Jason Fierstein

I am a State of Arizona board-licensed professional counselor practicing in Phoenix. My master’s degree is in psychology, with a counseling emphasis, and I have a post-graduate certification in Gestalt Therapy. I have been counseling a variety of different clients for nine years, and have been practicing privately for five.

In order to explain what I do, I’d like to tell you about a struggle that I once had. For years, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin and uncomfortable around women. I was stressed, ate poorly, and generally didn’t take very good care of myself. I was not a good communicator, and generally didn’t express what I wanted. I stuffed a lot of what I wanted and needed inside of myself, and never showed those things to others. I was too scared to.

When and how those needs finally came out, they ended up creating a lot of problems for me and my relationships. Because I didn’t know how to express those needs effectively, I ended up frustrating other people, making other people angry at me, and creating depression for myself. Women didn’t want to hang out with me, because they sensed that I didn’t really want to hang out with myself. Life was not so good.

So what I did was begin to change those things that didn’t work. I worked with a counselor who helped me to express myself clearly, and get my relationship needs met. I learned how to communicate more effectively and assertively, and stopped creating the relationship problems that used to plague me and hinder my success.

And you know what happened? A major transformation changed my life. I made some big changes in my thinking and my behavior, and as a result, my relationships with others turned around. I began to like myself a whole lot more. I felt much more comfortable in my own skin, and more at ease with myself. I stopped creating many of the problems that I accused others of creating and doing to me. I started to get happy. My friends and family noticed, and my relationships reflected these new changes. People liked the new me! I liked the new me!

And it was at that point that I realized that I needed to help other men to do the same thing that I did for myself. I really wanted to work with men who were struggling in their relationships, and in their lives in general.

I want to help give men their voice back from where they lost it before, or never knew that they had it. I want to show men that they don’t need to suffer in silence, and that they are capable of having the happy and successful lives that they thought might not be possible.

Through better communication, tearing down their “emotional walls”, and learning how to get their needs and feelings met in a healthy way, I aim to help create healthier and emotionally-stronger men. I help men to stop incessantly thinking about the problem, and start dealing with the problems head-on.

Because I used to be one of those unhappy men, I want to teach guys what they need to know to find their version of personal success. Through trial and error, I learned what worked, and what didn’t work, to make myself happy. I want to give men those same tools for use in their lives. I want guys to be able to say to themselves: “life is good.”