The Herald, Scotland, - July 9, 2010

Male abuse victims face extra barriers

Counsellors can struggle to help men who are in abusive relationships, because political correctness and their own assumptions get in the way, according to new research.

A meeting of the British Psychological Society at Strathclyde University tomorrow will hear that many counsellors are unsure about how to treat male victims of domestic violence, and are concerned that they are not getting the best support.

Kevin Hogan and Dr John Hegarty from the University of Keele will discuss the findings at the annual conference of the society's Division of Counselling Psychology. They say that Home Office figures suggest the problem of domestic violence is evenly spread between the sexes. This refers to a 1999 study which found that around 4.2% of both sexes reported being assaulted.

According to more recent figures, 6.4% of men aged 20-24 reported having been the victims of domestic abuse in 2008 in England and Wales.

Hogan and Hegarty say that despite this, and the considerable usable information which has come from pioneering work with female victims of abuse, "the subject of male victimisation has been systematically rejected and bypassed as politically incorrect".

Hogan explained: "Male counsellors stereotype who can be a victim and women counsellors fare no better, since such male clients naturally fear being with women.

"This leaves the abused male with a tough job to do, educating his counsellor as well as helping himself."

The small-scale study Hogan carried out involved interviews with three male and three female therapists to understand how they respond to work with male victims of domestic violence. Some of them had to reassess their own view of male and female roles in society, he said.

"All the counsellors spoke about experiencing an element of surprise as a result of a lack of awareness of male victimisation and assumptions around domestic abuse.

"They described how they had to suppress their surprise, so as not to make the client feel uncomfortable."

Counsellors participating in the study asked for more awareness training to enable them to better support men who were in abusive relationships.

The research could have implications for those working in counselling roles, according to the BPS, as recent European equality laws require that services do not discriminate on the grounds of gender.

Callum Hendry of the White Ribbon campaign in Scotland, which seeks to change male attitudes to violence against women, said that while abuse of men by male or female partners was a problem, women tended to suffer more in terms of repeat victimisation and severity of violence.

He added: "We do not refute that many men who suffer in abusive relationships would benefit from support services."