No man left behind : towards new models of male engaged therapy

• Main Author: Kivari, Carson Alexander
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2014
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45986

Counselling literature often focuses on men’s limited help seeking behaviours. Less explored is how men engage or disengage when they actually do enter helping programs. Contrasting decades of quantitative research pairing masculine ideology with low help seeking (i.e., identifying the problem), this article looks qualitatively at the factors that help men to become engaged and committed to therapy (i.e., identifying solutions). This study examines a treatment program with high success rates and virtually no drop out–a unique occurrence in men’s psychotherapy. Enhanced Critical Incident Technique data suggest that helping men to feel competent, free from judgment, and in the company of down-to-earth and genuine practitioners are all instrumental in helping this sub-population engage in therapy. Further, it is suggested that while appealing to male gender roles may be critical at the outset of therapy, men transition to broader non-gendered (i.e., that might be shared by men and women alike) and universal human needs as therapy progresses.