11/08/2026
When I embarked on my counselling journey my motivation lay in improving mental health provision for men. Although my commitments have diversified, my passion to continue this work remains unaltered. As time goes on I realise how early intervention, helps positively impact outcomes for all, and yet, boys’ mental health still doesn’t get the space it needs!
�I’m determined to change that.
🌱 1 Teenage boys feel everything. What many have been taught is that showing it, isn’t acceptable. Those are two completely different things. When we confuse them, we can end up assuming our son is fine when he isn’t.
🌱 2 When a teenage boy fully withdraws to his room and stops communicating, he is almost never “fine.” He is usually trying to process something he doesn’t yet have the language for.
🌱 3 Teenage boys need connection just as much as teenage girls. They have simply been socialised into fewer acceptable ways to seek and express that need.
🌱 4 Anger in teenage boys is nearly always a translation of something else — fear, shame, grief, or overwhelm. When we only address the anger, we are treating the symptom, not the cause.
🌱 5 Male friendships in adolescence are often built around shared activity rather than explicit emotional conversation. That form of connection is real and valuable. Protecting time for it matters.
🌱 6 The teenage boy who seems unbothered by everything, who shrugs at every question and gives one-word answers, can be the one carrying the most.
🌱 7 Conversations with teenage boys about anything important often work better in motion than face-to-face. Drive somewhere. Walk. Shoot hoops. The conversation usually arrives on its own.
