Not all emotional numbness is caused by a single traumatic event. For some people, the numbness is the end result of years of emotional suppression. A person who has spent decades pushing down anger, sadness, fear, or need does not maintain sharp access to those emotions indefinitely. The suppression eventually becomes a generalized shutdown. The person can no longer feel selectively. The system that was trained to suppress specific unwanted emotions has generalized to suppress emotion altogether. Men are particularly susceptible to this trajectory because cultural expectations around masculinity encourage emotional suppression from an early age.
For individuals near Deerfield Beach, Florida who suspect their emotional numbness developed gradually through years of suppression, Dr. David Steinbok offers psychodynamic therapy designed to reverse the process at a sustainable pace. A feeling emotionally numb therapist does not ask the patient to suddenly start feeling. The work involves understanding the suppression, examining when and why it became necessary, and slowly rebuilding the patient's connection to an emotional life that was shut down for understandable reasons.
