3 PART WORKSHOP
Workshop Details
More men than ever are attending therapy and asking for help with mental health problems and yet while therapy may offer a supportive environment many men are turned off by this ‘foreign’ environment. When men do attend, they can occasionally encounter a lack of understanding and empathy leaving them confused and unsure whether to return.
Gender socialization and stigma often prevents men from seeking support, many men have learnt that to show vulnerable emotions is weak and shameful. This process has taught them to restrict these emotions. The unwritten ‘male rules’ have resulted in men living with inner dis-ease contributing to the following issues:
• Three-quarters of suicides in the UK are by men
• Men are far less likely than women to seek help with medical problems.
• Depression occurs as often in men as in women, but women are twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated.
• One in nine adult men is dependent on alcohol; men are three times more likely than women to be alcohol dependent.
• Schizophrenia tends to have an earlier onset in men and is associated with poorer outcomes than in women.
This workshop and training will help the practitioner have greater awareness and knowledge to work with men more effectively.
The training will include:
• Increase understanding about the impact of traditional masculinity, man-up culture and the male code often leaving men with the trauma of emotional restraint
• Toolbox of ideas in developing successful therapeutic work with men, building rapport, making psychological contact and building their emotional fitness.
• Effective psycho-educational tools to help men increase their emotional fitness, emotional awareness and regulation.
• Gaining a greater understanding about a man’s emotional world, his emotional development, defences and coping strategies
•Time for discussion in break out rooms, questions to the presenter and PDF of power point.
Course Content
Presenter
I am a experienced psychotherapist and counsellor accredited and registered member of the British association for Counsellors and psychotherapists (BACP).
I presently work at the Nottingham High School as a Counsellor for two days a week. Previously I worked as an Independence school counsellor and for the Nottingham City behaviour support. This team worked with the most difficult and challenging students in the city and used innovative and therapeutic approaches in working effectively with this cohort.
I have facilitated groups on anger, self-esteem, confidence building using many methods that include drumming, mindfulness and bodywork. For the past 15 years I have developed my private practice, typically seeing between 10-15 clients a week and 95% of my clients are male. I deliver several workshops and talks with regard to working with men and boys. These include ‘7 tips one working successfully with men in therapy’ , ‘Effective anger management tools for working with men’ and ‘Working with men, intimacy and shame’.
I specialise in developing boys and men’s emotional fitness using psycho-educational tools, de-shaming and core conditions of the person Centred Approach. I also initiated the Men@work voluntary organisation, working to increase boys and men’s emotional fitness, establishing a programme called ‘Contact’ an outdoor and residential programme to help boys increase their emotional fitness.
I also developed SHOUT – a successful anger awareness programme for men. I have been part of a Men’s group for the past 15 years and am a father of two boys.
James is the author of, ‘The Secret Lives of Men – 10 keys to unlock the mystery’
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Twitter | oneminuteman1
