In plain language
Men are notoriously reluctant to seek professional help for mental health problems, even when they are just as distressed as women. So how do the men who do end up in a psychologist's office actually get there? This study asked 73 Australian men (aged 21 to 69) who were currently in therapy, or had been within the past year, about their pathway into care and how likely they would be to seek help again in the future.
The answer was striking: almost none of these men got to therapy entirely on their own. Ninety-six percent reported that other people influenced their decision to seek help to some degree, and most named more than one source of influence. Intimate partners and general practitioners (family doctors) were the most frequent and strongest influences. More than a third of the men said that without this push from others, they would never have sought help at all.
Importantly, being nudged (or pushed) into therapy did not sour men on future help-seeking. What mattered was whether the treatment felt helpful once they were there: men who rated their therapy as helpful had much higher intentions to seek professional help again for personal-emotional problems or suicidal thoughts, regardless of how they originally got into care. The findings suggest that public health campaigns should equip partners and GPs to encourage men into treatment, and that therapists should focus on making treatment feel genuinely helpful.
Key findings
- Ninety-six percent of the 73 men surveyed reported that their decision to seek professional psychological help was influenced to some degree by others, and 63% endorsed multiple sources of influence.
- Intimate partners (59%) and GPs or other health professionals (56%) were the most frequently cited and statistically strongest sources of influence, significantly outranking friends and legal professionals.
- Thirty-seven percent of men said they would not have sought help at all without the influence of others.
- Future help-seeking intentions did not differ between men who entered therapy independently and men who were influenced into it — even among those who reported being influenced "very much."
- Perceived treatment helpfulness was the only significant predictor of intentions to seek help again from a mental health professional, both for personal-emotional problems (Exp(B) = 5.09) and for suicidal thoughts (Exp(B) = 6.72).
- The authors recommend closer links between GPs and psychological services, and campaigns that give partners the information and skills to encourage men in distress to seek help.
How to cite
APA
Cusack, J., Deane, F. P., Wilson, C. J., & Ciarrochi, J. (2004). Who influence men to go to therapy? Reports from men attending psychological services. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 26(3), 271–283.
BibTeX
@article{cusack2004who,
author = {Cusack, Jason and Deane, Frank P. and Wilson, Coralie J. and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
title = {Who influence men to go to therapy? Reports from men attending psychological services},
journal = {International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling},
year = {2004},
volume = {26},
number = {3},
pages = {271--283}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version.