Why Aren’t Men Becoming Therapists Anymore?

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

Release Date: 11/14/2022

Private Practice Planning for the Future of Mental Healthcare: An Interview with Maureen Werrbach

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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What Therapists Should Know About Sexual Health, Monkey Pox, and the Echoes of the AIDS Epidemic: An Interview with Mallory Garrett, LMFT

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

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Why Aren’t Men Becoming Therapists Anymore?

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

Why Aren’t Men Becoming Therapists Anymore? Curt and Katie chat about the lack of male therapists and the decreasing number of male students in the profession. We look at current statistics and reported experiences of men in the field. We also dig into what needs to change to balance gender representation and increase the number of men becoming therapists. Transcripts for this episode will be available at ! In this podcast episode we talk about male therapists Continuing forward within men’s health month, we are looking at the state of the profession for male therapists....

Why Men Don’t Stay in Therapy

The Modern Therapist's Survival Guide with Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy

Why Men Don’t Stay in Therapy Curt and Katie chat about men’s mental health. We look at why men typically go to therapy, their experiences while in therapy, what therapists get wrong when working with men, and how therapists better support the needs of men seeking mental health treatment. Transcripts for this episode will be available at ! In this podcast episode we talk about men seeking therapy For Men’s Health Awareness month, we want to explore men seeking mental health services. Why do men typically go to therapy? Others telling men to go to therapy Career or...

More Episodes

Why Aren’t Men Becoming Therapists Anymore?

Curt and Katie chat about the lack of male therapists and the decreasing number of male students in the profession. We look at current statistics and reported experiences of men in the field. We also dig into what needs to change to balance gender representation and increase the number of men becoming therapists.

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

In this podcast episode we talk about male therapists

Continuing forward within men’s health month, we are looking at the state of the profession for male therapists.

Statistics on men in the mental health profession

Depending on license type, mental health professionals are between 60-90% female
Men and women have fairly equal parity on compensation (especially when looking at similar roles)
Men are less likely to seek out these jobs as the wages stagnate, the requirements become more onerous, and due to a lack of male representation and role models

What needs to change to balance gender representation within the mental health field?

“Men typically have privilege in other spaces… And yet I recognize in our field, that's not the case. And so, it's this weird, complex understanding of societal privilege, but not privilege within the field.” – Katie Vernoy, LMFT

Understanding the difference between societal privilege versus professional privilege
Identifying why the number of men is dramatically decreasing within graduate programs and all stages of licensure
The impact of feminism on the conversations about the impact of white men on the field
The perception of “male bashing” and the need to nurture male voices within the profession
The challenge of identifying when men are being ignored or “soloed out”
The problem of stereotyping, ignoring, or isolating male therapists and students
Men being automatically pushed into leadership due to mentorship by male faculty and bias toward men as leaders

How do we get more men into the mental health profession?

“If we're identifying that men need to go and get mental health treatment, and there's no men to get it from, this then has the potential for reaching critical failure as a profession in being able to provide services.” – Curt Widhalm, LMFT

Reaching critical failure in trying to provide services to men (if men no longer enter the profession)
Recruitment strategies for graduate programs
Making the profession sustainable for all individuals
Pushing back against wage stagnation due to feminization of the profession
Looking at retention and commitment for male therapists
The importance of representation across the mental health profession

Our Generous Sponsor for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide:

Thrizer

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Thrizer lets you become more accessible while remaining in complete control of your practice. A better experience for your clients during therapy means higher retention. Money won't be the reason they quit on therapy. Sign up using bit.ly/moderntherapists if you want to test Thrizer completely risk free! Sign up for Thrizer with code 'moderntherapists' for 1 month of no credit card fees or payment processing fees! That’s right - you will get one month of no payment processing fees, meaning you earn 100% of your cash rate during that time.

Resources for Modern Therapists mentioned in this Podcast Episode:

We’ve pulled together resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links. Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, so if you purchase after clicking below, we may get a little bit of cash in our pockets. We thank you in advance!

Clinical Therapist Demographics and Statistics In The US

Number of women vs men in grad programs: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/12/datapoint

Men’s experiences in the field:

https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/01/cover-men

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-01960-9

Faculty experiences of teaching male students: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-015-0473-1

Recruiting men into the field: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259538918_A_Mixed_Methods_Study_of_Male_Recruitment_in_the_Counseling_Profession

Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast:

Why Men Don’t Stay in Therapy

On the APA Guidelines for Boys and Men

Why Therapists Quit

Why Therapists Quit part 2

The Return of Why Therapists Quit

Therapy for Executives and Emerging Leaders

Fixing Mental Healthcare in America

Who we are:

Curt Widhalm, LMFT

Curt Widhalm is in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is the cofounder of the Therapy Reimagined conference, an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and CSUN, a former Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, former CFO of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a loving husband and father. He is 1/2 great person, 1/2 provocateur, and 1/2 geek, in that order. He dabbles in the dark art of making "dad jokes" and usually has a half-empty cup of coffee somewhere nearby. Learn more at: www.curtwidhalm.com

Katie Vernoy, LMFT

Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant supporting leaders, visionaries, executives, and helping professionals to create sustainable careers. Katie, with Curt, has developed workshops and a conference, Therapy Reimagined, to support therapists navigating through the modern challenges of this profession. Katie is also a former President of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt's youthful energy, so that she can take over the world. Learn more at: www.katievernoy.com

A Quick Note:

Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We’re working on it.

Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren’t trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don’t want to, but hey.