10 Things Every Therapist Should Know About Healthy Masculinity

Want to give your male clients 10 tips for healthy masculinity? Great, here you go!

But why healthy masculinity, and why now, you ask? Well, in the era of #metoo and toxic masculinity, people often ask what healthy masculinity even looks like?

Good question. With prominent social structures demanding men identify with individualism and brutality to maintain their male identity, the groundswell of men living outside of their authentic selves is often palpable.

As therapists, the alarming rates of male suicide, violence, sexual assaults, homelessness, and drug addiction often speaks to a broken system surrounding male socialization. From that place, it often requires an intelligent and courageous man to sift through an onslaught of degrading social imagery, peer pressure, or detrimental family traits to obtain his own sense of healthy masculinity.

According to Jewel Love, MFT a psychotherapist and coach at Black Executive Men, healthy masculinity is not just a compilation of traits, but an entire social system that affirms male identity, through life purpose, emotional intelligence, meaningful relationships, inner authority, creative and spiritual fulfillment. That social system includes the 10 things below.

Please explore the 10 Things Every Therapist Should Know About Healthy Masculinity below and share them with your clients and colleagues. They could be a game-changer.

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10 Things Every Therapist Should Know About Healthy Masculinity. By Jewel Love, MFT

1. Mentors (Guidance)
Father (or mother) figures who guide men in their personal and profession lives.

2. Elders (Wisdom)
Individuals over 60 who have lived meaningful lives, who can now listen with "wise knowing".

3. Men's Circles (Belonging)
A group of emotionally authentic men meeting regularly for the purpose of support and general accountability.

4. Purpose (Passion)
A man's unique reason for living that drives him to connect his personal gifts with positive social impact.

5. Initiation (Power)
A formalized (or informal) process that validates a man's raw power, and gives him an internalized sense of order.

6. Emotional Literacy (Freedom)
A skill used to help a man courageously explore vulnerability, and embrace his inner life.

7. Partnership (Connection)
Loving relationship with a wife/husband/partner(s) over time that deepens in responsibility, care, and interdependence.

8. Psychotherapy (Healing)
An effective process helping men heal prior trauma, interpersonal challenges, or childhood developmental delays.

9. Coaching (Achievement)
A trained professional who can help him set, think through, and achieve his personal and professional goals.

10. Creativity (Fun)
Through music, dance, writing, and the arts, creativity gives men their unique expression of freedom.