What It’s Like for Young Men in Therapy: Masculinity, Anxiety, and Healing
A Real Look at Therapy and Masculinity
I could write about all the magic that happened to me in therapy—but I’d be lying to myself if I did. The truth is, I felt relief when my therapy journey ended. The relationship with my therapist hadn’t developed enough for me to feel safe being vulnerable.
Starting therapy wasn’t easy. It’s hard to open up to someone who knows nothing about you. But strangely, I found a kind of freedom in that.
There’s something unique about talking to someone outside your world—someone who doesn’t know your friends, your past, your family. That distance can create safety.
For young men, I think this is crucial. So many of us suffer in silence. We’re raised to believe that being a man means being tough, stoic, unemotional. That emotional expression is weakness. That crying is feminine.
But male vulnerability is not weakness. It’s strength.
Therapy gives men a space to challenge outdated masculinity norms. To say, “I’m not okay,” and not be judged for it.
Jump to Good Conclusions: Managing Health Anxiety as a Man
As someone who lives with health anxiety, I often find myself assuming the worst. In psychology, that’s called catastrophising—and it’s common in anxiety.
When I’m in an anxiety spiral, my world feels like it’s closing in. Every little health niggle becomes catastrophic.
But something my therapist told me changed my perspective:
“There’s nothing stopping you from jumping to good conclusions.”
That stuck with me. Because it’s true—anxiety often makes me focus on what’s wrong with me or others, but it’s possible to retrain your brain to look for the positive. It ties into the psychological principle of confirmation bias—we see what we expect to see.
Expect the good. It changes everything.
Finding Meaning in Trauma: Turning Pain into Power
This might not be for everyone, but if you’re a man dealing with emotional wounds, I highly recommend it:
Give meaning to your trauma.
What do I mean?
Think of life like a film. No great movie skips the struggle. Every story has conflict—and that conflict gives it depth. The same goes for you.
Seeing my past pain through that lens changed everything. Trauma isn’t just something that happened to me—it shaped me. It gave me perspective. It gave me a voice. In a way, it gave me emotional strength as a man.
That doesn’t mean it was fair or easy. But it does mean it can mean something.