Working With Men Survivors of of Trauma and Abuse [DVD]

Featuring: Laura S. Brown

In "Working With Men Survivors of Trauma and Abuse", Dr. Laura S. Brown demonstrates her approach to therapy with men who have been abused or suffered trauma in the past. In this session, she works with a 30-year-old man who was physically abused as a child. Dr. Brown is able to begin the process of helping this man to feel safe enough to trust another person. In addition to watching Dr. Brown discusses her feminist therapeutic approach in an interview, viewers of the DVD may opt to listen to Dr. Brown's voice-over comments during the therapy session itself. Her commentary provides great insight into the life of a man who has experienced childhood trauma. Feminist therapy concerns itself with issues of gender, power, and social location in the lives of clients. As such, it's unusually well-suited as a framework for understanding trauma and interpersonal violence because much of such violence occurs as a result of people's positions of relative powerlessness in the social realm. In this video, the client is invited to explore his extreme difficulties with trust and personal vulnerability stemming from his experiences of victimization and to begin to see how his strategies for coping with that abuse have created difficulties in his current life. Dr. Brown's focus in this session, as in all of her work, is on the empowerment of the client. In the introductory and voice-over remarks, she shares her analysis of how the gendering of victimization can make recovery from childhood abuse a particular challenge for men.

Unmasking Masculinity: Helping Boys Become Connected Men (TEDx Talk)

Featuring: Ryan McKelley

Dr. Ryan McKelley, licensed psychologist and associate professor of psychology, discusses how the emotional masks that some boys and men wear can negatively impact their physical and psychology health. The talkbegins with a 13th century experiment showing how crucial human contact is to our survival, and summarizes more recent studies on the importance of social connectedness. For example, several decades of epidemiological data suggest that social isolation is a primary risk factor for cardiovascular disease. McKelley argues that although men are stereotyped to be less emotionally expressive than women, their internal experiences tell a different story.

McKelley urges boys and men to do away with the mask. While there are situations where emotional restriction is necessary, it doesn't need to be the default mode in all situations. He challenges people to eliminate phrases like "man up" or "stop acting like a girl", and understand that opening up and being vulnerable is courageous. The talk ends with a call for men to take small risks to open up to give themselves a broader emotional experience and allow them to make deeper connections with others.

Crimes Against Nature

Streaming Video, Featuring: Christopher Kilmartin

Crimes Against Nature is a solo performance piece written and performed by SPSMM member and psychologist Chris Kilmartin. Performed more 225 times and on more than 100 campuses, Crimes Against Nature takes a comedic look at the absurdities and contradictions of growing up as a male in America. The performance confronts the pressures of masculinity with humor in a personal style, depicting the demands of masculinity through the use of personal experiences, which include various trials in adolescence, puberty, homophobia, sex education and even the introduction to drag queens.