Shortage of male therapists making young men reluctant to seek help, counsellor warns
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A shortage of male therapists in Ireland is putting young men off going for help as they are reluctant to discuss some issues with women, a leading counsellor has warned.
Geoffrey McCarthy, a member of the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and CEO at Beacon of Light Counselling, said men aged 18 to 35 often prefer talking about their mental health with male therapists.
His concerns follow calls for general election candidates to prioritise mental health especially services for children and young adults.
This week an inquest into the death of Sinéad O'Connor's son, Shane, heard the teenager found approaching his 18th birthday “a very daunting experience” as he would no longer have access to specialist health and welfare services provided for children.
Mr McCarthy, a therapist for almost 20 years, said there are many reasons younger men are reluctant to seek help.
“We would see two-thirds more women than men presenting to our services, and particularly men of a certain age you don’t see them present,” he said.
He added: “(That’s) in the younger categories, the 18 to 35 age-group” for various reasons.
“Sometimes, in terms of men, particularly younger men, they end up being paired with someone who is a generation older than them and a different gender,” he said.
“And it doesn’t necessarily work for them. They want to talk about men’s issues and what it’s like to be a man and there’s a bit of a discord there.”
In his experience “predominantly 70% to 80% of therapists in this country would be female".
He stressed he is not saying this is the only reason young men might be reluctant to go for help, but described it as “ a big barrier” for many.
“It sometimes can be a barrier and sometimes it’s not, I think it is for a particular age-group. So, for men over 40 or over 50, it doesn’t seem to be a barrier for them at all,” he said.
It can be a challenge for centres to address this, he acknowledged.
“We do have quite a lot of male therapists here, but they are like hen’s teeth really,” he said.
“I actively recruit male therapists when I can. We have a faculty here of about 30 psychotherapists and about ten are men.”
Beacon of Light also offers a targeted programme with sports training and 1:1 psychotherapy to encourage men struggling with anger, depression or other challenges to get help.
Olympian Kenneth Egan is a boxing coach on this.
“We’re using boxing, using martial arts, using football and we’ve had some success with it,” Mr McCarthy said.
This “gender-specific intervention” is more attractive for younger men, he said saying it can be “much more productive for them” as shown in external evaluations of the unique programme.
“It’s definitely something which could be replicated in other parts of the country, with investment,” he said.
The HSE’s men’s health action plan, published last week, focused on mental health as a particular concern.