The Initiation Gap: How We Fail to Support Men And What the Research Says It Costs Us

The Initiation Gap: How We Fail to Support Men And What the Research Says It Costs Us

Taking the pioneering work of Dan Doty [https://www.dandoty.com/] as his cue, Richard Roman, PhD, [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjoroman/] examines the collapse of initiation structures in American culture through peer-reviewed research: normative male alexithymia (Levant), gender role conflict and suicide risk (JAMA Psychiatry 2020), rites of passage program outcomes, and the RAND male mentorship deficit data. What does the science say about what boys and men actually need, and what is the evidence base for getting it right? Keywords: masculinity research, male initiation, rites of passage, normative male alexithymia, male loneliness, boys' mental health, gender role conflict, leadership, trust, CHRO, men's work, wilderness therapy Further Reading: * Coleman, D., Feigelman, W., & Rosen, Z. (2020). Association of high traditional masculinity and risk of suicide death: Secondary analysis of the Add Health study. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(4), 435–437. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4702 [https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4702] * Levant, R. F. (1992). Toward the reconstruction of masculinity. Journal of Family Psychology, 5(3–4), 379–402. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.5.3-4.379 [https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.5.3-4.379] * Levant, R. F., Good, G. E., Cook, S. W., O'Neil, J. M., Smalley, K. B., Owen, K., & Richmond, K. (2006). The Normative Male Alexithymia Scale: Measurement of a gender-linked syndrome. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 7(4), 212–224. https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.7.4.212 [https://doi.org/10.1037/1524-9220.7.4.212] * Pollack, W. S. (2004). Male adolescent rites of passage: Positive visions of multiple developmental pathways. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1036(1), 141–150. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1330.008 [https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1330.008] * Bozick, R., & Wenger, J. W. (2025). The limited presence of male mentors in the lives of boys and young men (Report No. RR-A4451-1). RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4451-1.html [https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4451-1.html]

The Initiation Gap: What Happens to Boys Who Were Never Told They Became Men

What does it cost an organization (or a family) when the men inside it were never given a threshold to cross? Dan Doty [https://www.dandoty.com/] has spent over two decades asking that question. As a wilderness therapy guide, high school teacher in the Bronx, executive coach, and now the creator of a training program for male initiators, Dan has worked with thousands of men across a range of contexts. What he keeps finding is that the crisis isn't in the men. It's in the absence of the infrastructure that was supposed to shape them. In this episode, Dan and Richard explore why American culture quietly dismantled its rites of passage for boys, and what that erosion looks like inside adult men, adult teams, and adult organizations. They get into the difference between conditional and unconditional confidence, why men's retreats can become a form of "depth cosplay," and Dan's deceptively simple trust equation: vulnerability multiplied by time equals connection. If you work with men, lead men, or are one, this episode will reframe something you thought you already understood. Topics covered: male initiation, rites of passage, men's mental health, self-trust, organizational trust, psychological safety, leadership development, fatherhood, men's groups, wilderness therapy, emotional intelligence in men

The Liberation Lens: Why Freeing People Is the First Act of Trust

Most trust-building strategies assume everyone starts from the same baseline. Liberation psychology says that assumption is the problem. In this episode, we explore how liberation psychology reshapes the way leaders understand organizational trust, psychological safety, racial trauma, institutional repair, and collective healing. Drawing on Ignacio Martín-Baró and Amy Edmondson, this episode examines why trust cannot be rebuilt through communication strategies alone. Trust is structural. It is shaped by history, power, design, and unequal access to safety. So we ask: Who was this organization designed to serve? Who has been asked to adapt or absorb harm? And what would it mean to move from designed extraction toward designed service? This conversation offers a liberation lens for rebuilding trust at four levels: self-trust, interpersonal trust, team-level trust, and organizational trust. It is a practical and provocative episode for leaders, educators, managers, DEI practitioners, and anyone working to build more honest, humane, and trustworthy institutions. Thanks for listening!

Healing What Systems Break: Liberation Psychology, Veterans, and the Real Work of Trust

A young medical interpreter picks up the phone at 3 AM in a rural Nebraska hospital and hears a parent learn their child is gone. That moment changed everything for Dr. Ayli Carrero Pinedo [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/ayli-carrero-pinedo-los-angeles-ca/1123969]. Now a trauma psychologist, founder and CEO of In Alignment Wellness Services, and recipient of the 2022 APA Presidential Citation, she joins Dr. Richard Roman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjoroman/] to discuss building trust within systems never designed for the communities they serve, from therapy rooms to veteran groups to institutions dismantling their own equity work. They explore liberation psychology as a diagnostic framework, why coalition-building matters more than ever, and what it costs leaders when asked to act against their values.

The Mirror and the Watchman

Every AI tool that observes you is built on a choice: does it serve you, or does it serve someone else? In this solo companion episode, Richard unpacks the trust architecture behind AI systems across three domains: organizational leadership, higher education, and public institutions. Drawing on Gallup's 2025 data showing manager engagement at historic lows, the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer's findings on the collapse of institutional trust, and Pew Research on civic confidence, he introduces the "mirror vs. window" framework to evaluate whether AI tools are designed for service or extraction. If you lead people, develop people, or set policy for institutions deploying AI, this episode lays out the trust test every system should have to pass.