Counseling for Men
Why Men Use Counseling
Men’s counseling is purposed to help overcome challenges, strengthen emotional wellbeing, and improve relationships. The counselor’s role is to educate, provide guidance through example, support, share experience and help men explore and navigate through their thoughts and feelings, develop insight and work towards generating positive changes. Counseling helps men learn to recognize and deal with denial, support commitments, care for their bodies, learn how the mind works, and deepen the Spirit. Men’s concerns addressed in counseling are:
- Depression and Anxiety
- Grief, Loss and Bereavement
- High Risk of Suicide and Addiction
- Anger, Stress, and Anger Management
- Divorce / Child custody / Parental alienation
- Societal Intolerance, and disproportionately fewer resources for Men
- Military Service, Dangerous Workplaces, High-Risk Employment, Workplace Injuries and Fatalities
Value of Men's Counseling
Men can benefit from a place of sanctuary from the world, even for an hour a week, to slow down, breathe, think, feel and Be. Being with their depth of emotion, and with the consequences of their decisions and actions. Men benefit from having time and space to learn about their masculine essence in a non-judgmental way, where they’re respected and honored for who they are, not dismissed for claims others have made that they have created and caused systemic problems in society. Men thrive on respect, risk-taking and striving, acting with integrity and courage, leading, teaching, being accountable, honest, and wise. Men have true grace and compassion. Counseling for Men helps these qualities of character in a Man to flourish.
Male-Friendly Counseling
Here are some of the key aspects and approaches:
- A Male friendly approach that understands the importance of masculine gender dynamics and healthy male cultural norms that can impact men’s natural emotional experience and expression, acknowledging the expectations and pressures that men often encounter from powerful external societal forces.
- Learning views about emotions that recognize men’s emotions are commonly stereotyped, stigmatized and misperceived by society at large, as if men are defective in being human, due to having been wrongly socialized to suppress or downplay. Nothing could be farther from the truth about men. This perspective denies a legitimate openminded exploration to seek understanding of the natural ways a man’s emotional experiences develop and manifest in his life.
- Communication skills work that helps men develop effective communication behaviors to improve relations in their lives, since men may face challenges in their relationships due to ineffective communication patterns and behaviors in their relationship environment.
- Support that helps men navigate adaptations to the roles they assume during life’s difficult times. Men’s role during life transitions brings associated challenges and uncertainties. Throughout life, men experience various transitions, such as the joy of becoming a father, wealth or career changes, or dealing with loss of friends and family members, or facing health, aging and death.
- Exploring strategies that achieve body-mind-spirit balance in the existential struggle of prove worthy of being in the world. Meeting expectations of others, demands of work and personal life create stress and conflicts for men in the daily precarious grind of manhood.
- Anger management counseling that helps men understand, target, harness and integrate the mechanism of the emotion of anger. Men may struggle with anger-related issues, anger counseling and education addresses anger in a constructive manner, reducing its negative stigma and impact from misunderstanding the nature and purposes of anger.
- Setting that is confidential and private for addressing clinical mental illnesses that manifest as severe anxieties, depression, traumas or other forms of personal mental and emotional suffering and anguish. Most men are actually competent at figuring most things out on their own, and because they see that most therapists are female, some men are less likely to seek professional psychological help for their life concerns unless they can speak with another man that they trust.
- Developing a positive and realistic attitude for life that generates self esteem and a true sense of purpose and worth through helping others.
- Focusing on personal growth and development that encourages men to set and pursue meaningful goals and aspirations in their lives.
