Women usually flourish in group therapy: It is typical for women to share emotions. However, men frequently resist going and wilt when they get there. Many just hang it up.
In a recent research, a group of Canadian scientists concentrates on this Mars-Venus issue: Just how much do men really get from short-term group therapy - particularly after a considerable loss, like the death of a spouse?
According to the researcher Anthony S. Joyce, PhD, with the University of Alberta and University of Alberta Hospital Site, in his research, women were provided with relief from depression, anxiety, and general suffering through group therapy - whilst men were "virtually unchanged".
Men are frequently outnumbered by women during these sessions - with one or two men in any group. Joyce says that they normally become fringe members, they participate a little, dropping out too soon. It points to the need of "gender sensitivity" in therapy, he writes in the latest issue of Psychotherapy Research.
There’s much at stake, due to the fact that men frequently turn to alcohol - and frequently die soon after such a major loss, states Nadine Kaslow, PhD, a family psychologist with Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, tells WebMD. Whilst she was not engaged in the research, she offered her insights.
The painful difficulty: "They are dependant on their spouse to take care of them and for emotional support," claims Kaslow. When that support suddenly vanishes, men usually flounder. They aren’t accustomed to sharing their emotions, and therefore they don’t cope with their grief well - whether alone or in a group therapy setting. "But still that’s how group therapy can finally help men – by means of providing the emotional support that’s missing from their lives," she explains.
Inside Group Therapy
Joyce’s research involved 47 adult patients - 12 of them were men - all suffered from depression and sought counseling following a death. Each of them was having a problem with getting back to their normal lives, both at work and in their relationships. They avoided reminders of the loss, they showed anger about the death, and they were obsessed with their loss.
Those are frequent reactions after a death loss, writes Joyce in his report. However, those patients who took part in his research had what’s known as "complicated grief" — an extremely strong, longer-term sorrow, and depression and nervousness.
All the patients had to undergo a 12-week group therapy.
In the "interpretive group," patients worked through their emotions by talking about the death and traumas connected with it. In the "supportive group," the patients talked about coping with day-to-day activities, received problem-solving guidance from the therapist, and were praised by the other patients.
The results:
* Women had a 10 per cent better adjustment to their grief than men; supportive therapy was the most effective for women.
* 19 per cent of women had considerable improvement in depression and anxiety, while 14 per cent considerably improved their overall distress.
* Men did not make any considerable progress in these areas.
The Significance of Connections
According to Joyce, women are grounded by their associations with other people, and hence group therapy works well for them. For men, group therapy can stir up anxieties, threatening their sense of self. Men also feel estranged, defenseless, and overwhelmed by the women’s stories and their emotional sharing. The men quickly bail out before they get any benefit, he claims.
As Joyce suggests, male-only groups could be more beneficial.
Without a doubt, men require a complicated approach, Kaslow tells WebMD. "For men, individual therapy is frequently more effective in the beginning, rather than going quickly to group therapy. Moreover, the therapist has to take a different approach with men in individual therapy. Men need to feel empowered by therapy. An action plan is absolutely necessary for them, rather than just sitting and talking about feelings. They would like to feel that they constantly have control."
She points out that it is not a short-term process. "Over time, men may become interested in analyzing their feelings, reflecting on themselves, and feel less awkward opening up. Then they can move on to group therapy. There’s a lot of evidence that men are able to benefit from all sorts of therapies."
