillars of male wellness and the importance of daily disciplines. Their conversation highlights how men can redefine success through community, consistency, and emotional growth.

Neurodiversity is at the heart of a growing crisis in modern education. It is the one that is shaping how young men learn, struggle, and carry their mental health challenges into adulthood. In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay sits down with Jake Noonan. He is an academic neurodiversity coach at the Neurodiversity Collective. His work focuses on young men and boys navigating the modern education system. Jake approaches neurodiversity not as a deficit to be corrected. He sees it as a fundamental difference in how individuals experience learning, creativity, and mental health. Jake reflects on his own journey through gifted education and late ADHD diagnosis. He sheds light on years spent teaching in public education, private education, and alternative school models. He explains that for many boys, especially those with neurodiversity, school is not failing because they lack intelligence or motivation. It is failing because the system itself is outdated. “I was diagnosed with ADHD at 29,” Jake shares. “When that happened, my entire life suddenly made sense.” Jake describes how neurodiversity often goes unnoticed or misunderstood. Particularly in boys who are labelled as “gifted” but struggle emotionally, socially, or behaviorally. He emphasizes that modern education still operates on an industrial-era model. It is the one that values compliance over curiosity and standardization over individuality. Marc guides listeners through a broader examination of the education system. He focuses on teacher burnout and the mental health consequences young men are carrying into adulthood. For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

For many men, the midlife crisis doesn’t arrive as a quiet reflection. It arrives as relationship tension and emotional shutdown. It comes with the unsettling realization that something deeper is demanding attention.  In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, Marc Azoulay speaks with Mark J. Platten. He is the founder of the Integral Human Initiative. He is also a longtime men’s work facilitator and teacher of sacred masculinity. Platten draws from Jungian psychology, mythology and indigenous wisdom traditions. He focuses on decades of lived experience to explore what the midlife crisis is really asking of men. Rather than framing midlife as a breakdown, Platten describes it as a summons. “If I am the same man at 50 that I was at 25,” he explains, “that means there has been 25 years of no growth.” In his view, the second half of life is not about preserving youth, status, or achievement. It is about emotional growth, responsibility, and inner work. Platten’s story is deeply personal. He shares how navigating his wife’s menopause alongside his own andropause nearly unravelled their marriage. “Had I known then what I know now,” he reflects, “we could have walked that journey in a sacred way, side by side.” Instead, unresolved triggers, shadow work left untouched, and generational trauma surfaced with force. Now in his late 50s, Platten is returning to men’s work with renewed clarity. He is calling this phase the King’s Return. It is a movement from the prince’s unconscious patterns into mature masculine leadership. As Azoulay guides the conversation, the episode becomes less about crisis management and more about meaning, responsibility, and the spiritual journey of becoming whole. For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

Ever wonder why so many men find themselves stuck in the same romantic patterns? Marc highlights the psychology behind working with men struggling with anxious attachment. He focuses on emotionally unavailable partners and recurring relationship breakdowns in this episode. Early in the conversation, Marc sets the tone with a statement that captures the heart of the episode: “You’re not choosing her. You’re choosing your wound.” He explains that many men believe they are unlucky in love. When in reality, they are unconsciously repeating familiar emotional patterns. These are rooted in childhood trauma and early attachment experiences. Marc describes how the brain prioritizes familiarity over well-being. Even when a relationship is painful or chaotic, the nervous system gravitates toward what feels known. “The brain doesn’t care if something is good or bad,” he says. “It cares if it’s familiar.” This dynamic plays out most clearly in adult relationships. It occurs especially for men with anxious attachment who are drawn to emotionally unavailable partners. Throughout the episode, Marc blends attachment theory, psychoanalysis, and real-world clinical examples. He does so to help men understand how childhood wounds continue shaping their dating lives. The conversation is not about blaming parents or past partners. It is about building awareness so men can finally choose differently. Get your free worksheet here: https://bit.ly/thepatterntest For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

