A lot of men don’t think they have a problem with intimacy. They just feel a bit distant. A bit shut down. Less connected than they used to be to their partner, to sex, or to themselves. This episode goes right into that space.

I’m joined by Dr. Dan Sneider. Dan is a therapist; however, this isn’t a lecture or a list of techniques. It’s a conversation grounded in his own lived experience and how he learned early on to shut parts of himself down, how that showed up in his relationships, and what it actually took for him to stay present instead of withdrawing when things got uncomfortable.

We talk about how intimacy doesn’t usually disappear overnight. It fades quietly. How many men default to pulling away rather than risking saying the wrong thing. And how habits that look like “sex issues” are often really about safety, control, and not knowing how to stay emotionally exposed without feeling weak or overwhelmed.

Dan shares what he’s learned, first in his own life, then through years of working alongside men, including:

• why emotional closeness can feel threatening, even in good relationships
• how shame and self-protection show up as silence, distraction, or distance
• why midlife often brings intimacy problems to the surface
• and how connection starts with honesty, not performance or confidence

This episode is for men who care about their relationships but don’t always know how to talk about what’s going on inside them. Men who haven’t “checked out”, but who feel something has shifted and don’t want to lose what matters.

It’s not about fixing yourself. It’s about understanding why intimacy feels hard and what actually helps.

If you want to find out more about Dan’s work, visit his website where you can also download his free guide: https://www.growthandgratitudetherapy.com/the-intimacy-shift.

In this episode, I’m joined by Michael Rice, a bioarchitect and the founder of Mentorus. Michael approaches men’s lives the same way he approaches buildings: by looking at foundations, structure, and whether what’s been built is actually fit for purpose. After years designing physical spaces, his work now focuses on helping men understand why a life that looks solid on the outside can quietly stop working from within, and how to rebuild it with intention, clarity, and honesty.

We talk about what happens when the life you’ve constructed no longer fits who you are, and how midlife often reveals this not as a crisis, but as a structural problem that can be understood, and changed.

A key part of this conversation is about the four archetypal parts that operate inside most men, whether we’re conscious of them or not, and what it looks like when they’re missing or out of balance in everyday life:

• the part of you that takes responsibility but ends up carrying everything alone;
• the part of you that should set boundaries but stays silent or explodes;
• the part of you that thinks constantly but feels stuck and overwhelmed;
• the part of you that wants closeness, joy, and connection but feels switched off.

We talk about how midlife often exposes these fractures, and why that’s not a failure, but a signal.

Most importantly, this isn’t a conversation that stays in theory. Michael shares simple, practical ways men can start changing things without quitting their job, blowing up their family, or pretending everything is fine.

This episode is for men who feel:

• unfulfilled and continuing down the wrong path in life;
• disconnected from themselves or the people they care about;
• unsure how to find a way forward to the life they want.

About MENTORUS

In a world where information and knowledge are readily available and accessible, the commodity and quality of Wisdom becomes increasingly difficult to procure and purpose. The unstable landscape of perception and cognition is cluttered and difficult to navigate. Without Truth as our compass, we either stall and forget, or stumble onwards, blind to our inner flame, reacting, rather than creating.

Mentorus provides a Map and the wisdom to read it. It invites the courageous man to dive deep into his true nature, developing contextual awareness of the myriad machinations and meanings of this copy realm, and, most importantly, his role within it. It guides him on a Journey of re-discovery and re-memberance; providing inspiration, insight and illumination - stimulating a powerful impulse to upheave and burn away the accumulated programs, beliefs, and limits, imposed and assumed, and affords him the strength to explore and express his true essence and creative power.

To contact Michael, email him @ 13mentorus@gmail.com.

In this episode, we talk to Mordy Gottlieb, a men’s therapist whose work - and life - has been shaped by one quiet, corrosive belief: “Whatever I do, it’s never enough.”

Mordy shares how perfection became his survival strategy as a child and how striving without self-compassion led to years of numbing, self-criticism, and chasing relief through behaviours that slowly escalated rather than resolved the pain.

What makes this conversation different is its honesty about how these patterns actually form, starting with food, moving into pornography and other forms of escape, and eventually colliding with midlife reality when effort stops working, and avoidance stops providing relief.

Rather than framing men’s behaviours as addictions or failures, Mordy explains them as attempts to regulate unbearable internal pressure and why insight alone rarely changes anything. The real shift, he argues, comes through experience, practice, and safe connection, especially with other men.

This episode also challenges some uncomfortable truths: why being “strong” often means being emotionally absent, why vulnerability isn’t just talking, and why many men feel unseen even inside long-term relationships they’ve spent years sustaining.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How the belief “I’m never enough” gets wired into boys early on
• Why perfectionism feels productive but leads to exhaustion and shame
• How numbing behaviours escalate quietly over time
• Why midlife is often the moment men can’t outrun themselves anymore
• The limits of talk therapy and why knowing why isn’t the same as changing
• How experiential therapy helps men rehearse real-world change
• Why men often heal faster in groups than one-to-one
• What vulnerability actually looks like in daily life (including learning to say no)
• Small, realistic ways to introduce play, presence, and self-permission back into life

Why this episode matters:
Because if you’ve ever felt that no matter how much you give - at work, at home, in relationships - it’s still not enough, this conversation will feel uncomfortably familiar. Mordy doesn’t offer fixes or slogans. He offers language for something many men have lived with for decades without naming.

To find out more Mordy, visit his website: www.thegamechangergroup.com.