Not accepting new clients.
Otha Brown retired in 2026 after more than a decade serving as the principal therapist in the Men’s Resource Center’s domestic abuse and anger management programs. He spent much of his career working with men struggling with anger, abusive behavior, shame, and fractured relationships. “My goal,” he said, “is to give clients access to service that is respectful, clinically helpful towards recovery, and assists with discovering healthy relationships.”
Joan Halifax has spoken of the importance of having a “strong back, soft front”—the strength to remain grounded while retaining our compassion and humanity. That phrase is particularly fitting for Otha.
In a culture that can confuse masculinity with dominance, bravado, or emotional armor, he modeled something different: strength without intimidation, firmness without cruelty, and gentleness without weakness. Perhaps nowhere was this more apparent than in the men’s groups he facilitated. Men often arrived guarded, defensive, ashamed, or focused on everyone else’s behavior but their own. This work requires a difficult balance: empathy for the person sitting before you while refusing to excuse behavior that has harmed others.
Otha had that balance. He could let a man know: I respect you. I believe you can change. And because I believe that, I am not going to let you hide from yourself. There was empathy. There was insight. And when necessary, there was tough love and accountability. The clearest evidence of who Otha is and the space he created may be remarkably simple: the men stayed.
One other thing: Otha is a sweet man. Not weak. Not passive. Sweet in the best sense of the word. Kind. Generous. Unassuming. Safe. In work with men struggling with anger, defensiveness, and emotional armor, that quality mattered more than Otha probably knows. It helped men trust him. It helped them stay. And ultimately, it helped them change.
Men entering our domestic abuse groups made a minimum six-month commitment. Yet many of the men in Otha’s groups stayed for two, three, even four years. They weren’t staying because they had to. They stayed because Otha had helped create something meaningful—a community where men could be challenged without being humiliated, held accountable without being discarded, and become more honest with themselves and one another.
And he was right there with them, modeling the very kind of manhood we hope men can discover: strong and tender, accountable and compassionate, confident enough to be vulnerable. Otha embodied the Men’s Resource Center’s philosophy. He showed men that becoming more emotionally intelligent and relational did not diminish their masculinity. It expanded it.
We are happy to continue sharing Otha’s wisdom on these Revealing Men podcasts: “Moving Beyond Abusive Behavior and Becoming a Better Man,” “Teaching Men to Manage Themselves Rather Than Controlling Others,” and “Preparing Young Men for a Successful Transition into Manhood“.