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The results of this exploratory Delphi study provide a beginning formulation of a gender-sensitive approach to working with men in the specialized field of couple and family therapy. The research specifically investigated what a panel of thirty-six 'expert' family therapists believed would be appropriate and effective techniques to engage men in therapy and in the process of family change. This report focuses on findings highlighting differences between what female and male therapists preferred as techniques to work with men in family therapy.

Research suggests that a lack of father involvement in divorced families may have negative effects on fathers, mothers, and their children. However, past research has often failed to include men's perspectives of the factors that influence their parental role after separation or divorce. Despite the fact a majority of fathers experience a decrease in child access following separation; research has often overlooked the significance of parental time to fathers' experiences of parenting after separation and divorce. This study is an analysis of interviews completed with men regarding their desire to remain involved with their children after separation or divorce. Emerging from the analysis was the overall tension experienced when desires for time with their children conflict with the time available to fathers. The results feature participants' descriptions of this tension, as well as, the ways they navigated this tension in their efforts to maintain involvement following separation and divorce.Through interactions with others and our experiences of the world in which we live and act, we have developed multiple metaphors to describe our experiences of time (e.g., "time flies," "time stands still," "time is money"), suggesting time is a phenomenon experienced with great diversity and difference. Considering our seemingly subjective experiences of time, it is surprising that social science has often been limited in its approach to time as a quantitative measure, frequently employing time diaries to

The results of this exploratory research provide a beginning formulation of a gender‐sensitive approach to working with men in family therapy. A panel of 36 family therapists endorsed 131 interventions as appropriate and effective ways to work with men. The results suggest the importance of therapist awareness of gender issues and socialization in working with male clients. Interventions were highly endorsed in the areas of developing therapist perceptual and conceptual skills regarding gender, promoting mutual responsibility, and challenging stereo‐typical behaviors and attitudes. Surprisingly few interventions pertaining to structuring treatment and encouraging affective expression in men had sufficient consensus to be included in the final results.

Feminist and social constructionist developments in family therapy highlighted the importance of attending to therapist-client power relations and incorporating clients' understandings and preferences as a part of therapy. Significantly, less attention has been given to how postmodern therapists do use their power and influence. This is an important topic because it is therapists who have the major responsibility for guiding the interaction with clients and persisting in this so that change is facilitated. Therapist persistence in various forms and across dimensions of therapy process is examined to expand understanding of therapist influence in postmodern and collaborative work. An analysis of responsive persistence in a session with Karl Tomm as the therapist is presented to illustrate this conceptual framing.