Episode 24: ADHD, Male Vulnerability & Hidden Trauma | Simon Jacobs
This episode contains discussion around ADHD, overwork, male vulnerability, family trauma, ancestral trauma, and career transitions.
Join us for a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation with Gestalt psychotherapist Simon Jacobs as he shares his remarkable journey from building a highly successful advertising business to discovering his true calling in therapy, uncovering how childhood competitiveness and hidden family trauma shaped his adult struggles with overwork and perfectionism. This honest and inspiring discussion explores how becoming a father can trigger profound personal transformation, and why understanding ancestral trauma is essential for breaking free from inherited patterns of behaviour.
In this compelling episode, Simon openly shares:
- Growing up as an artistic child with a high-achieving mother
- Struggling at school because of his ADHD
- Finding solace and expression through creativity
- Building a highly successful career in the advertising industry
- Being encouraged to be competitive from childhood
- Overworking and obsessing over failures in his business
- The overwhelming pressures of work, relationships and fatherhood
- His transformative experience seeking help from a therapist
- Making the bold decision to pivot careers within weeks
- Beginning his own therapy training and leaving advertising behind
- Running a successful private practice and long-running men’s therapy group
- Becoming a facilitator in Family Constellations therapy
- Addressing ancestral trauma and difficult family dynamics
- Breaking down barriers around male vulnerability
This essential conversation offers valuable insights for anyone struggling with overwork, competitiveness, ADHD, or the pressures of balancing career success with family life and personal wellbeing.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Living and thriving with ADHD
- The impact of high-achieving parents on childhood development
- Competitiveness and perfectionism in business
- Overwork, burnout and obsessing over failure
- Male vulnerability and seeking help
- The transformative power of fatherhood
- Career transitions from corporate success to therapeutic practice
- Men’s therapy groups and creating safe spaces for vulnerability
- Family Constellations therapy and ancestral trauma
- How hidden family dynamics affect present-day behaviour
- Breaking free from inherited patterns and family trauma
- Using creativity as a coping mechanism and form of expression
