GARRICK D. CONNER

Garrick D. Conner, LPC-S, LMFT-S, CSAT, CMAT

You don’t have to be falling apart to know something isn’t working.

A lot of men are good at carrying things.

Work. Family. Expectations. Financial pressure. Other people’s needs. The responsibility to keep things moving.

And from the outside, they may look completely fine.

But underneath, there can be loneliness, anxiety, anger, exhaustion, shame, disconnection, compulsive behaviors, relationship problems, or simply the nagging sense that life shouldn’t feel this hard.

Sometimes a man knows exactly what’s wrong.

Sometimes he just knows he doesn’t feel like himself anymore.

Therapy that feels like a real conversation.

You won’t find a lot of jargon here.

My approach with men is straightforward, practical, and conversational. We can talk about what’s happening now, where some of it may have come from, and—most importantly—what can actually help.

That may mean learning to recognize emotions before they come out as anger or withdrawal. It may mean understanding why you shut down during conflict, why you feel disconnected from people you care about, or why certain behaviors have become difficult to control.

Sometimes it means finally talking about things you’ve spent years avoiding.

And yes, there can still be humor in the room. Therapy doesn’t have to feel clinical to be meaningful.

Some of the issues men bring to therapy

Men come to counseling for all kinds of reasons, including:

• Anxiety, stress, and feeling constantly “on”
• Depression, low motivation, or emotional numbness
• Loneliness and lack of meaningful connection
• Relationship conflict or emotional distance
• Difficulty identifying or expressing emotions
• Anger, irritability, or shutting down
• Work stress, burnout, and pressure to perform
• Grief and major life transitions
• Pornography or compulsive sexual behavior
• Substance use or other patterns that have become hard to manage
• Infidelity, betrayal, and rebuilding trust
• Questions about identity, purpose, faith, or direction
• The sense that you’ve become disconnected from yourself somewhere along the way

You don’t have to fit neatly into one of those categories. Sometimes the starting point is simply, “I’m not doing as well as everyone thinks I am.”

For the men who are used to handling things themselves

A lot of men wait a long time before asking for help.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re resistant to therapy. Often, they’ve simply spent most of their lives solving problems on their own.

By the time many men contact me, they’ve already tried pushing through, working harder, distracting themselves, keeping busy, praying about it, promising themselves they’ll change, or telling themselves things really aren’t that bad.

Sometimes those things help for a while.

Sometimes they don’t.

Therapy gives us an opportunity to understand why the same patterns keep returning and to work toward something more sustainable.

My goal isn’t to make you less independent, less masculine, or more “emotional.”

It’s to help you become more aware of what’s happening inside you, more intentional in the way you respond to it, and more connected to the people and values that matter to you.

And if you’re here because you’re worried about a man you love…

You may be reading this page for your husband, partner, son, brother, or friend.

Maybe you can see how lonely he is even when he insists he’s fine.

Maybe you’ve watched him become more withdrawn, angry, anxious, distracted, or consumed by work.

Maybe your relationship has been affected by pornography, infidelity, substance use, or emotional distance.

Or maybe you simply miss him.

You can encourage someone to get help, but you can’t do the work for him. What you can do is let him know that counseling doesn’t have to mean sitting in a room being analyzed or told everything he’s doing wrong.

There can simply be a place to start talking.

Recovery from pornography and compulsive sexual behavior

For some men, pornography or sexual behavior has moved beyond something occasional and become a source of secrecy, shame, conflict, or loss of control.

I’m a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT) and Certified Multiple Addiction Therapist (CMAT), and I work with men who want to understand these patterns and make meaningful changes in their lives and relationships.

Recovery involves more than simply stopping a behavior.

We may look at triggers, emotional regulation, attachment, shame, intimacy, accountability, relapse prevention, and the ways certain behaviors have functioned as escape, comfort, or avoidance.

The goal isn’t simply abstinence.

It’s building a life in which the behavior no longer has to do the emotional work it has been doing for you.

For men who want it, Christian faith can be integrated into our work.

Faith can be an enormous source of strength, meaning, identity, and hope. It can also become tangled up with shame, disappointment, unrealistic expectations, or painful experiences in church.

We can talk about all of that honestly.

You won’t be preached at, and faith will never be forced into therapy. But you also won’t have to leave an important part of who you are outside the room.

You don’t need to be at rock bottom.

You don’t need to have the right words.

And you don’t have to know exactly what you want therapy to accomplish before you begin.

Sometimes the first step is simply acknowledging:

Something needs to change.

We can start there.

You’re welcome to call me at 501-819-3041. I answer my own line, so if I’m in session or otherwise unavailable, just leave me a message and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can.

You can also email me and let me know you’d like to set up a time to talk.

No pressure. We can simply have a brief conversation, answer any questions you have, and see whether working together makes sense.