As a senior in high school, I had a chance to say a few words at the annual football awards banquet. Apparently, my stammering and stuttering through two whole minutes were so inspiring that afterward, an assistant coach took me aside and offered seven words of feedback, “You need to take a speech class.”

His words sunk in. I was a terrible and inarticulate speaker. But did I take his advice? Nope. I was too scared to even try to get better at public speaking.

Fast forward 51 years. Now I speak all the time. In one of my most recent speaking gigs, David Shepard and Erica Liebman had me on their very cool podcast called, “Therapy with Men and Boys.”

On the podcast, we talked about men and boys and therapy and suicide. We talked so much they made my appearance into two episodes. And David, whose work I respect a ton, told me, “Your comfort in front of a mic is really impressive. I can imagine how much your students liked your classes in your teaching days.” 

Thanks David! What a difference 51 years makes.

I share this story because things change with time. . .and I’m hoping (in the sociocultural-political realms) that time will change some things (for the better).

If you’re interested in therapy in general and therapy with men and boys in particular, I’m sharing links to part 1 and 2 of the podcast; they’re about 35 minutes each.

In the first part we talk about suicide in men/boys/males: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-08-40-000-male-suicides-a-year-re-thinking/id1793567491?i=1000752371768

In the second part David does a rather challenging role play with me: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-09-part-ii-on-assessing-for-suicide-with/id1793567491?i=1000758738724

Happy Easter Sunday. I hope you are being as well as you can be in these challenging times.

John