Nice guy syndrome is at the center of a quiet crisis in modern masculinity. It is shaping how men date, relate, suppress their needs, and carry resentment into adulthood. In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay is sitting down with Kelvin Davis. He is a men’s therapist and coach specializing in male emotional development and relational health. He's the author of the book "Be a Good Man, Not a Nice Guy". His work is focusing on helping men move from approval-seeking patterns into grounded integrity.

Kelvin approaches nice guy syndrome not as a flaw to shame. He is seeing it as a learned survival strategy, one many men adopt early in life to avoid rejection and conflict. Rather than asking what is a nice guy in superficial terms, he is exploring the deeper emotional drivers behind the behavior.

“A lot of men confuse niceness with goodness,” Kelvin explains. “But niceness is often a strategy. It’s about trying to control how you’re perceived.”

He is describing men who overextend in dating, struggle with porn addiction, and feel chronically misunderstood in relationships. Kelvin is emphasizing that the issue is not effort. It is authenticity. Marc is guiding the discussion toward solutions, examining how men’s therapy, boundaries, and emotional resilience are reshaping modern masculinity.

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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Most relationship advice for men sticks to basic tips on communication or attraction. But it misses the deeper problems. In this roundtable episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay leads a straightforward talk. They discuss why relationships fail. They cover what men truly need in a relationship. They explain how avoidant and anxious attachment patterns shape men and their relationships.

Guests include Shana James, a relationship coach and author. There's also Melissa Ryan, a licensed professional counselor who specializes in couples therapy. Jack Lambert joins too. He is a licensed mental health counselor focused on men’s therapy. 

The group looks at emotional intimacy in relationships. They show how unconscious attachment dynamics can strengthen it or tear it down. This includes avoidant men who struggle to balance independence and closeness.

Shana stresses that real connection needs visibility. "You can’t have deep connection without being seen," she says. She adds that vulnerability is not weakness. It is a strength in relationships. Melissa describes how relationships break down slowly. It is not always explosive. Small ruptures happen. They often go unrepaired. Over time, distance grows where closeness once was.

Jack points out male loneliness and men’s mental health. Many men want intimacy. But they fear rejection or humiliation. Marc keeps the talk focused on growth, not blame. The episode skips quick fixes. Instead, it offers relationship advice for men. It centers on emotional awareness. It covers interdependence versus codependence. It builds courage for intimacy that lasts.

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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For many men, business resiliency doesn’t begin with strategy or spreadsheets. It begins with pressure, uncertainty, and the slow realization that working harder is no longer enough. It often arrives alongside emotional exhaustion, strained relationships, and the sense that something beneath the surface is asking to be addressed. It is not in the market, but within the man himself.

In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay is guiding a grounded and revealing conversation with Joe Kavanagh. He is a veteran entrepreneur. His career spans more than forty years across real estate, valuation, and leadership development.

Joe is speaking openly about a life chapter that reshaped his understanding of success. After decades of professional momentum, the 2008 real estate crash upended not only his portfolio but his sense of identity. “I owned and managed nineteen properties,” Joe explains, “and when the crash hit, I lost nearly half of them.” What followed was not just financial stress. There was emotional unraveling that exposed deeper patterns around control, avoidance, and overwork.

At the same time, Joe was navigating family struggles and an eventual divorce. He doesn't frame these events as isolated failures. He describes them as interconnected signals that something fundamental needed to change. “I realized I was living the life I thought I was supposed to live,” he says, “not the one that was actually aligned with who I was.”

Through this reckoning, Joe begins shifting from external achievement toward self-discovery. Coaching, meditation, and men’s therapy are becoming central to his personal development. As Marc guides the discussion, Joe’s story unfolds as a case study in business resiliency. Not as grit or hustle, but as emotional intelligence, honest communication, and the willingness to rebuild from the inside out.

