There’s a strange paradox in this field. You can sit with people all day. Hear their stories. Hold space for their pain. …and still feel pretty alone. The Part No One Mentions After a while, therapy can be an isolating profession. You’re in a room (or on a screen), one-on-one, for most of your day. There’s no real “coworker banter.” No team huddle. No shared decompression. Now layer in being a male therapist in a field that’s largely female. And it changes the whole experien

“Sorry.” It’s one of the most commonly used words in modern conversation. Someone bumps into us in the grocery store - sorry. Someone passes the salt - sorry. Someone holds the door - sorry. At some point, the word started drifting into territory where it doesn’t belong. It’s almost like sorry has been grouped together with thank you and you’re welcome as a sort of conversational filler. But an apology isn’t supposed to be conversational filler. An apology is something muc

Over the past 8 years I’ve experimented with sharing mental health ideas online. Somewhere along the way that experiment turned into nearly 1,000 YouTube videos and thousands of posts across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. When you create that much content, you begin to notice something about the professional landscape online. There is now an entire ecosystem built around selling credibility . In other words, paying major green means being major seen. Professional

Pity is Powerful It’s an odd concept. And it’s also true. At first glance, the idea that pity is powerful feels backwards. “Pity is bad, Jed. Power is good.” Or maybe: “Pity is something you don’t want. Power is something you do want.” The two words don’t seem like they belong together. But they actually connect very easily—and once you see it, you start noticing it everywhere. What Power Really Is Power, at the beginning, middle, and end of the day, is the ability to get

("Playing Chess With A Sociopath" was originally written 2019 - updated for clarity in 2026) It’s nice to know the rules when playing any game. It’s even nicer to know when someone else isn’t using the same rulebook. Today we’re talking about a pattern of behavior often labeled “sociopathy.” Clinically, the diagnosis is Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). The terms sociopath and psychopath aren’t formal DSM diagnoses, but they’re commonly used to describe people who sho

People naturally bond or connect with other people. This happens with close acquaintances, family, lovers, co-workers, etc. Fortunately, there are exceptions to whom we create bonds with - otherwise, we'd have much stronger emotional reactions to random people we meet in life. For a genuine bond to take place, we need to have some desire to connect with or gain acceptance from the other person. A bond is different from a connection. Connections happen like courtesy nods or ha

A lot of you may not remember Fred Rogers . He was a little before my time, but I do remember him. At first glance, he came across as a sweater-wearing, dorky, middle-aged guy hosting an oddly persistent puppet show for kids. As a kid myself, I watched if nothing better was on—DuckTales, G.I. Joe, or really any cartoon. Still, I must have watched more than I realized, because I’ve got “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood” permanently etched into my brain. And I wasn’t