A Transtheoretical Framework of Recommendations for Male-Friendly Counselling with Adolescent Males

A Transtheoretical Framework of Recommendations for Male-Friendly Counselling with Adolescent Males

Despite being a group at high risk for experiencing psychological distress across the lifespan, adolescent males are the least likely to engage with health services and compared with female peers, attend fewer sessions and drop out of therapy prematurely. Discrepancies between conventional therapy, gender role socialisation, and masculine norms have been implicated as obstacles to young men’s therapy participation, with limited guidance in the literature afforded to therapists for engaging this population. The aim of this thesis was to collate existing scholarly recommendations for counselling adolescent males, supported by accounts from Australian mental health practitioners, young male clients, and caregivers to establish a transtheoretical framework for male-friendly counselling with young men that may be utilised across professional disciplines and therapeutic modalities. The first of three papers presents a qualitative systematic review that consolidated and provided thematic recommendations for adapting counselling for adolescent males. The overarching themes, inductively developed from the review, provided the foundations for a transtheoretical counselling framework. The second paper explored the experiences and recommendations of Australian therapists who provided counselling to young men. This paper elucidated intrapersonal adjustments and deliberate interpersonal interactions that enhanced adolescent males’ engagement in therapy. The final study explored the experiences of young men and caregivers who engaged with a male-specific counselling service. This paper identified key personal and structural facilitators of young men’s involvement with male-friendly services. The synthesised findings of the three papers led to the original contribution to knowledge of this thesis: the development of a novel, transtheoretical framework for engaging adolescent males in individual counselling that can be utilised by therapists and service providers. This framework provides implications for future research and clinical training to better equip therapists who work with young men.

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