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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Rites of Passage have quietly faded from many modern communities. This leaves boys to navigate adulthood by themselves. Without clear markers of growth, responsibility, or belonging. In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay speaks with Paul Marcinkowski. Paul is a counselor with the Becoming a Man Program working inside Chicago public schools. Paul brings decades of experience in youth mentorship, men’s work, and school-based intervention. Together, they explore what masculinity and mental health really look like on the ground.

Paul explains that the Becoming a Man Program is not built around lectures or discipline. Instead, it is structured around consistent group circles, experiential activities, and emotional skill-building. It meets boys where they are. Weekly sessions are embedded into the school day. These sessions help young men learn how to recognize emotions, regulate anger, and take accountability for their actions. Paul describes how many students initially attend for social reasons. Gradually, the group becomes something deeper. It becomes a place of support and reflection.

Drawing from his background in camp leadership and men’s initiation work, Paul sees masculinity as a process, not a performance. Rites are not about proving toughness. They are about guiding boys into responsibility with the support of a community. Marc broadens the conversation to the bigger picture. What happens to men’s mental health when we leave boys without initiation? What does leadership look like when no one teaches young men how to grow into it?

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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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.

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Masculine energy isn’t about dominance or detachment. It’s about how men face loss, responsibility, and the slow work of becoming whole. It is at the centre of Josh Tomeoni’s work, who is our guest today. Josh is a men’s coach specializing in divorce recovery and the host of The Derelict Podcast. In his podcast, he speaks candidly about men’s mental health, emotional growth, and the challenges men face when navigating relationships, addiction, and identity. His perspective is shaped not by abstract theory. It is years of lived experience mentoring men, participating in recovery communities, and walking through his own divorce.

From an early age, Josh demonstrates an instinct to bring men back into connection. One of his earliest memories is noticing a boy being excluded and deliberately pulling him into the group. That same instinct, to see men, support them, and challenge them, continues to guide his work today. Yet the model of masculinity he grew up with offers little room for emotional awareness. As Josh recalls, men are expected to “figure it out,” push forward, and avoid talking about feelings altogether. Therapy, he says, is viewed as “a complete waste of time” for men.

Divorce becomes a turning point that forces a deeper reckoning. Josh begins to see how suppressed emotion, unresolved attachment, and unexamined masculine identity quietly shape men’s lives. “Having somebody that could coach me through these things just made a world of difference,” he explains. Through coaching, recovery work, and self-reflection, Josh develops a vision of masculine energy. It is grounded, accountable, and emotionally intelligent. It is the one that aligns strength with calm rather than avoidance or aggression.

This conversation explores how men can move beyond outdated models of manhood and step into healthy masculinity—a form of masculine energy that supports growth, purpose, and connection.

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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Learn what it means to be a man in 2025, as ideas around masculinity, emotional intelligence, and personal growth continue to evolve in today’s world. In this episode of the Men’s Therapy Podcast, host Marc Azoulay sits down with Brett Zachman to explore these shifts in depth. Zachman is the founder of BeMen. It is a Colorado-based nonprofit dedicated to men’s wellness, personal growth, and brotherhood. Zachman is not a therapist by trade. But his work comes from real life, especially after divorce, emotional breakdown, and searching for meaning.

Zachman says his journey starts with pain. “Out of pain comes purpose,” he shares. After divorce, career changes, and feeling alone, he asks a key question. Many men carry it silently: What happens when life falls apart? He finds a sad truth. Men often turn inward. Or they have nowhere to go.

“Most men don’t talk about what they’re going through, we isolate, we bury it, we try to muscle through.” Zachman explains. That silence, he notes, often leads to anxiety, broken relationships, and disconnection from self and others.

From this, BeMen is born. It’s not a business. It’s a brotherhood. Men can speak honestly here. They grow emotionally. They healthily redefine masculinity. Through summits, gatherings, and talks, Zachman helps men learn how to be a man today. No shame. No ego. No old expectations.

For more podcasts, blogs, and to get involved in the Men's Therapy Online Community, visit www.menstherapy.online.

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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.

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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.

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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.