You don't have
to be in crisis
to get help.
Most men wait until it's an emergency. It doesn't have to be one. If something has been sitting on you — for a week or for twenty years — this is a place to start.
And if somebody sent you this link — they aren't saying you're broken. They're saying they'd rather you had the number than not.
Somebody handed me this man's name when I needed one. Now I'm handing it to you. — Dan
Start hereSomebody gave
me his name.
That's how it works for almost every man who ends up in a chair. You don't research your way there — somebody you trust says a name out loud.
Reid was recommended to me, I called him, and it worked. So instead of a directory of two hundred faces, here's the one name I'd give a friend.
He's the guy who was there. That's the only reason he's on this page.
Probably you.
Even if you'd argue.
You're doing alright
Nothing's on fire. You've just stopped pretending seventy percent is your ceiling. Most common reason men call.
Somebody sent you this
It cost them something to send it. Nobody does this casually.
You and your wife
Reid is a marriage therapist first. You can go together instead of alone.
You're near the end of it
If tonight is bad, call or text 988 now. If tonight is survivable, the form is below.
Reid Walton, LMFT
Reid is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an author, and a mental health app creator. He has spent nearly twenty years practicing marriage, family, and individual therapy in Orange County.
Master's in Clinical Psychology from Vanguard University, where he's now an adjunct professor. Trained in inpatient psychiatric and crisis-response settings earlier on.
His approach pulls from Emotionally Focused Therapy, ACT, and DBT — tailored to the person in front of him, not a one-size-fits-all script.
- License LMFT #52439, State of California
- Experience Nearly 20 years in practice
- Office 3700 Campus Drive, Suite 208, Newport Beach, CA
- Sees Individuals, couples, families
- Where In person in Newport Beach, or by video anywhere in California
Nobody is going
to ambush you.
The not-knowing is most of the fear. So here is the whole thing, start to finish.
You leave your name and a number
That's it. No intake questionnaire, no symptom checklist, nothing about what you're going through. Four fields.
Reid reaches out
He reaches out to you himself — not an assistant, not a call center.
You have a short conversation
He answers your questions. You decide whether he's the right fit. If he isn't, he'll say so and point you toward someone who is. That call costs you nothing.
You decide. Not now — then.
Filling out a form is not signing up for anything. You can talk to him once and never call again. Plenty of men do, and that's a fine outcome.
What you're not doing by filling this out: going on a list, getting added to an email sequence, or telling me anything. I don't see it. It goes to Reid.
“Does this follow me at work?”
No. Reid is in private practice — he doesn't bill your department, doesn't answer to your city, and doesn't report to anyone above you. Records are released only with your written permission. The exceptions are the narrow legal ones every California therapist has, and he'll name them for you.
One detail most pages skip: a superbill submitted to insurance shows your insurer a diagnosis code. Cash or HSA doesn't involve them at all.
Straight answer,
before you ask.
Nobody wants to be the guy who asks. So here it is without you having to.
Reid is not on insurance panels. Sessions are out of pocket.
He accepts HSA and FSA cards. If you have one through work, this is what it's for.
If you have a PPO, he provides superbills. An itemized receipt you submit for out-of-network reimbursement — many plans pay back a real portion. Call the number on your card and ask what they cover for out-of-network mental health.
Session rate: —
If cost is the thing standing in the way, say that on the call. He'd rather hear it than have you disappear over it.
Four fields.
Then you're done.
This goes straight to Reid. Deliberately minimal — nothing about what you're going through, because that's a conversation, not a form field.
That's it. It's with him.
Reid will reach out to you himself. Nothing else is required from you right now.
If tonight is hard, don't wait on him — call or text 988. It's free and somebody answers.
You did the hard part already. Filling out a form sounds like nothing, but if you've been circling this for months, it isn't. — Dan
You're not
out of options.
Therapists are licensed state by state, so Reid can only see people located in California — video included. That's the law, not his preference.
I keep a full list of what I'd actually use instead: crisis lines, first responder peer support, treatment, chaplains, family help.
Two more worth knowing. If cost is the wall, Headway lists therapists who take your insurance, so you pay a copay instead of a full rate. And if you work for a department or any company of size, you almost certainly have an EAP with free sessions sitting unused.
You're not diagnosing him.
You're handing him a number.
Send it flat — “this is the therapist Dan Herring used, leaving it here.” The more you build it up, the more it reads like an intervention, and that makes a man dig in.
Expect nothing the first time. Men sit on this for weeks and then call on a Tuesday for no visible reason. And if it's your marriage, “I'll go too” is the strongest thing you can say — it stops being something done to him.
You're also allowed to fill out that form for yourself. Plenty of people come in through the side door of worrying about somebody else.
Don't wait on a form.
If you're thinking about ending your life, or you're closer to that than you want to admit, a callback in two days isn't the right tool.
Call or text. Free, twenty-four hours, a real person on the other end. If you're a first responder, say so when you call — they'll route you accordingly.
Then fill out the form anyway, for the version of you who wakes up tomorrow. Both things can be true.