A therapist reflects on why young men avoid mental health care. She had three male clients under 30 in one day, a rarity in her practice. They reframed therapy as mental strengthening, not weakness, shifting how they saw seeking help.
Chapters
When I'm out on my morning walk with the dogs, I often use it as an opportunity to listen to books on Audible, to catch up on latest texts that interest me and do my learning. And the book that I'm listening to at the moment is called The Authority Gap. It's a bit like it says on the tin, it's about the gender gap. Really quite shocking, some of the content in it. Really recommend reading to it, listening to it, whatever you do. Great book. But it caused me to start reflecting on my day yesterday. And all of my clients yesterday were not only men, but men under the age of 30. And I can't actually remember a day in all of the years that I've been practicing as a therapist where that would have been the case. And it's really enlightening. And one of the things that we spoke about with all 3 of those young men was the difference between physical health and mental health. Physically, if we're feeling weak, or even if we just want to get stronger, going to the gym is not only encouraged, it's embraced. Applauded even, but if we feel weak mentally or just want to get to the next level mentally, that's often deemed as a weakness, and it was lovely that all of the young men actually changed their attitude and going, coming here seeing a therapist isn't a bad thing because I just want to be better, I want to use my mind differently, I want to achieve more, and that's really the message that I want to get across, not only through this video but in everything that I do. We need to stop changing— sorry, need to stop treating physical health and mental health differently. If you want to get fitter, get fitter, that's brilliant. If you want to get mentally stronger, that's okay too. It mustn't be seen as a weakness, and even if you may feel mentally strong, there is always another level that you can get to. So whether you have a family where people are seeing mental health differently to physical health, Or maybe you work in a company where mental health is still seen as a negative. Then this is time to make the change. Let's start moving into next year embracing anything that you want to grow in— physical health, mental health, skills. Go for it. Get that opportunity to be better at what you do. It's not a weakness, it's a strength. Have a great day.
