Penetrated Men Shun Counselling Support…

Monk-Turner E, & Light D (2010). Male sexual assault and rape: who seeks counseling? Sexual abuse : a journal of research and treatment, 22 (3), 255-65 PMID: 20713746

A standard question asked about any man who has been sexually assaulted is ‘who can he turn to?’ To whom can any man turn after suffering this most distressing of human rights abuses in a world where men are never supposed to let down their guard? I have reflected on this topic elsewhere on this blog, for example, by reviewing an article by Weiss (2008, p.291), in which the argument was put that men who have been sexually assaulted by other men (but not by women) often respond with extreme, even lethal violence. Here, in this article by Monk-Turner and Light (2010 pp.255-256), the accent is on exploring whether men who had been severely sexually assaulted would later seek counselling support.

It is a great pity that so many male survivors either avoid counselling altogether or come to it ‘so long after the sexual assault…took place’ (2010, p.256). I say ‘great pity’ because sexual assault can produce a myriad of psychological and somatic symptoms in male survivors, including:

• sex role confusion;
• sexual dysfunction;
• posttraumatic stress disorder;
• mood disorder (depression, anxiety, etc.);
• self-harming behaviours;
• substance misuse;
• emotional regulation problems;
• suicidal ideation; and a
• profound sense of shame… (2010, p.257).

Appropriate, accessible counselling support provides male survivors with a powerful opportunity to deal expeditiously with their traumatic injury and its consequent thoughts, feelings, behaviours and attitudes. The authors (2010, pp.257-258) note that in the United States, to which this article refers specifically, such services are remarkably thin on the ground. In fact, most mental health and sexual assault services in the Unites States remain closed to male survivors (2010, pp.257-258).

Of the 219 male survivors in Monk-Turner and Light’s (2010, pp.260-261) study, 29 per cent had, thereafter, sought counselling support. When it came to the actual sexual assaults:

• 5% of incidents involved the use of a weapon;
• 5% of male survivors subsequently sought medical care;
• 11% of male survivors were physically injured;
• 16% of male survivors were drug-affected;
• 23% of male survivors were threatened by their perpetrator;
• 32% of male survivors were penetrated;
• 79% of male survivors ‘identified as White’; and
• 88% of male survivors did not report the incident to the police (2010, pp.260-261).

 Astonishingly, the only variable from the above list that significantly affected whether a male survivor would or would not seek counselling support was if he had been penetrated (2010, pp.261-261). That is, ‘[m]en who reported that penetration [had] occurred during the assault were less (emphasis added) likely than others to seek counseling’ (2010, p.261). This result is opposite to what Monk-Turner and Light (2010, p.262) had originally hypothesised and goes to underscore the ‘sense of stigma, shame, and embarrassment’ (Rentoul & Applebloom, 1997, cited in Monk-Turner & Light, 2010, p.262) that many male survivors experience. Exponentially so, it would seem, if they had been physically penetrated.

While Monk-Turner and Light (2010) call for ‘[f]uture research’ (p.262) to further explore why male survivors, physically penetrated at the time of their sexual assault, can then become so averse to seeking professional help, I would counter that there is already much evidence to inform us about that complex problematic…

See also…

Masho, S., & Alvanzo, A. (2009). Help-Seeking Behaviors of Men Sexual Assault Survivors American Journal of Men’s Health, 4 (3), 237-242 DOI: 10.1177/1557988309336365