What if the person helping others through mental health struggles once needed that help themselves?

What we covered

• Karen's path from the Air Force and six years in engineering into men's mental health counseling, and the mission behind his private practice.
• Why men stay quiet about struggling, and what actually gets them to open up.
• His practical advice for anyone reluctant to try therapy for the first time — or the second, after a bad first experience.
• Where Karen personally draws the line on using AI, especially around client confidentiality.
• Simple, low-effort ways he coaches men to notice burnout before it becomes a crisis.
• The one thing he'd tell his younger self, and why it's the message he keeps repeating in talks.

Moments worth your time

• The room full of men. After a workplace talk where Karen shared his own story, several men approached him afterward: "I've never told anybody this before."
• Why he does this work. Karen doesn't dress up his motivation: "I wanted to be the guy that I needed all those years ago, the guy that I could have spoken to."
• The permission to fail once. His advice for anyone whose first counseling experience didn't click: "Don't give up. There's plenty out there... it's literally nothing to lose and everything to gain."
• Where AI stops for him. Karen uses AI daily for ideas and admin, but is unambiguous about client work: "No confidential information, none of that."

In their words

"Just to try it."

"I think it's a fantastic tool. But like any tool, it's how you use it and how you respect it."

"Don't wait. Don't wait until you're in crisis."

Who should watch this

You'll want to watch this if you've ever wondered whether therapy is "for you," if you're a man who's been told to just push through, or if you support someone who is. It's also for counselors and coaches curious how a working practitioner actually uses AI day-to-day — for ideas, for admin, for staying organized — without ever letting it near a client file.

Put it to work

This week, do what Karen calls "getting out of your head": open a notes app or grab a piece of paper and, for one day, jot down three moments when you noticed a shift — a shorter fuse, zoning out, avoiding a conversation you'd normally have. At the end of the day, read back what you wrote and ask one question: what's one small thing, a message to a friend, a five-minute walk, that you could try in response to just one of those moments?

If you want to see how to use AI for your own thinking and content without ever touching client data, no case notes required to learn any of it, join the free master class and build alongside us live.