- Offers Telehealth in New York, Massachusetts & Maine
Doing fine on paper isn’t the same as actually thriving.
You manage the job, the schedule, the family, and the expectations. From the outside, it looks like everything is under control. But there’s a low-level friction running underneath all of it, something that’s harder to name than a specific problem, and harder to fix than a task on a list.
That’s usually the part men don’t say out loud. Not because they can’t. Because nobody has given them a real reason to.
Maybe it’s stress with nowhere to go. A relationship that feels distant even when nothing is technically wrong. Anger that shows up faster than you’d like. Or just the sense that you’ve been running long enough and that you’ve forgotten where you were going. That’s what we work on.
You've been the one holding it. You don't have to hold it here.
Understand the pattern. Build the skills. Move differently.
My approach is grounded in attachment theory, nonviolent communication, and a developmental understanding of where people are in their lives. I work practically. That means we figure out what’s actually happening, build real skills, and develop the habits that make lasting change possible. You get frameworks and tools you can use, not just a space to talk.
In session, the work looks like:
You've been the strong one. You don't have to be here.
Success & Wellbeing is a counseling practice in Brunswick, Maine. Paul Sullivan, M.Ed., LMHC, LCPC, CGP, leads the men’s mental health work here. He has been doing this for nearly two decades: direct, warm, grounded in your actual life, not a clinical model of what it should look like. He works best with men who are ready to commit to something real, and he has seen what becomes possible when they do.
The people who come here are usually successful in other areas of life. They have real strengths. What brings them in is figuring out how to direct those strengths toward the things that matter most. That’s the work.
What we offer:
The work you've been avoiding is the work that changes everything.
Our approach is integrative. We draw on what fits you, not a fixed protocol. These are the frameworks we might use most often.
A lot of what’s difficult in adult relationships, including patterns of withdrawal, conflict, or emotional distance, has roots in how we learned to attach earlier in life. Understanding your attachment style gives you real insight into why you respond the way you do in close relationships, and what it would take to respond differently.
In practice, that tends to mean:
Most men weren’t taught how to identify what they’re actually feeling, let alone how to express it without it coming out sideways. Nonviolent communication gives you a practical language for both and a way of navigating conflict that creates connection instead of distance.
That tends to look like:
Life moves in stages. What’s hard at 32 is often different from what’s hard at 45, and both are real. We look at where you are developmentally, not just what’s happening in front of you, because some of what feels like a personal failure is actually a difficult transition that most people hit at some point.
In session, that means we look at:
The internal critic most men carry is loud and efficient. Self-compassion isn’t about letting yourself off the hook. It’s about developing enough steadiness to look clearly at what’s happening without the self-criticism getting so loud that it shuts everything down.
What this looks like in sessions:
Understanding why this is hard helps reduce the self-judgment that gets in the way of taking action.
Men are taught, usually without anyone saying it explicitly, that difficulty is something to manage privately. That reaching out means you couldn’t handle it. The right response is to figure it out, push through, or wait until it gets better. That script makes sense as a survival strategy. It stops making sense when it prevents you from addressing things that actually matter.
Research on what makes therapy effective for men points to a few consistent factors: a practical orientation, a clear structure for sessions, a therapist who doesn’t require emotional performance, and work that connects to outcomes a man actually cares about. Not all therapy is built that way.
Most men don’t come to therapy because they’ve identified a clinical issue. They come because something has been nagging at them long enough that they’ve decided to do something about it. These are the signals worth taking seriously:
Reaching out takes exactly the kind of strength you already have.
The most consistent factors are having somewhere to process what’s going on without having to perform either strength or vulnerability, a practical orientation to the work, connection to outcomes that actually matter to the man in question, and consistency over time. Therapy isn’t the only answer, but it tends to work well for men when it’s designed around how men actually engage.
Across the research and the work I do with men in Brunswick and throughout Maine, these are the areas that come up most consistently. They tend to be interrelated, not separate.
Not necessarily. The most important factor is fit, not gender. Some men find it easier to open up with a male therapist because it reduces the self-consciousness of appearing vulnerable in front of a woman. Others prefer a female therapist for exactly that reason. What matters most is whether the therapist understands how you actually think and communicate, and whether the work is built around your real experience rather than a generic model.
Look for someone who is direct without being cold, practical without being simplistic, and who doesn’t require you to perform emotional disclosure before you’re ready for it. The first session should feel like a conversation, not a test.
here is no single best type. What tends to work well for men is therapy that has a clear structure, a practical orientation, and a focus on outcomes that connect to real life rather than open-ended reflection. Different approaches work for different people, and the most effective therapy adapts to how a specific person thinks and engages.
