Where are all the men?
I began working with people with problems in prison. Male prison. I've spent hours sitting in cells with men, listening to their life stories, their poetry, their disappointments in love, their remorse at their crimes, their anger, their fear. Because of this I am always puzzled when I hear the old adage that men don't talk about their feelings. Real men don't cry. Men are emotionally illiterate. Blah Blah.
Then I began working and studying in the outside world and found myself in the tiniest of minorities - Often I would be the only man on a therapy training course - having another man on the course was a novelty. This struck me as odd because most of the movers and shakers we were studying in the Psychotherapeutic world seemed to be men - with notable and glorious exceptions of course.
I am writing this to encourage men out there to give therapy a shot. I am just beginning to get to grips with what it is to be a man and I would welcome being a part of your growing realisation that life with that Y chromosome can be great.
Then I began working and studying in the outside world and found myself in the tiniest of minorities - Often I would be the only man on a therapy training course - having another man on the course was a novelty. This struck me as odd because most of the movers and shakers we were studying in the Psychotherapeutic world seemed to be men - with notable and glorious exceptions of course.
I am writing this to encourage men out there to give therapy a shot. I am just beginning to get to grips with what it is to be a man and I would welcome being a part of your growing realisation that life with that Y chromosome can be great.