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This study investigated the incidents that male clients found to be most detrimental to the formation or strengthening of the therapeutic alliance with their mental health professionals, using an abbreviated version of the qualitative critical incident technique, which focused on hindering incidents only. The Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory was administered as a measure of participants’ adherence to traditional masculine gender norms to better describe the sample. Participants were 86 adult males, almost all of whom were receiving individual counseling or psychotherapy at the time of the study. After redundant statements had been eliminated, a total of 56 unique critical incident statements were obtained. The statements were initially sorted into self-defined, conceptually homogenous categories by 3 returning participants, and a consensus classification structure (based on the participants’ categorization of the …