Providing therapy and counseling for men is a unique area of specialization for me. Los Angeles men come to my practice that are:
- Trying to balance career and relationships
- Experiencing dissatisfaction with work and life purpose
- Hoping to find ways to express emotions constructively
- Tired of failing relationships
- Wanting to be a better dad
- Feeling pressured to get married or “grow up”
If these issues and others are not addressed, they can lead to depression, anxiety, addiction, isolation, and loneliness. Meeting with me provides an opportunity for men to have a confidential place to sort out how to balance the “shoulds” of the world with their own hopes and desires.
Before coming to therapy, many of my clients are so busy with their lives that they avoid checking in with themselves. Some are afraid of answering the question that confronts them: “is this all there is?”
Cultural expectations of men put them in a box as they are often expected to be strong and resilient and also paradoxically in touch with feelings and expressive. Cultural messages expressed through media tend to reward men for being strong and expressing anger, and shamed for being weak if vulnerability is expressed. Faced with these opposite demands, men often will resort to silence and avoidance. As a result, they can numb themselves with addictions and avoidance behaviors (such as over focusing on work, exercise, sex etc…) that only exacerbates the underlying problems.
Each stage of life offers its own unique challenges for men. Depending upon their age, men will seek out therapy for different reasons. In their 20’s and 30’s men are engaged in what is known as the “odyssey years” and often seek therapy to explore how to make sense of their choices and how to combine relationship and career.
In their 40’s and 50’s men enter mid life and despite this stage’s reputation of “crisis”, research shows this is a vital positive time for men. In our conversations, men are finding ways to reshape meaning, more fundamentally engage life and locate and redefine inspiration.
As a male therapist, I have a distinct perspective on how men are shaped by societal beliefs and expectations. I am adept at exploring ways to help men positively shift their response to cultural influences so that they can figure out how they want to show up.
My goal is that through our work, my clients will achieve a better understanding of their own needs and be able to express them so that they can have healthy satisfying relationships and attain a greater personal understanding of “what it means to be a man”.
If you have any questions about how I might be able to assist you, please call me for a phone consultation.
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