Kyle Kittleson has spent his career interviewing the world’s leading mental health experts, yet he still struggles with depression, codependency, and self-sabotage. The difference? Now he has the framework to actually work through it. His journey from marine animal training to mental health education proves that knowledge without application is just entertainment and offers profound insights for anyone seeking to improve their mental wellbeing.
In a raw and vulnerable conversation on The Terri Cole Show, Kyle shared his origin story, his ongoing mental health journey, and the practical tools that have transformed his life. This isn’t just another feel-good mental health story—it’s a masterclass in how tiny habits, cognitive awareness, and emotional boundaries can create lasting change.
The Unlikely Path: From Ocean Animals to Human Psychology
Kyle’s journey began in an unexpected place—the desert of Arizona, where a young man fascinated by marine life would eventually discover his true calling. Despite graduating college with a degree in real estate and intentions to pursue business, Kyle found himself taking an unpaid internship in Hawaii working with penguins, dolphins, and sea lions.
What Kyle didn’t realize at the time was that working with animals was preparing him for his future in mental health. Animal training is fundamentally about understanding psychology, like classical conditioning, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, and behavior modification. These same principles would later become the foundation of his work interviewing psychologists and psychiatrists at MedCircle.
The irony wasn’t lost on him: “Animals prepared me for people. And I still like animals more than people,” Kyle admits with characteristic honesty. This background gave him a unique perspective on human behavior and mental health that would prove invaluable in his interviews with experts.
A Childhood Marked by Depression: The Early Years
Kyle’s relationship with mental health began much earlier than his professional journey. At just nine years old, he was diagnosed with depression and prescribed Prozac after months of unexplained crying and misery. The transformation was remarkable. Within four to five weeks, school became fun, friendships formed, and life took on a new quality of peace.
Now 39, Kyle has been on antidepressants for thirty years, currently taking 40 milligrams of Prozac and one to two milligrams of Abilify. Despite this long history with mental health treatment, he reveals a startling truth: he didn’t truly understand mental health until he began working at MedCircle.
“I didn’t even realize I didn’t know anything,” Kyle explains. “I had been in therapy my entire life and moved a lot, so I’d seen lots of different therapists. But I never had the education. I never knew there was an education to have.”
This revelation came during his first interview at MedCircle when a therapist mentioned CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Kyle’s response was telling: “What is that?” Despite years of therapy, he had never learned about different therapeutic modalities, homework assignments, or the educational components of mental health treatment.
The Power of Tiny Habits: Revolutionary Simplicity
Perhaps the most transformative lesson Kyle learned and now teaches is the power of starting incredibly small. Raised in what he describes as an “authoritarian household” with rules about doing everything “as hard and as best you can” and “never giving up under any circumstances,” Kyle spent years applying this all-or-nothing mentality to his fitness routine.
The pattern was predictable and destructive: two hours at the gym, six days a week, eating chicken “like it was his job” for three weeks, followed by inevitable burnout and quitting. This cycle repeated for years until Kyle tried a radically different approach at age 33 or 34.
This approach isn’t just about exercise. Kyle applies it to everything: learning Spanish for 15 minutes on Thursday, drinking one cup of water instead of eight, taking the smallest possible step toward any goal. The key insight is that something “laughably small” is still 100% more than you’re currently doing.
Setting Yourself Up for Success: The Animal Training Rule
One of Kyle’s most powerful insights comes from his animal training background: the number one rule in animal training is to “set your animal up for success.” This means you don’t start any training session, interaction, or activity until you’ve created conditions for success.
The tragic irony, as Kyle realized, was that he spent years setting animals up for success while consistently setting himself up for failure. This principle can be applied in two crucial ways:
- Proactive Success Planning
Before entering any challenging situation, whether it’s a difficult conversation, a social event that triggers anxiety, or meeting with family, ask yourself: “Have I set myself up for success? What could I do to set myself up for success?”
- Retroactive Learning
After a situation doesn’t go well, instead of engaging in self-blame, ask: “What could I have done to set myself up for success? What could I have done to set the other person up for success?” This approach brings back a sense of control and provides actionable insights for future situations.
