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A Review of “Men, Addiction, and Intimacy: Strengthening Recovery by Fostering the Emotional Development of Boys and Men”

The 14th volume in the Routledge series Counseling and Psychotherapy with Boys and Men, Mark S. Woodford’s Men, Addiction, and Intimacy (2012) addresses an issue that seems to concern more practitioners than researchers: the way male socialization and substance use reinforce each other. Demographic data reveal that, compared with girls and women, boys and men initiate substance use earlier, delay seeking help longer, and likely have poorer treatment outcomes (Isenhart, 2005). Despite these persistent differences, little research has proposed or tested ways addiction treatment can be adapted to meet the specific needs of men. Woodford attempts to fill this gap and emphasizes early in his book that “gender matters.” The organization of the book reflects Woodford’s primary concern of providing education and advice to mental health practitioners treating addiction in male clients. The first three chapters establish the relevance of gender to recovery, describe current research into the developing brain, and suggest specific steps to help male patients alter patterns of thought and behavior leading to substance use. Two fictional case studies are described in each of the remaining five chapters, which present potential challenges across the male life span, including early and late adolescence and early, middle, and older adulthood. In five appendices, Woodford helpfully provides age-appropriate worksheets that practitioners can ask their male clients to complete to better understand the interactions between their gender and their substance use. The treatment template described in the first three chapters focuses on the developing brain and the ways male gender norms, male socialization, and substance use may result in addiction. Woodford relies extensively on Daniel Siegel’s work on neuroplasticity to illustrate the ways dysfunctional behavioral and thought patterns form (Siegel, 2001) and the ways healthy therapeutic relationships can alter and strengthen neural circuitry (Siegel, 2010). This information detailing brain structures and neurochemistry is provided not simply for the edification of the practitioner. Woodford advocates educating male clients on the science of neuroplasticity and even describes a