Male couples face multiple challenges. Living with a status that is unrecognized or marginalized, and where societal homophobia is consciously and unconsciously internalized, serves to erode these couples’ strengths and ability to thrive.
This workshop will explore how male couples maintain successful long-term relationships while choosing the model (heteronormative, open, monogamous, polyamory, and betrayal) that is right for them. Additionally it will address how gay development impacts the wellbeing of male couples.
Couples have the right to choose how they want to live and to expect the support of their therapist, but too often clinicians who have less experience working with gay men will try to make the couple adapt to an arrangement within the clinician’s comfort zone. Workshop attendees will learn to stretch their own comfort levels in dealing with these cases and develop their own style of challenging couples who avoid intimacy or closeness.
Additionally, tools for nurturing and sustaining intimacy will be provided. Clinicians wishing to improve their effectiveness in working with male couples will gain insights into different modes of connection and strengthen their expertise in treatment.
Learning Objectives:
Rick Miller, MSW, is a clinical social worker in private practice in Boston and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He is the author of Unwrapped: Integrative Therapy with Gay Men… the Gift of Presence (2015). Rick has served on numerous national and international faculties, including the International Society of Hypnosis, the Brief Therapy Conference, the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and Harvard Medical School.