Think therapy won’t work for you? a psychiatrist breaks down the facts

You lie on a couch in the center of a dimly-lit room filled with leather-bound medical tomes. Behind you, the stern-faced doctor eyes you, silently judging your every word as you free associate for hours about your innermost feelings and deepest, most repressed memories.

Stereotypes like these can make talk therapy sound intimidating and unwelcoming—but it’s an impression that today’s practitioners would like to change.

Marek Hirsch, MD, is a psychiatrist at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida who specializes in treating men with depression and other mental health issues. He’s passionate about demystifying mental health treatment for men, and wants them to know the facts about talk therapy, including what it’s really like in practice and how it can help men with their mental health.