Growth and Intimacy for Gay Men: A Workbook

By John P. De Cecco and Christopher J. Alexander

Book Overview

Growth and Intimacy for Gay Men: A Workbook is an educational workbook for gay men that covers a variety of topics, including family of origin, addiction, self-image, dating and relationships, AIDS and multiple loss, and spirituality. Each chapter provides an overview of the mental health concerns of gay men, as well as exercises the reader can do to facilitate his personal understanding of the issues covered. While the book is written in nontechnical language, making it useful to the general public, its wide selection of workbook exercises makes it useful for psychotherapists and counselors working with gay men. Growth and Intimacy for Gay Men is written to the reader--with brief examples from the author's work as a clinical psychologist helping gay men. A central goal of the book is to normalize the feelings and experiences the reader has, as many gay men feel like they're the only ones with their feelings or experiences. The book's problem-solving approach addresses:

family of origin--provides exercises to identify and examine gay men's role in the family, examine their childhood perceptions of being different, and help them map out family patterns and dynamics self-image--includes self-image assessment questionnaires and written exercises that challenge the reader to look at how they're affected by societal perceptions addiction--explores why gay men are vulnerable to addictive behavior and offers strategies for change and self-assessment exercises dating and relationships--covers the unique challenges faced by gay men, with exercises for single as well as coupled men AIDS and mental health--provides exercises to help the reader examine the impact of AIDS on his own life and to assess the impact of multiple loss and prolonged grief Readers can do the workbook exercises on their own, or therapists can assign chapters and exercises as homework, with clients bringing the completed assignment to therapy for more in-depth exploration and discussion. By providing informative chapters and useful exercises, Growth and Intimacy for Gay Men becomes an avenue through which gay men can understand their identity, experiences, and goals.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789001535
• ISBN13: 9780789001535
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 294 Pages

Customer Reviews

Understanding why

The book chronicles the time in childhood, when a perceptable shift occurs in the way adults begin to act, in a more critical or jugdmental way. The period following often accompanies attempts by the child to win back the favor of parents and other adults in their life, by, being better, getting better grades, helping more, being good and still not able to put the finger on what caused the uneasy distance. The awful day comes, when the realization of why our circle of family and friends have begun the judging behaviors. In that moment, our sexuality becomes apparent to us, the rush of shame, fear and self hatred hits like an avalanche. It can be a very bleak time in a gay childs life, most often occuring during adolescence. The clear, step by step, process of working through those old behaviors and learning to embrace the truth in who we are, is life altering and can be a catylist for healing. I have purchased over 20 copies of the book and given it to other adults, to work through their own growth. The book is written for therapists, but is easy to understand and each chapter finished with excercises and a quiz. I have also used the book for group discussion, as together, we begin the arduous journey to accepting a role of satisfaction and fulfillment in our life as gay members of our family and in our community.

another great edition from the Hawthorne series

This is definitely more for pro-gay therapists than their gay male clients. It's a lifespan text, ranging from childhood memories to the aging process. One of the last sections is on gay men and aging. This ads to the growing and needed literature on older gay men. This book is full of exercises and thus might not go as in depth as readers who want to delve deeply into various topics. Key issues covered here are drug recovery, AIDS, depression, etc. The author works out of New Mexico, rather than San Francisco, so I think he's probably had to work with gay men that have had to face much homophobia outside of many coastal, liberal environments.