PSYCHOTHERAPY
Men’s Group

Men’s Group Psychotherapy with Patrick Akrivos

For many generations, men have been made to think that showing their emotions and being vulnerable is a sign of weakness. Nowadays we must aim to break this wall and encourage men to share their feelings and emotions. This process begins in a “safe place” called a Men’s group, a place where men are not only allowed but strongly encouraged to share their issues without the fear of showing the so-called weak part of their being.  

I specialize in creating a unique environment for men’s personal growth. I myself as a man have acknowledged the importance of such a process.  Along with my professional expertise and continuous studies and research, I am well equipped to understand and support every man during a journey of discovering our inner selves.

Contact me to book a “get to know each other” appointment to discuss any issue that troubles your mind and heart.  

Men’s Group: Taboo in the past, nowadays a “must”!

For many generations, men have been made to think that showing their emotions and being vulnerable is a sign of weakness. Men feel embarrassed to share their issues. According to statistics, suicide rates are higher in men than in women. This can be attributed to the fact that men are forced to bottle up their emotions and go through stress alone. This leads to poor mental health and serious distress. Toxic masculinity holds men back from seeking help, especially therapy.

Men-only therapy groups, offer a safe space for men to share their personal experiences, learn from others, and ask questions in a safe place. 

Being part of a men’s therapy group ensures that troubled men have a platform to air their concerns and worries. They also offer helpful resources to men who seek further professional help for different issues. Most members experience a sense of relief when they find a group they can share freely among other men going through the same issues.

Therapy groups for men act as support networks and sounding boards for anyone who needs a listening ear. The groups’ members help each other overcome their issues using group-based sharing and supportive ideas. The group equips you with the tools you need to improve your situation and hold you accountable along the way.  

When you regularly share and listen to other group members, it makes it easy for you to put your own issues in perspective. Many men go through mental health issues, but very few of them speak openly about their struggles. This is especially difficult for people who do not understand the issue.  Men’s therapy groups remind you that you are not the only one struggling. This makes it easier for you to seek the help you need.

My Men's Group is a “here-and-now” process therapy group that provides an opportunity for men to support each other and become more empowered in their personal, professional and relational lives. This group creates a space for men interested in personal growth, transformation and discovering more about themselves and their relationships with others.

In this confidential, safe and supportive environment, men can find understanding and encouragement. Through therapeutically guided interactions amongst group members, as well as intensive self-exploration, introspection and reflection, participants have an opportunity to develop the tools to better manage the areas in their lives that are “stuck” or in “crisis.”

Men’s Group offers participants the opportunity to connect with other men with the goal of deepening self-expression and moving through the sense of isolation some men can experience. Participants will enhance their personal strengths through building relationship skills, leadership skills, emotional awareness, self-esteem, general life skills and healing in a structured, safe therapeutic environment.

I seek to create a unique environment for men’s personal growth. Men’s psychology acknowledges that men have a unique journey that benefits from a unique setting. Men often feel under-appreciated for their passion to engage the world through creativity, work and in relationships. Men long to be a part of something larger and often feel isolated and left out of community. Our current society labels men as un-engaged and un-emotional, neither of which is a reality. Men seek a form of relationship that meets them and acknowledges masculine rhythms, needs and desires. On the other hand, the way men are raised does mean that revealing emotions, developing sustained intimacy and dealing with anger are uniquely challenging.  A men’s group experience offers men the opportunity to journey together toward their deepest goals and learn from each other along the way.

Men’s groups are a great way to accelerate your learning about how to manage stress, anger and conflict, increase your communication skills and emotional IQ. It is also a way to increase healthy assertiveness, positive emotions, life satisfaction and empowerment toward your deepest life goals. Open to all men who want to explore themselves, grow and change, young or old, gay or straight, and all ethnicities.

A typical image of men getting together involves beer and sports, jokes and complaints about women, a little backslapping, and awkwardness at the least hint of intimacy.  In this scenario men are simply tough and have no need to share their stories or sort through the substantial challenges of work, relationships, parenthood, friendship, health, money, sex, aging parents, and an increasingly complex world.

At the other end of the spectrum is the equally compelling image of the Lone Wolf, the man who somehow burst into adulthood with all the skills, knowledge and emotional grit that he would ever need, a man who can stand alone and face the world with courage and fortitude without blinking.

In either case men are supposed to accept the mystifying assumption that they should somehow know how to handle life's difficulties without having been taught, that it is a weakness to admit ignorance, that it is absurd to be relieved when other men reveal that they are struggling with similar problems.  All too often our fathers--hampered themselves by the message to be stoic, by the demand to be a provider but not a nurturing parent, an enforcer of rules and not an encouraging presence--left us wounded and longing for an understanding mentor who would be pleased with our successes and helpful when we stumble, who could be playful and loving.

Picture this: a small group of men who are able to lay all that aside and trust each other with their private anxieties, men who share their hopes, disappointments, frustrations, as well as their moments of success and joy, who are able to admit that it is difficult to get out of bed some mornings, who are struggling to find or maintain a healthy relationship, who are willing to reexamine some of the pains of childhood that still seem to shape their lives; young men who are starting careers and finding partners, who face the daunting prospect of being a husband and perhaps a parent; older men whose work, relationship and sex life may have become routine, who feel their youth slipping away from them and their prospects unappealing; men approaching or beginning retirement who are trying to make sense of a new phase in their lives.  Picture a room with men who know that it is safe to talk about these things because what is said in that room stays there, because their thoughts will be honored, considered, and reflected upon.

Contact with Patrick
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Contact with Patrick
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