Guys in Therapy: Assessing the mental health needs of college‐aged men, with 10 innovative approaches to working with them A White Paper by Aqualus M. Gordon, Ph.D. Post‐Doctoral Fellow at the University of New Hampshire Special Thanks to Sem Moundas, Psy.D. & Thomas Westerling, Ph.D. for their helpful insight Introduction: No matter how you slice it, men and boys, as a population, are struggling both psychologically and socially in the U.S. The consequences of these struggles not only affect individual men – they also have large impacts on the communities in which these men live. Nevertheless, there are few services and resources that target men specifically – or address problems and experiences specific to men – in ways that are accessible to them, understanding of their particular concerns, and receptive to traditionally masculine dispositions. This paper offers an overview of some of the most serious issues men face, with particular emphasis on college‐aged men (roughly, 17 to 25 years of age). The status quo for mental health treatment options available to men will be critiqued, followed by proposed improvements to the current system, based on the writer’s experience with male psychotherapy clients and research in the area of male psychology – particularly research by Spencer‐Thomas, et al. and the Man Therapy project. The Problems: An Abundance of Shame It is the opinion of this writer that of all the issues and themes that cause distress in the psychology of men, shame is the most prominent. A man’s experience of shame may be connected to any number of issues ‐‐ some of which will be discussed further in this paper, but often seem to include shame related to aggressive or sexual feelings, past actions or thoughts, and/or not living up to a culturally sanctioned masculine ideal. A Lack of Confidence Many men find it difficult to act in positive ways without some semblance of confidence in themselves and/or their abilities. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a man must feel confident in all things; however, in my experiences with men in therapy, men who believe that they have no outstanding or redeeming qualities will undermine themselves and greatly underestimate their ability to be successful at anything except failure.