I'm writing this in February 2026, but this could have equally been 5 years ago for all of the time I have spent over thinking the creation of this site! Despite my extensive procrastinating, I'm pleased we're finally live and wanted to share a bit about my story, why I created Fellowman and why it's taken so long to get here...
Really the starting point for all of this; Fellowman, tackling my own mental health issues and ultimately a career change to go back to graduate school to be a mental health therapist all dates back to the summer of 2016. I was living in Ashland, Oregon at the time and on an extended summer trip back to Europe when my own mental health issues got really bad. But, even though I was clinically depressed, something good came out of it as it was the first time I'd admitted I had a problem and started talking to friends about what I was going through.
The original Blackdog 4; Angus, Roann, Alex and Jamie.
What became clear almost immediately as I talked to male friends of mine was just how many other men in the 30's and 40's were going through the same shit. So over coffee's and bike rides that summer in South West London, 4 of us got together to talk and explore what we could do to help. From this came Blackdog, a cycling clothing brand with a mission to raise awareness of men's mental health issues.
But from here things stalled.. it's a pattern that has repeated itself over the years as work, life and my mental health all conspired against doing much with Blackdog. However, it's never gone away.. first up I started a podcast which eventually morphed into The Fellowman Podcast. As my interest in clinical mental health developed, I found myself working in marketing in the mental health world and am now half way through a graduate program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Texas Tech University - a critical piece of the path to becoming a fully licensed therapist within the next year or so.
So it's really all of these pieces that have lead to the creation of Fellowman as it is today. My own mental health pain has become my purpose as I make this career change to be a therapist and set out to help other men who are suffering from the same shit that myself and many others have worked through (and continue to work on).
The model for men's mental health is pretty broken at a time when more men than ever need help, so if you're suffering talk to a Fellowman.
My mental health & coaching credentials:
- Graduate student, MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Texas Tech University.
- Former VP Marketing, Heading Health (Ketamine, TMS and Therapy start-up).
- Men's Wisdom Work coach training program.
- Mankind Project New Warrior Adventure Training & Primary Integration Training.
- Extensive lived experience with; clinical depression & anxiety, alcohol use issues / 12 step, psychotropic mediations, Ketamine therapy, TMS, Testosterone therapy, fertility treatment & IVF, separation / divorce / co-parenting, positive psychology, DBT.