The Psychoeducational Approach

In the case of male clients who are self-motivated for change and wholeness, a psychoeducational treatment methodology will prove quite effective. As Meth and Pasick's assessment techniques suggest, the greatest value of the psychoeducational method is to teach the male client that while he did not choose whether to inherit the cultural mythic masculine, he has a great deal of choice whether to perpetuate it in his attitudes and behaviour or to deconstruct it personally. Just as Murray Bowen believes that the purpose of psychotherapy is to teach clients how to make themselves well (1985, 316),[31] so the psychoeducational approach gives men the historical and sociological tools by which they can opt for freedom and creativity in the face of crippling gender-role expectations. Psychoeducation empowers clients, and should never be dismissed as a purely intellectual exercise or as a distraction from the affective task. Psychoeducation even enables the process of transference, though the counselor may need special training to recognize that process within the educational content that teaching and discussion demand.

The psychoeducational method allows room for the male client to address his own "wounded parents." Since our parents were as much a product of their own time and context as we of ours, they were as wounded by inherited gender-role expectations as we now find ourselves. A male client who has trouble identifying where to begin the therapy process can be encouraged to talk about his relationship with his mother and his father. Such conversations will frequently reveal some degree of fusion between men and their mothers and a significant degree of disillusionment with fathers, by whom most men feel emotionally or even physically abandoned.[32]

The complexity of men's relationships with their parents may be accessed through narrative therapy, for most of the significant memories about parents have a story attached to them, a story rich in detail, gender-role expectations, and inherited assumptions about cause and effect (Culbertson, 1998). Some men can claim their own dysfunction only when they tell the stories of their fathers and grandfathers and the recognize themselves acting in the same ways (see Taffel, 1991).

The psychoeducational method can also be useful when treating male clients in groups. Groups provide an excellent setting for men to explore together what they like and dislike about their inherited historical construct of masculinity, and easily capitalize on men's prior experience with mateship. Groups in which men work cooperatively for greater wholeness and integration make

"a statement about nontraditional masculine values, providing an opportunity for men to relate to other men in an interpersonal setting without women, providing a setting in which to discuss topics that are usually difficult for men to discuss, such as dependency and sexuality (sexual identity, homosexuality, and early childhood sexual experiences), and increasing the political awareness of men as a means for addressing individual and institutional sexism" (Rabinowitz and Cochran, 1987, 51-52).

Terry Stein cautions (1982, 275) that there are two types of men's groups: consciousness-raising groups and psychotherapy groups. In either case, an explicit mutual contract between the therapist and the participants must be negotiated, and participants must be carefully screened in advance.[33]

Groups are an excellent place to explore the relationship rituals which men construct, though such rituals may also be explored in individual counselling. Richard Whiting suggests five types of relationship ritual which are particularly suited to men seeking wholeness and integration (Whiting; Dienhart and Avis, 1988, 40):

a. Letting-go rituals, letting go of power, dominance, control, and competence.

b. Documenting rituals, to track communications of apology and commitment.

c. Giving and receiving rituals, finding new ways to be a Provider, and acknowledging women and all Providers.

d. Rituals of role reversal or odd/even day empowerment and responsibility.

e. Ritualizing the "games" of healthy relationships or of therapy.

All of these techniques and methodologies-psychoeducational dialogue, narrative therapy, group work, and ritual re-design-are potentially very productive with men who are self-motivated to deconstruct their gender-role inheritance. But not all men who enter therapy are so motivated. Some male clients are in counselling because they have been referred by the courts, an employer, or a physician. Are there techniques which work with these recalcitrant men, in spite of their resistance?

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