Intimacy exists when there is an open sharing of feelings, thoughts, and activities. Most men, because of their sex role socialization, have difficulty in establishing intimate relationships with men or women. The socialized value of competition, along with the barriers of homophobia, aversion to openness, and lack of role models, are major obstables to intimacy faced by men. Men's difficulty in being intimate implies that counselors of men must establish intimacy in the therapeutic encounter in order for counseling to be effective. If the male client has difficulty with intimacy, the task of the counselor is magnified because many problems that men face are based on their inability to be intimate. Counselors should help men to resolve this significant issue during therapy and enrich their lives with intimacy. (Author/NRB)