Where to find advice and guidance when things are difficult
Having children is hard work, which can lead to conflict and, unfortunately, also to mothers and fathers splitting up. Here are some places you can turn to for help if you need it.
The Man Centre – read how you can get help as a father here
Since 2006, the Men’s Centre has offered free counselling to men who are going through a divorce, breakdown of their relationship or family violence. The Men’s Centre’s target group does not include men with untreated addictions or mental illness.
The Men’s Centre has branches in Aalborg, Aarhus, Esbjerg, Odense and Copenhagen.
Men’s Centre counselling is free of charge. Contact them on tel. +45 70 11 62 63 or by sending an email to info@mandecentret.dk.
Here is a selection of the help you can get at the Men’s Centre:
Divorce and partnership breakdown
You can get help before, during and after your relationship ends. You can get practical advice, for example, or help with personal matters. You don’t have to have been married to get help from the counselling. Read more about The Man Centre’s counselling for divorce and relationship breakdown HERE.
Visitation with your children
The Men’s Centre can help you find out who will be the contact parent and residential parent. You can get help yourself or together with your ex-partner to manage conflicts and help you both stay in touch with your children. Read more about help with child visitation HERE.
Temporary accommodation
In order to use the Men’s Centre’s temporary accommodation, you must meet a number of requirements. Contact the Men’s Centre to find out if you are in the target group and read more about possibilities for temporary accommodation HERE.
Conflict and violence
Many of the men who contact the Men’s Centre have conflicts with their partner or ex-partner. Some have suffered physical or psychological violence from their partner or other family members. You can get help to deal with conflict and violence HERE.
Mødrehjælpen – is also for fathers
As a father, you can get advice and support at Holdepunkt – Mødrehjælpen’s nationwide counselling service.
Here, social workers, lawyers and psychologists are ready to help with many challenges you may face as a parent or when you are about to become one. You may have questions about visitation, concerns about your child’s well-being, financial issues, or thoughts about abortion, or do you need to talk to someone when you are about to divorce? Whatever the problem, they can advise you.
Holdepunkt counsellors can be contacted via chat or tel. +45 33 45 86 00. See opening hours HERE.
It is also possible to look for advice and knowledge in a number of counselling articles, or find support and networking in one of Mødrehjælpen’s many local associations, which regularly organise activities that you and your family can take part in.
You can find lots more about what Holdepunkt can offer HERE.
Mødrehjælpen also helps with legal aid
If you need reliable guidance through the legal sections on divorce, visitation, housing or paternity, you can get free legal aid from Mødrehjælpen. The legal advice is given by an independent lawyer or attorney.
Read more about legal aid HERE.
Offers for young parents
Mødrehjælpen’s counselling centres in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg also have special projects for young parents under the age of 30. Here the baby’s mother receives counselling and support during pregnancy and maternity leave, but there are also events and offers targeting you as a father.
If you want to learn more, you can find your nearest Mødrehjælpen counselling centre HERE.
Kom Videre Mand – (also) an offer for you as a father
Kom Videre Mand is a free programme that helps men through a crisis in a community of men in the same or a similar situation.
Maybe you’ve been divorced, made redundant or are suffering from stress. Or if you just need a new community to help you move on, then Kom Videre Mand is for you.
Some groups are for a specific target group, while others are mixed, with room for men in different situations.
Examples of target groups:
Stress:
– Are you suffering from stress or becoming stressed?
– Do you want to avoid stress?
– Does everything seem confusing?
Divorce:
– Are you in the middle of a divorce?
– Are you trying to save your relationship from breaking up?
– Are you struggling to move on after a divorce?
Unemployment:
– Are you unemployed or under notice?
– Do you want to move on after a redundancy or unemployment?
Free group programme for 8 men for 8 weeks
Over eight weeks, eight men meet once a week. The group has a male volunteer as a group leader, who guides the rest of the group through a tried and tested and programme with documented effect. It includes:
• Finding focus and getting a clear picture
• Forming good relationships
• Getting better at those difficult conversations
• Reviving your resources to find more vitality
• Increasing your ability to cope with difficult life situations
• Getting inspiration from other men to move on
• Steering your life in a direction you want
The programme is tailored for men in partnership with male coach Jørgen Juul Jensen from the Man Centre in Copenhagen.
Search for the group nearest to you and find more information here .
Contact Kom Videre Mand at info@komvideremand.dk
Red Cross family support
The Red Cross runs a voluntary Parental Support Programme for parents-to-be and parents of young children to help them settle into parenthood and/or to help with challenges that make it difficult to cope with everyday life and parenting. The volunteers are men and women who have been trained to meet the needs of families. A parent support programme will generally provide 2-3 hours of support per week for six months.
The Red Cross currently offers Parent supporters in North Zealand, Copenhagen, the region west of Copenhagen, Odense, Bornholm and the Horsens area. Contact us if you live outside these areas and we will see what is possible for us
Email: godstartpaalivet@rodekors.dk
Phone: 21512421
DareGender men's groups
In a men’s group, you’ll learn specific approaches, so your conversations with other men are more direct, and you’ll learn to manage emotions and vulnerability without irony or evasive jokes. You can also be trained to facilitate group conversations yourself.
As one of a DareGender men’s group, you’ll be part of an equal, supportive community with room to talk about what’s going on in your life. Through other men, you get to know yourself better. In a men’s group, we share our experiences, listen to each other and often laugh together. We get to know each other in a way that goes a little deeper. In doing so, we explore and extend the limits of how you can take your place in the world as a man.
The groups meet 6-8 times and participation is free. At each session, we look into a new theme that we relate to our own lives as men. We talk about friendships, loneliness, shame, sex, envy, violence, love, victories and failures, dating and relationships, male ideals, health, setting limits, family relationships. We explore the experiences in life that have formed each of us and the emotions that fill our daily lives.
The groups are run by 2-3 expert volunteers who are trained in facilitating men’s groups. They provide a safe space to talk and participate in the community on an equal footing with everyone else. Some meetings take place around a campfire, others indoors – depending on the season and weather.