Midlife is often framed as a crisis, but is it really? In this roundtable episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay is guiding the conversation toward a deeper and more accurate question. What happens when a man’s identity no longer fits the life he has built? Joining the discussion are Shana James and Silvan Summers. Shana is a relationship and intimacy coach known for her work on love and sex after 40.  Silvan is a somatic psychotherapist and therapeutic coach at Men’s Therapy Online. Together, they examine the midlife crisis. It is less about impulsive decisions and more about a profound reckoning with emotional truth and meaning. Shana is describing midlife as a moment when “most of our dreams and fantasies have shattered”. But at the same time, it’s an opportunity to create incredible love and sex beyond anything we could create when we’re younger. She is emphasizing that identity is shifting, from who men were taught to be to who they actually are. Silvan is approaching the topic through the body. “We experience emotion through sensation,” he explains. “If we don’t understand what’s happening in the body, we lose control over where our emotional life goes.” For many men, this disconnection shows up as numbness, emotional shutdown, and a growing sense of feeling lost. Marc frames the discussion by naming what many men quietly experience: success on paper, but confusion internally. Careers, marriages, and responsibilities remain intact, yet something essential feels missing. This episode is examining that missing piece, not as failure, but as initiation. For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

Marc Azoulay unpacks a pattern he is seeing repeatedly in high-performing men. Success is increasing, but fulfilment is disappearing. Drawing on over a decade of clinical experience, Marc explains that many men are not actually chasing success. They are running from shame. “You think making more money will finally make you feel secure,” Marc explains, “but every time you level up, you feel worse.” He describes men whose bank accounts are growing, yet whose inner lives feel hollow. Rather than feeling proud of achievement, they are experiencing numbness, burnout, and an ongoing identity crisis. Marc notices that self-worth is becoming dangerously entangled with productivity, income, and performance in a capitalist culture that rewards output above all else. Men are being conditioned to equate value with work. “There’s no upper limit,” he says. “You can always do more, produce more, make more money. And there’s never a moment of enoughness.” This episode focuses on how external validation quietly replaces identity, creating what Marc calls an “achievement addiction.” Promotions, praise, and financial wins temporarily soothe anxiety. They never resolve the deeper fear of failure or unlovability. Over time, this leads to workaholism, emotional disconnection, and eventually burnout. Marc is guiding listeners through the invisible beliefs driving this cycle, while also offering practical ways to rebuild identity beyond career, income, and constant performance. For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online. Get your free worksheet: bit.ly/provider-trap-worksheet

Ya'Ron Brown is approaching men’s mental health from a place of lived experience, clinical insight, and cultural awareness. He is a licensed counsellor, clinical supervisor, trainer, and host of the Resilient Kings Podcast. Brown unpacks one of the most difficult yet essential topics facing men today: male vulnerability and why it is so deeply resisted. Brown is speaking candidly about how patriarchy shapes men long before they enter therapy. “No matter who we are,” he explains, “to some degree, we are baked into patriarchy.” This conditioning quietly influences how men define strength, suppress emotion, and measure self-worth. Many men are never taught how to explore identity development beyond narrow expectations of toughness, performance, and endurance. Throughout the conversation, Brown is sharing personal stories. He illustrates how emotional repression becomes normalized. He describes how men often grow up learning that masculinity exists in a single lane. This leaves little room for curiosity, softness, or emotional expression. As a result, many men are arriving in adulthood disconnected from themselves. They are caught in cycles of seeking validation through work, relationships, or external success. This episode does not position vulnerability as weakness. Instead, Brown is reframing vulnerability as a missing developmental skill. One that directly affects male identity, relationships, and mental health. As Marc Azoulay guides the discussion, the focus remains on helping men understand why they feel empty, restless, or angry. It highlights how reconnecting with vulnerability can change everything. For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online. Follow us on social media: https://mtr.bio/mens-therapy-online.

Ralph Brewer, founder of the Help for Men Brotherhood, shares his candid story of navigating divorce and single fatherhood. He opens up about the emotional turmoil men face and how rediscovering passions like music and writing helped him heal. Brewer reveals patterns leading to divorce and emphasizes the importance of emotional support, advising men against quick rebounds. He discusses the significance of boundaries with ex-partners and stresses the need for a supportive community for those transitioning into new phases of life.