Men’s Issues/Therapy

Men’s issues are very specific in nature. In working with men, Joel feels that it is important to understand the particularity of men’s experiences, their needs, wants, desires, and goals. Joel understands the pressures that men experience in today’s society. In general, they are expected to be strong yet sensitive, in control but not controlling, powerful yet vulnerable, protective yet nurturing.

Joel has a wealth of experience in helping men navigate through these oft times, choppy waters. At Joel’s practices in New York City, and Irvington, NY he can help you improve your relationships (work and personal) by fostering greater self awareness, self confidence, and empowerment.

Work Issues

Joel believes that unresolved childhood wounds will often times get played out in the work place. An aggressive, negative boss for example, may remind us of a significant male figure in our lives, usually, but not exclusively, the father. Through Joel’s way of working very hands on with his male clients, Joel will assist you in weeding out the professional from the personal. He can help you in distancing yourself from the toxicity of your work relationships with both bosses and colleagues and teach you acceptable assertiveness training techniques while not “biting the bait” and allow your anger to take over any given situation, making a bad situation worse. Joel is well aware that our economy, while gradually improving , is not at a place where a job change or transfer can be readily attained. With that understanding, I can help you make a difficult situation more manageable and help you in starting your work day with a more positive outlook. This will not only help you during your daily work activities but can help with any residual stress affecting both the mind and body. Oftentimes, this level of frustration and stress will then be transferred on to our loved ones which will now compound the situation and leave you in despair on two fronts.

Joel feels strongly that work/ life balance is especially critical for men. If we have a bad day at work, while it is natural to feel the need to vent from time to time with our partners and spouses it is important to be cognizant of the fact that they have their own needs and feelings as well and eventually they may feel like human punching bags. He can teach you to make every effort to avoid the “spillover effect”, that is, not bringing work problems home with such frequency and intensity and vice versa.

Personal Relationships

As stated in my introduction to this topic, men are given often contradictory messages on how they are expected to act and behave. This does not only apply to romantic relationships. Many men who are less emotionally evolved, are socialized to believe that the only safe topic areas to discuss with other males are generally sex, sports and the stock market (not necessarily in that order). While these are perfectly reasonable subject areas, Joel has experienced many men complaining about the emptiness of their male friendships especially, with the longing for something deeper and more meaningful. He finds that men (both straight and gay) will have an easier time opening up to women about deeper subject areas because of its social acceptability.

In romance, men will often play out unresolved childhood conflicts which usually involve neediness, entitlement and unrealistic role expectations. Joel can assist you in improving your romantic relationships so they are more balanced and reality based.

Joel has a strong knowledge base of men in both heterosexual and same sex relationships. He has helped men through individual, couples, and group therapy.