Gender In The Therapy Hour ─ Voices of Female Clinicians Working With Men

There is no shortage of literature about working with men in counseling and psychotherapy, but almost none of it addresses the unique issues that a female clinician can face with a male client. These women do not have a basis for a complete understanding of the impact our society’s ideas about gender can have on a man, his masculinity, and his feelings toward talk therapy, in part because they are not men themselves. The contributors to this book, all female clinicians who have worked extensively with men, have set out to provide their female peers with a guide for therapeutically engaging and helping men. Chapters explore how each author became involved in men’s issues, case studies and examples from her own practice that illustrate her approach, and her own assessment of what works best with male clients. Topics considered include core treatment issues, such as transference and counter-transference, beginning and ending therapy with men, and ethical dilemmas; working in different therapy modalities; and doing therapy with diverse populations of men. The book concludes with an edited transcript of a discussion amongst the authors about their personal experiences working with male clients. This will be an important book for all female therapists who work with male clients and are looking for ways to better understand and tailor their approaches to meet the needs of men in therapy.

Holly Barlow Sweet, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in private practice and co-founder and co-director of the Cambridge Center for Gender Relations.

Part I: Overview. Sweet, Women Working with Men: Opportunities and Challenges. Part II: Core Treatment Issues. Martin, Starting and Ending Psychotherapy with Men. Logue, Transference, Counter-transference, and Men: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. Vasquez, Ethical Considerations in Working with Men. Part III: Different Modalities of Therapy. Nutt, Couples Counseling. Morse, Practicing Gender-aware Therapy: A New Clinician's Perspective. Steigmeier, Coaching Men. Part IV: Different Populations of Clients. de las Fuentes, Working with Men of Color: Conversations with the Other Side of Me. Sweet, Therapy with Depressed Men. Oren, Counseling Fathers: It's a Slam Dunk. Harway, Understanding Men's Issues: Assessing and Treating Men who Abuse. Newlin, Working with Traditional Men in the Military. Wilbur, Psychotherapy with Older Men. Part IV: Sharing Our Stories. Voices Together: A Conversation Among the Book's Authors. Rabinowitz, Afterword.