Therapy with Men and Boys: A Guide for Clinicians
Every mental health provider who works with men and/or boys knows how challenging it can be. Therapy requires our male clients to be vulnerable and admit their need for help. That's pretty terrifying for a lot of men and boys. The good news is that there are clinicians and researchers who have devoted their careers to learning how to overcome these challenges. In this podcast, we will try to fill the gap in your clinical knowledge, with the help of the leading experts in working with boys and men, who will share their wisdom and tools with all of us.
About your co-hosts:
Dr. Erica Liebman is a clinical psychologist based in Philadelphia who splits her time between her private practice working with individuals and couples, performing assessments of military veterans and working on various projects that further the awareness of issues facing men and boys. She is a board member of the Society for the Psychology of Men & Masculinities, a division of the American Psychological Association. Her two main foci in this realm is advocating for increased education about boys and men in APA psychology programs as well as helping to bridge the divide between men and women through compassion and understanding. Dr. Liebman can be reached via her website www.ericaliebmanpsyd.com
Dr. David Shepard is a practicing Los Angeles-based psychologist with over 30 years of experience specializing in working with men, both individually and as the male parter in couple therapy. Dr. Shepard is a member of the Society for Psychology of Men & Masculinities, a division of the American Psychological Association, and a past-president of the division. He is Professor Emeritus in Counseling at California State University, Fullerton, and the author of numerous publications about working with men and making couple therapy work for male partners. He can be reached at drdavidshepard@gmail.com. His website is drdavidshepard.com
Therapy with Men and Boys: A Guide for Clinicians
Episode 10: Need a Clear Map for Working with Male Clients? Dr. Andrew Smiler Has One
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In previous episodes, psychologists Erica Liebman and David Shepard have interviewed master therapists who take a relational approach to helping male clients. This time, we’re doing something different: We are learning about a pragmatic problem-solving approach, and a new way of conceptualizing our clients. Our guest is Dr. Andrew Smiler, a therapist with 30 years of clinical experience with men from 15 to 85. He has developed the Multifaceted Masculinity Framework – a masculine identity-based approach that fits with many men's problem-solving orientation.
Dr. Smiler describes the framework, and then two cases. Gary is the Breadwinner, and is suffering from depression due to his wife’s leaving him after he loses his job. Bart presents as the Unemotional Man, a man whose limited emotional awareness has left him chronically stressed and struggling to connect with the people around him. You will learn how these kinds of umbrella themes – seven in all - can guide you to understand what your client is experiencing, and what practical steps can be taken to relieve their symptoms. You don’t have to give up your relational approach to use Dr. Smiler’s framework. But it may open up your therapy work to innovative thinking about your clients and using interventions that may be powerful agents of change.
Dr. Smiler is the author of five books, including the bestseller, The Masculine Self. His latest book is Clinical Work with Men: Understanding Masculinity in Psychotherapy, published in Spring 2026 by The American Psychological Association.