Not every man who keeps his feelings to himself is emotionally shut down. Some men have a genuine preference for processing internally and sharing selectively. The distinction between healthy privacy and emotional shutdown is in the flexibility and the cost. A private person can open up when the situation calls for it and chooses not to in everyday circumstances. A shut-down person cannot open up even when they want to, even when their relationship depends on it, even when they can see the damage their silence is causing. The inability is the marker. If the guardedness is involuntary and inflexible, it is a therapeutic issue rather than a personality preference.
Dr. David Steinbok helps men near Deerfield Beach, Florida determine which category their emotional reticence falls into. For men whose guardedness is truly involuntary, his psychodynamic approach provides the sustained relational work needed to understand the guardedness from the inside and to begin developing access to emotional expression that has been blocked for years.
