Women requested and were responsive to everything from assertiveness training and sexual awareness groups to parenting and job market issues. Two decades later, women still phone or stop me in the supermarket or at a lecture where I am presenting to reminisce about that exciting period in their lives and to relate how much they learned from the groups I had the good fortune to lead. However, Women's Lib of the past has made life more difficult for men in the present. As women have become more empowered, and financially independent, they are less willing to accept husbands or boyfriends who are emotionally detached or hostile. Men are being dragged into therapy by the women who care about them or in cases of domestic violence, under court order.
Many men seek help on their own without knowing where to go or what to do.
New forms of brief therapy are rising to fill this need. This brief therapy is geared specifically for men. It starts by accepting the stereotype of what it means to be a macho man in the Bruce Willis mode and focuses first on more rational and task oriented issues before dealing with what have been traditionally less manly attributes such as vulnerability, neediness and fear. There is also a type of therapy where men can gather in groups and pound drums and be primitive' as in days of old. Many men who would have never before considered dealing with their emotions, find these short-term methods a good place to start.