My guest this week is Dr. Joel Minden, a clinical psychologist, therapist, author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link), and frequent guest on the podcast. This conversation focused on men in therapy.

Topics we discussed included:

• The extent to which men tend to be interested in and open to psychotherapy
• Fears that men might bring to therapy
• The significant overlap in the issues men and women deal with and what brings them to therapy
• The challenge of dealing effectively with anger
• More frequent externalizing disorders among men, e.g., substance use, aggression
• Gender differences in suicide attempts and death by suicide
• Male/female differences in therapy based on roles, e.g., mom vs. dad, husband vs. wife
• Variability among men or women compared to average differences between men and women
• Changes over time in men’s attitudes toward and participation in therapy
• Trying to suppress strong or difficult emotions
• Deflecting the thread of a discussion when running into difficult material
• The idea of reclaiming an “alpha” masculinity
• Confusion and uncertainty about what it means to be a male in our society
• The benefit of normalization in therapy and in life

Joel Minden, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and related disorders.

He is the author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss (affiliate link), founder of the Chico Center for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, diplomate of The Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Chico.

Find Joel online at his website and read his blog on Psychology Today.