Talking to therapists still hard for men

Tess Patterson

Male survivors of sexual abuse still struggle to find therapists they are willing to share their stories with, a University of Otago academic says.

Dr Tess Patterson, a senior lecturer at the department of psychological medicine, spoke to a group of survivors in Dunedin on Thursday about her research.

Speaking earlier, she told the Otago Daily Times her qualitative research — interviewing nine male survivors of childhood sexual abuse — had identified key themes.

They included feelings of responsibility for the abuse perpetrated upon them, the impact on relationships and sexual development, and issues of control — "that this thing took over their lives", she said.

But it also highlighted the struggle men had to decide to speak about their experiences, and to find a therapist they could connect with and open up to.

"Most of them went through many therapists ... before they found one that they actually really connected with. Once they did, for most men it was beneficial, but not all.

"Probably what’s unique to men ... is it’s very hard for them to actually disclose and tell people what’s happened to them, because it doesn’t really fit with the kind of norms we have in society. Some of them talked about that they would be weak if they went to a therapist, or the therapist would perceive them as weak.

"That’s part of the whole push of the research, to actually make it very clearly known that this happens to males — that it’s just as bad, and does as much harm for males as it does for females."

Dr Patterson, who is also the chairwoman of the Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Trust Otago, said her clinical work focused on sexual offenders until she met the group’s national advocate, Ken Clearwater, about six years ago.

"I’m very vocal about it, and I think overall people are becoming aware of it ... but in some ways it still is a little bit invisible."

chris.morris@odt.co.nz