While service providers need to be aware of this
reliance on women, the above analysis also suggests
that those services which are talk based might also
do more to acknowledge the ways in which men do
‘get through’, sometimes with the help of other
men. Whereas the literature has tended to focus on
those methods that are dysfunctional (selfmedication,
avoidance techniques; Riska, 2009),
other non-verbal ways of coping – being or doing
alongside male friends – are also important. Talking
might then best be seen as a complement to, rather
than a displacement of, such forms of intimacy – especially given the prevalence and persistence of
beliefs among men about the non-efficacy of talk.