I run men only therapy and
skills training groups. There is a good
reason for this. Men tend to do badly in
mixed gender groups.
Take the following research
by Ogrondniczuk et al. (2004) as an
example. They studied a brief
psychotherapy group for people who had been recently bereaved and found the
following:
·
Women increased their adjustment to the grief
by an average of 10%.
·
19% of women improved on anxiety and
depression ratings.
·
14% of women improved in their general
distress.
·
Whereas no men made any significant
improvement in these areas.
But why do men seem to do so
poorly in group therapy? My experience
suggests that it is not group therapy that is the problem, but in the mixing
men and women together.
As a therapist I have
attended many group therapy and training groups with both men and women. What I believe is at the heart of men’s poor
performance in group therapy is that women are simply better at emotional talk
than men. Women rush ahead leaving the
men behind, dazed and confused. This is
a development on my argument that men and women's emotional world are different. It’s because men and women process emotional
information and generate emotional talk differently, that men are better
receiving group therapy and skills training, in the company of other men.
In the west we are kind of ambivalent to men only groups and this is a further inhibition for many men. What is interesting is that all of the great religions have a practice of separating men and women. The ancient wisdom is that women need other women to develop fully, and men need other men. So why are we so anti the idea in the west? Your thoughts would be welcome...
Ogrodniczuk, J. S., Piper, W. E., & Joyce, A. S.
(2004). Differences in men’s and women’s responses to short-term group
psychotherapy. Psychotherapy Research, 14, 231-243.
Dr Phil Tyson is a Men's Psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK. He offers:
- Group therapy weekends for men in London and Manchester
- Beginners meditation weekend retreats for men in London and Manchester
- Counselling for men in Manchester
- Psychotherapy for men in Manchester
- Cognitive behavioural therapy for men in Manchester
- Telephone and online counselling for men wherever you live
- Mediation for conflict resolution at work in London
- Mediation for conflict resolution at work in Manchester and the North West
- Supervision and consulative support for therapists in Manchester
