Men in Therapy: The Challenge of Change

The few available books that deal specifically with men's issues tend to lack a central theoretical focus, are highly psychoanalytic in content, or simply do not provide specific guidelines for working with men. This unique and timely volume fills an important gap in the literature by demonstrating why change is often so difficult for them. It provides detailed guidelines for helping men initiate and sustain change in their personal, familial, and professional lives. The authors' approach is an integration of several theoretical schools including family systems, humanistic, experiential, and psychoeducational models. Using a psychosocial lens, they take men as individuals into account while examining the different roles males occupy as parents, husbands, workers, and friends. Separate chapters illustrate how each of these roles challenges men to confront many of the traditional and stereotypical messages that they have internalized from boyhood. The wide range of resulting problems--including depression, relationship conflicts, workaholism, and parenting difficulties--are discussed in relation to specific strategies which clinicians can employ to ameliorate them. Throughout, the authors use clinical vignettes and case examples to illustrate the ways practitioners can engage men and help them discover rewards of emotional vulnerability.