WE ARE GROWING Ryan Lennon, a mean, gruff, blue-collar, patrol cop in Detroit under a short-fuse, heel-tapping, rambling code, knew his marching orders. Are you feeling sad? Swallow it. Annoyed? Channel it. Did Johnny take your GI Joe? Take it back. Leave the couch moaning, kumbaya, touchy-feely nonsense to civilian suckers willing to pay $200 an hour.

So what is Lennon doing? He becomes the “psychological boss” of the US Navy; a psychiatrist, a therapist. “I know,” Lennon said with a chuckle. Okay, he took on the role of psychological boss after several years as a combat engineer; After making a name for himself by playing rugbyHe transformed his carved arms into tattooed arms and was eventually assigned to a position in charge of the mental health of the legendary 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton near San Diego.

Still. How can this happen to someone who grew up in a family full of men? testosterone Who would regard speech therapy with more reverence than a man who would not light a woman’s cigarette? Lennon isn’t 100 percent sure, but one thing is clear: He’s the perfect man for the job.

Lennon does yoga once a week for strength and calm.

I met Lennon at a Starbucks down the street from the Great Lakes Navy Station, about 40 miles north of Chicago and the Navy’s largest training facility and only boot camp facility. We were supposed to meet at his house, but he’s in the process of moving to Camp Pendleton to begin his duty in the Marine Corps, so he sheepishly says his house is a wreck.

He too had planned to come in uniform but changed his mind at the last minute; He didn’t want to bother me (empathy!) or feel like any eyes were on him. It didn’t work. Lennon, 39, has a commanding presence. He has the ink puffed out and running up and down his arms, the buzz cut, the square jaw, the firm handshake grip, the direct gaze, and the understated air. working too much: Weights and cardio every day, rugby three or four days a week during the season, yoga with the same frequency. He has an open, friendly face and a calming demeanor that is instantly likeable.

Lennon grew up in Ferndale, Michigan, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit. His father, who died in 2021, was an Irish Catholic fighting cop who drew strength from the heart of a drill sergeant. “He was a smoker and drinker and just a hard-edged guy all his life.” The softness there came from his mother, a stay-at-home mom.

In the beginning, Lennon followed the path you’d expect: He played sports, he became a leader. At Grand Valley State University outside Grand Rapids, he discovered rugby, a passion that remains undiminished. “It has been a pillar and a resource in my life. socialization– is a good outlet for me both physically and socially. I’m trying to talk about the benefits of finding something like this in life. It doesn’t have to be rugby but you’ve got to find something.”

While still an undergraduate, Lennon spoke with an educational advisor and decided to pursue a master’s degree in social work at Grand Valley State. He later joined the Navy at age 27, as a sort of compromise to his tough-guy upbringing. He spent his first four years as a combat engineer; sometimes a fancy title for advanced units that rapidly build bridges and forward operating bases. under fire. “We were carrying a hammer in one hand and a rifle in the other,” he says.

He loved action, but he was also thinking about the future. Combat engineering is a young man’s game, and he was already over 30 years old. “A few years later I found out that the Navy was actually using people with (social work) degrees and mental health backgrounds. “So I put in a package and was chosen as a therapist, which was a pretty drastic career change.”

He eventually found himself in the USA. Dwight D. Eisenhower as an advisor in a war zone for a 5,000-strong crew of male and female sailors and officers. Homesickness was the biggest problem he encountered, especially during his first deployments. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicidal thoughts.

“When you get deployed, all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Wow, this is the real thing.’ It’s really sinking. I’m in the military right now. You are given orders; “You work 18 hours a day and you can’t sleep well because you’re on a big, old, rusty ship.” Military data show that the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers is 77 percent higher than the general U.S. population; This is a point highlighted by harsh reports of a spate of suicides in the US. george washington last year.

“I enjoy embracing life’s experiences, even the stressful ones.” Lennon says.

Lennon sees this: “There are men on board who have been deployed on the ice three times in the last three years, and they have done a Covid voyage with no ports of call, always wearing masks. “They’ve been on the same shift for three years and they’re exhausted.”

But as he delved deeper into the work, Lennon discovered more about himself. He was good about it to begin with. His experience in war zones and his upbringing earned him credibility among the crew. The education he received gave him an academic framework. But the most important thing was what he found within himself: empathy, understanding and even sensitivity. Those who came to him were comfortable enough to open up despite their own anxieties, not to mention the stigma that comes with therapy in the military.

“I know what they’re saying before they say it,” says Lennon. “Hey, I don’t care if you tell me you smoke weed on the trail. Anyway. It doesn’t matter to me. Let’s get to the essence of what’s going on with you; Let’s figure this out. “You don’t need to feel like you’re talking to the police.”

He also learned to cut to the chase. His type of therapy does not require years of psychoanalysis; a lot of people seek counseling, “we need to be as effective as we can in two or three sessions. That’s why we’re trying to get to the bottom of the matter quickly.”

His one rule comes directly from his upbringing: No whining. Ventilation? Yes, but whining is a no. Difference? People taking off are looking for solutions. Whining people just want to abandon and moan; This echoes his family’s upbringing, he says.

This raised a question that had been lingering in my mind throughout my interview with Lennon: What did his tough-guy father think about his son making a living talking to men about their lives? feelings? “I don’t think you understand that,” says Lennon. But his father supported him. “He enjoyed the fact that I made a good career out of it.”

Lennon certainly did that. After working for three years in a hospital on a Great Lakes naval station, he received a commission in the 1st Marine Division, one of the leading divisions in the entire army. He acknowledges that hospitals need to be staffed, but for therapists like himself with combat training and experience, “they need to get us on ships, on submarines, with scouts, with Marines. That’s where we need to go, and that’s where we’re going.”

Definitely where he’s going, full speed ahead.

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