What happens when a licensed therapist who spent a decade in Appalachia, burned out inside a digital health startup, lost his grandfather to suicide at age seven, found himself involuntarily committed to an inpatient psychiatric unit at 27, became a dad twice over, and finally did enough of his own work to turn all of that into a private practice built specifically for millennial men who are holding everything together on the outside while quietly falling apart on the inside?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Jake Ross, licensed therapist and founder of the Ross Wellness Group, about why the men around us are all having the same quiet thoughts but none of them are saying them out loud, why social media is the most dishonest comparison metric in modern life, and why the word fine is almost never actually fine. Jake explains the four-phase Internal Operating System for Men he uses with clients — moving from symptom reduction to desensitizing the stories that drive those symptoms to dropping what's in the backpack that no longer needs to be carried — and why the first thing he has every man do is sit down for an hour with a cup of coffee and write out who they actually want to be, not what they want to have.

They also discuss why men make up half the population and nearly 79% of suicides and what that gap is really telling us about how men do — and don't — ask for help, why therapy didn't work the first time for most guys who tried it and what they should do differently on the second attempt, why Jake moved entirely out of insurance billing and into private pay and what that means for the quality and confidentiality of care, the bedside notebook trick that actually breaks the 2am thought spiral better than anything else, and his vision of becoming the premier men's mental health provider across all 13 Appalachian states in honor of his Appalachian grandfather.

Jake Ross is a licensed therapist and founder of the Ross Wellness Group in Delaware, Ohio, specializing in millennial men's mental health.

Connect with Jake Ross:

therosswellnessgroup.org

Instagram: @TheRossWellnessGroup

LinkedIn: Jake Ross (glasses, blue collared shirt)

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Jake Ross

00:47 Men don't need to be fixed — where that idea came from and what he was watching happen around him

01:30 His daughter being born, the group text to his friends, and realizing nobody talks about this stuff

02:14 Losing his grandfather to suicide at age seven and carrying it for 20 years without words for it

03:38 Finding himself in an inpatient psychiatric unit at 27 and what that moment revealed

04:09 Why a man can be killing it at work and still waking up at 3am with a tight chest

05:15 What his typical client looks like — the millennial man holding every role together

06:02 The four-phase Internal Operating System for Men — from symptoms to stories to tools

07:32 Keeping up with the Joneses — why it is not new and how it gets worse with social media

08:10 The perspective shift — what do people think is going on with me from the outside

09:55 The ideal me exercise — sit down with a cup of coffee and write out how you actually want to be remembered

10:58 When the spouse is the one pushing the keeping up and how to have that conversation

12:32 Why communication feels like weakness to men and what to do instead

14:01 The difference between regular life stress and the kind that is actually doing damage

14:37 Good stress versus bad stress — and why a stress-free existence is not a goal

15:35 The 2am thought spiral — the bedside notebook trick that actually works

17:35 When a man says he's fine, what he is usually actually saying

18:45 The spotlight dodge — getting everyone else to talk so you never have to

19:39 The number one reason men never pick up the phone and book a session

20:34 Mental wellness versus mental health — call when the low air light comes on not when the tire blows

21:04 Why therapy didn't work the first time and what to do differently

22:57 Men make up nearly 79% of suicides — what that number is actually telling us

24:48 Rapid fire — golf or fishing, Brittany's one word at your worst, what millennial men do better than their fathers

26:07 Something Jake tells clients that he still has to remind himself of

26:52 What the first session actually looks like from consult call to individual care plan

28:18 Insurance versus private pay — why Jake left insurance behind and what that means for confidentiality

30:23 The Ross Wellness Group expanding — the vision for men's mental health across all 13 Appalachian states

32:17 Group therapy and the idea of a third space where men can connect without it having to be clinical

34:04 How to actually make male friends as an adult when the connections have faded

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