Turn the wheel: Integral school counseling for male adolescents

In U.S. society today, many male youths struggle with a restrictive norm for masculine success that hampers their development and can harm others (Garbarino, 1999; Kindlon & Thompson, 2000; Pollack, 1998). This norm pressures male youths to prove their masculinity through stoic inexpressiveness and control, avoidance of qualities considered to be feminine, homophobia, competition, domination, and aggression. Influential and highly visible institutions, such as the government and the media, tend to favor male values such as aggression as a means to solve problems. Equally problematic is that male youths often grow up without adequate emotional and conceptual tools that enable them to distance themselves from the norm and become conscious of their own development. Recent incidents of school violence are examples of the destructive effects of boys caught up in the norm. Schools, as Connell (1996) argued, contribute to gender formation and the making of masculinities but do so in an unreflective, inchoate way. Traditional counseling, especially school counseling, has not adequately addressed the mental health needs of all male youths. The goal of this article is to formulate an overarching, inclusive model of counseling that enables school counselors to help boys challenge the harmful aspects of the traditional norm of masculinity and become whole persons. A model that transcends traditional counseling elements and encompasses emergent ones can point toward a fuller meaning of development for everyone. OUTMODED MASCULINITY Educators and mental health professionals have recently underscored the damaging extent of the conventional idea of masculinity for boys as well as girls. The difficulties faced by male adolescents are reflected in high incidents of violence, substance abuse, and depression and alienation (Home & Kiselica, 1999). Faludi (1999) described how many male youths further experience a painful and confusing crisis over the loss of the norm and its privileges. Yet the breakdown of conventional masculinity allows for the possibility of a more inclusive, egalitarian, and fulfilling vision that many now seek. Moreover, although men's need to change is clearly in the interest of women, arguably, it is also in the interest of men. COUNSELING FOR WHAT? Connell (1996) noted that schools are both agents and sites for the formation of a child's concept of masculinity. It is questionable for counselors to accept a range of normal development as a criterion of mental health if that norm, especially with respect to male youths, is itself problematic. As Hanna, Bemak, and Chung (1999) suggested, perhaps a higher standard by which to counsel male adolescents should be the attainment of wisdom, the holistic integration and transcendence of cognitive, affective, and volitional aspects of development. Wisdom, however, is not attained through traditional counseling and education. It may be best alluded to and arrived at through higher, more integrative forms of awareness and through contemplative ways of knowing. One way is through an integral counseling approach. INTEGRAL SCHOOL COUNSELING The purpose of integral school counseling is to help a student move toward full development and awareness; this includes the quality of compassion toward oneself and others. It is as necessary for the counselor to engage in this process as it is for the client. Fukuyama and Sevig (1999) believed that in counseling, an appreciation of multicultural perspectives and a spiritual approach that sees universality among all people can inform each other. The call for a higher level of conscious development accords with the emerging trend of positive psychology that focuses on how people cultivate wisdom, happiness, and healthy states of mind (Larson, 2000). MANY CONCEPTS OF MASCULINITY Male youths can develop a whole sense of themselves without excluding and subordinating women, as Willis (1999) argued, and without harming themselves and other boys. …