Cognitive Distortions: The Lies Our Brains Tell Us
Kyle’s education in mental health took a significant leap forward during an interview with psychiatrist Dr. Judith Joseph about cognitive distortions. These “little tricks and lies your brain tells you” number at least 19, and as Dr. Judith pointed out, most people experience all of them at some point.
The most impactful distortion Kyle identified in his own life was all-or-nothing thinking—the same black-and-white mentality that had sabotaged his fitness efforts for years. But here’s the remarkable part: simply becoming aware of these distortions can be transformative.
“When it comes to cognitive distortions, for me and for many others, I believe just being aware is all you need to have a new level of peace,” Kyle explains. “Then you walk through the door and you go, ‘The dishes aren’t done. My husband must be mad at me,’ and you go, ‘Hold on, black and white thinking’ or ‘Hold on, catastrophizing.’ That’s just a cognitive distortion. Next thought.”
This awareness creates what Kyle calls “peace right there”—an immediate circuit-breaker for destructive thought patterns. It’s not about eliminating these thoughts but recognizing them for what they are and choosing not to engage with them.
Codependency and Emotional Boundaries: The Ongoing Struggle
In perhaps the most vulnerable part of the conversation, Kyle shares his current, real-time struggle with boundaries. He describes a relationship where the other person’s emotions completely dictate his own. If they’re happy, he’s happy; if they’re stressed, he’s stressed; if they’re on the verge of an outburst, he’s walking on eggshells.
“It’s like I am behaving as though I have control over you. I must think I’m God because I think if I walk a different way or ask a question in a certain way, you will somehow change,” Kyle admits with startling honesty.
Terri Cole identifies this as classic codependency, specifically “disordered emotional boundaries”, which is feeling overly responsible for other people’s emotions. The solution isn’t caring less, as Kyle initially thought, but controlling less and tolerating the discomfort of someone else’s negative experience without feeling compelled to fix it.
Kyle’s approach to this challenge demonstrates his commitment to practical application. He’s practicing emotional separation with “low priority people”—like rude bartenders—to build his tolerance for others’ negative emotions without absorbing them. It’s another example of starting small and building up emotional muscles gradually.
From Knowledge to Application: The Critical Gap
Throughout the conversation, both Kyle and Terri emphasize a crucial distinction: the difference between consuming mental health information and actually applying it. Kyle’s journey illustrates how someone can be in therapy for decades, work in mental health, and still miss the practical application piece.
“What I want more people to do is not just listen, and go, ‘That’s a really good idea,’ drive home and then no application,” Kyle emphasizes. “Whether it’s a breathing exercise, a mindfulness technique, or not going down the careless path, but the controlless path—you got to do these things, y’all. You got to do it. Don’t just listen to the podcast. Then you’re just a listener, right?”
This insight challenges the passive consumption of self-help content that characterizes much of modern wellness culture. Kyle advocates for active engagement: taking one technique, tool, or insight and immediately putting it into practice.
The Path Forward: Practical Takeaways for Real Change
Kyle’s journey from a depressed nine-year-old to a leading mental health educator offers a blueprint for sustainable personal growth. His story demonstrates that healing isn’t about perfection or dramatic transformation; it’s about consistent, small actions guided by awareness and compassion.
Perhaps most importantly, Kyle’s story reminds us that struggling with mental health doesn’t disqualify us from helping others or living meaningful lives. His ongoing challenges with depression and codependency don’t diminish his expertise. They enhance it, providing authenticity and relatability that pure academic knowledge cannot match.
This conversation between Kyle and Terri offers more than just mental health advice. It provides a roadmap for turning knowledge into wisdom, information into transformation, and awareness into action. In a world overwhelmed by mental health content, their message is refreshingly practical: start small, stay consistent, be curious, and most importantly, do the work.
Mental health isn’t a destination but a practice, and Kyle’s journey proves that with the right tools and mindset, that practice can lead to profound and lasting change. The question isn’t whether you’ll face challenges with depression, anxiety, or relationship patterns—it’s whether you’ll develop the framework to work through them when they arise
