10:30am, Library Block Room 278, Neville Scarfe Library Block
Monday, December 16, 2013
Title: No Man Left Behind: Towards New Models of Male Engaged Therapy
Examining Committee:
Dr. Marv Westwood, Research Supervisor (CNPS)
Dr. Bill Borgen, Research Committee (CNPS)
Dr. John Oliffe, Research Committee (Nursing)
Abstract:
Men’s counselling literature often focuses on men’s limited help seeking behaviours. Less explored is how men engage or disengage when they actual do enter helping programs. Contrasting decades of quantitative research pairing masculine ideology with low help seeking (i.e., identifying the problem), the following 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, unjudged, and in the company of down-to-earth and genuine practitioners are all instrumental in helping this population to engage more fully in therapy. Further, it is suggested that while appealing to the male gender role may be critical at the outset of therapy, men transition to broader non-gendered human needs as therapy progresses.