Individual therapy for men · Murfreesboro & online across Tennessee
Therapy for men who want better relationships—and a different way forward.
You may be capable, responsible, and carrying a lot while difficult conversations at home keep ending in defensiveness, anger, or silence.
I help men understand the patterns underneath those reactions and develop different ways of responding — with partners, children, and the people who matter most.
Therapy here isn't about treating you like the problem. You don't have to wait for a crisis to start.
Accepting new clients · $150 per session · In person in Murfreesboro or online across Tennessee
Accepting new clients01 — Recognition
What men often describe
You don't have to wait for a crisis. Most men who come in are doing the work, holding things together, and quietly aware that something in their closest relationships is not going well.
- Conflict that escalates faster than either of you intended.
- Getting defensive when a conversation turns toward something you did or missed.
- Withdrawing — going quiet, going to the garage, going to work — when things get tense.
- Irritability and a shorter fuse than you would like your family to see.
- Feeling disconnected from your partner, your kids, or your friends.
- A background sense of inadequacy, no matter how much you are carrying.
Some men recognize all of this; some recognize one line of it. It is a starting point, not a diagnosis.
02 — Perspective
Self-reliance isn't the problem
Independence, steadiness, and the instinct to solve problems are real strengths. They are often why people rely on you. Difficulty shows up when they are the only tools available — when every hard moment gets handled by fixing it, pushing through it, or leaving the room.
The goal is not to take those strengths away. It is to widen the range of responses available to you so the same pressure does not always produce the same outcome.
03 — What it costs
Where the pattern usually shows up
Patterns that once protected you tend to be most expensive in the relationships you care about most.
- Marriage or partnership: recurring arguments, long silences, a partner who says they feel shut out.
- Parenting: reacting quicker than you want to, or being physically present but somewhere else.
- Friendship: plenty of acquaintances, few people who actually know what is going on with you.
- Yourself: sleep, tension, drinking or scrolling more than you would like, and a hard time saying what you want your life to be about.
04 — The work
What therapy actually looks like
Sessions are conversations, not interrogations. There is no requirement to be articulate about feelings on day one.
- Start with what is actually happening — the argument last week, the distance at home, the pressure at work.
- Understand what the reaction is protecting. Anger, shutdown and overwork usually have a job.
- Practice different responses, slowly, and see what changes in the relationship.
Ready to talk it through?
A free 15-minute call is just a chance to describe what is going on and ask whether therapy seems worth trying. No commitment, no intake paperwork, no pressure.
Accepting new clients · $150 per session · In person in Murfreesboro or online across Tennessee
05 — Why Robert
Who you would be working with
I work with men who carry a lot and rarely say so out loud.
I'm Robert Russell, AMFT — an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in Murfreesboro and the founder of Kind Therapy. My training is relational: distress usually lives in the patterns between people, not inside one person who is broken.
Sessions are conversations, paced by you. No script to follow, no version of yourself to perform. We start with what is actually happening, and go from there.
I'm a husband and a father, and I spent more than fifteen years in pastoral counseling and helping work before completing graduate training in marriage and family therapy at Trevecca Nazarene University. For some men, working with another man makes the first conversation easier.
Robert Russell, AMFT — pre-licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, practicing under the supervision of Dr. Sara Hopkins, LMFT (TN license #928).
In person in Murfreesboro and online across Tennessee · Endorsed by 13 fellow clinicians on Psychology Today
06 — Logistics
Fees, location and scheduling
- $150 per 50-minute session
- In person in Murfreesboro at River Tree Center, 212 Heritage Park Drive
- Online across Tennessee
- Free 15-minute consultation before you commit to anything
07 — Approach
How the work is done
The work draws on a few frameworks, matched to what you want out of it rather than applied by formula.
Attachment-based therapy
What closeness and dependence have meant for you, and what made self-reliance necessary.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Maps the cycle between you and your partner so the argument stops being about who is right.
Parts-informed work
Separates the protective parts — the driver, the critic, the one who leaves the room — from the person underneath.
08 — Common questions
Questions men ask first
09 — Next step
Start with a private conversation
A free 15-minute call is just a chance to describe what is going on and ask whether therapy seems worth trying. No commitment, no intake paperwork, no pressure.
Accepting new clients · $150 per session · In person in Murfreesboro or online across Tennessee
Kind Therapy · Murfreesboro, Tennessee and online across Tennessee. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call or text 988, or dial 911.
10 — Read more
Related Kind Therapy guides
If you would rather read before you talk to anyone, these guides go deeper into the patterns above.
- Men's Mental and Emotional HealthOverwork, withdrawal, irritability, difficulty naming emotions, and functioning well publicly while going distant at home.
- Relationship DisconnectionHow closeness erodes gradually, and what tends to be underneath the distance.
- Couples CommunicationThe recurring cycle beneath most arguments, and what changes it.