The Silent Burden: Addressing Emotional Suppression Among Men in Urban Kenya through Group Therapy

Emotional suppression among men in urban Kenya represents a significant yet under-addressed barrier to individual mental health and relational wellbeing. Rooted in rigid masculine socialisation, this pattern of self-silencing is reinforced by cultural norms that equate emotional openness with weakness, contributing to depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and, in its most severe manifestations, aggression, intimate partner violence, and femicide. This paper examines the scope and psychological impact of emotional suppression among men in Nairobi and Mombasa, drawing on regional and international literature to trace the pathway from suppressed emotion to relational and societal harm, and to identify the cultural and developmental mechanisms that sustain this silence. It then argues for group psychotherapy as a culturally responsive and clinically effective intervention, given its documented capacity to foster cohesion, peer modelling, accountability, and corrective emotional experiences within a protected, male-only therapeutic space. Building on this evidence base, the paper proposes The Silent Burden, a group therapy model grounded in Mentalization-Based Group Therapy, narrative therapy, and Emotionally Focused Therapy principles, designed specifically for emotionally suppressed men in urban Kenyan contexts. The model centers the repair of epistemic trust, structured emotion-regulation training, and the narrative re-authoring of masculine identity, while remaining attentive to multicultural considerations such as collectivist values and indigenous communal frameworks. The paper further considers the model's anticipated limitations, including initial resistance to vulnerability, risk of participant dropout, and the high level of facilitator skill required to manage emotionally sensitive material safely. It concludes that culturally grounded, male-only group interventions offer a promising and clinically sound pathway for helping men move from silence toward emotional expression, with benefits extending to individual wellbeing as well as family and community relationships across urban Kenya. Keywords: emotional suppression; masculinity; group psychotherapy; men's mental health; Kenya