Attachment-based work helps men understand relational patterns. Nonviolent communication gives them practical language for what they feel and need. Developmental frameworks help men locate their current difficulty in the arc of their life, which reduces shame and increases clarity. What I bring is an integrative approach that uses what fits you, not a predetermined method.
Men come to counseling for a wide range of reasons. Stress and burnout. Relationship difficulty. Anger that feels out of proportion. Anxiety and depression. Major life transitions like fatherhood, divorce, or career changes. A general sense of being stuck despite functioning well by external measures. The common thread is usually that something is running in the background that isn’t getting addressed, and that has started affecting the things that matter.
Yes. Stress and burnout are among the most common reasons men reach out for support, and they tend to respond well to the kind of practical, structured approach I use. Stress that has no outlet builds. It shows up as irritability, disconnection, difficulty sleeping, or a persistent sense of being slightly behind everything. Counseling helps name what’s underneath that, build real outlets for it, and change the patterns that keep regenerating it.
It’s one of the most consistently productive areas of men’s counseling. Most relationship difficulty comes down to patterns that were never examined and needs that were never expressed clearly. Individual counseling helps men understand their own contribution to relationship patterns before working on them with a partner. Alongside individual work, I also offer
It’s one of the most consistently productive areas of men’s counseling. Most relationship difficulty comes down to patterns that were never examined and needs that were never expressed clearly. Individual counseling helps men understand their own contribution to relationship patterns before working on them with a partner. Alongside individual work, I also offer couples counseling for men who want to work on their relationship directly.
Sessions are an hour, typically weekly at the start. We talk through what’s been happening since last time, work on whatever is most relevant, and build toward the goals we’ve identified together. Sessions are structured but not scripted. You’re not just recounting your week while I nod. We’re actively working on something, and you leave with more than you came in with.
I don’t require emotional performance. You don’t have to feel your feelings in a particular way or at a particular pace. What I ask for is honesty and a willingness to try something different, even when it feels unfamiliar. That’s usually enough to make real progress.
As long as the work is useful. Some men come in with a specific challenge and work through it in a few months. Others stay longer because they find value in having a consistent place to process what’s going on across different life seasons. The right answer depends on what you’re working on and what you want from the process.
I work best with people who want to make real progress, not just check in indefinitely. We set clear goals and track whether we’re moving toward them. When the work has accomplished what you came in for, we talk about what comes next, whether that’s spacing out, concluding, or shifting focus.
For most of the men I work with, yes. Online counseling removes a meaningful logistical barrier, which in practice means it’s more likely to actually happen consistently. And consistency matters more than format. The quality of the conversation, the relationship, and the tools developed are the same regardless of whether we’re in the same room or on a screen.
Start by looking for therapists in the Brunswick area who have specific experience working with men and who describe their approach in practical, direct terms. Avoid anyone who sounds like a brochure. The right counselor should feel like a real person who understands how you think, not a service provider offering a clinical product.
A few things worth paying attention to: a therapist who doesn’t listen before explaining things, who jumps to conclusions about what’s wrong before you’ve had a chance to describe it, who feels passive to the point of being unhelpful, or who seems more interested in their own framework than in what’s actually going on for you. Therapy should feel like a real collaboration.
After a first session with the right therapist, you should feel like you were actually heard, as the conversation went somewhere real, and like you have at least a rough sense of what working together would involve. If you left feeling more confused or more unheard than when you arrived, that’s worth paying attention to.
Counseling approaches are typically organized around individual therapy, group therapy, couples or relational therapy, and family therapy. Most therapists draw on several within a given approach. What distinguishes good therapy isn’t which type it is, but whether the specific approach matches the person’s actual needs and way of engaging.
I offer individual men’s mental health counseling as the primary service. I also offer group therapy for men who want the experience of working through things with other men navigating similar territory, couples counseling for men working on their relationship, and family therapy for men whose difficulties are affecting the wider family system.
Monday – Thursday 9 am – 5 pm
You’ve done harder things than this. Let’s figure out what comes next.
A free 15-minute consultation is how we start. We talk about what’s been going on, we tell you how we work, and we figure out whether this is a good fit. No commitment required. Just an honest conversation.
You don’t need to know what you need before you come in. Most men don’t. That’s the starting point, not a problem.
The strength to show up here is the same strength that makes this work.
