Therapy for fathers Copenhagen
Help to be the father you want to be, without losing yourself
I help you find steadiness, presence and your own way of fathering
- Last updated October 23, 2026
What I want you to know as a father
In this short video, I explain what I see most often in fathers who come to me, and why a father’s own wellbeing matters so much to his children.
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At a glance
Therapy for fathers Copenhagen helps you as a father when the pressure of providing, the pace of family life or the distance from your children has started to wear you down. It is an hour for you alone: a 1-hour appointment with 50 minutes of therapy, in English or Danish, at my practice in central Copenhagen or online.
I help you understand what fatherhood is stirring in you, steady yourself and find a way of being a father that feels like yours. Fatherhood has its own main branch within psychotherapy for men. If you have a baby or toddler, new fathers therapy goes further, and if you are separated, divorced fathers therapy is the place to start.
Between school runs, you can request a free discovery call, book a session, see my client policy or contact me directly.
Is this the right page for you?
This is for you if…
Therapy for fathers Copenhagen is for fathers who love their children and are struggling with what fatherhood asks of them. You may feel stretched between work and home, short-tempered, distant or simply not good enough. You want help for yourself, so you can be steadier, more present and more like the father you mean to be.
- You leave before the children wake and come home after they are asleep, and you tell yourself it is for them.
- You snap at your son over homework, see his face close, and spend the evening replaying it.
- Your teenage daughter barely speaks to you any more, and you do not know how to start a real conversation.
- You feel like the family’s cash machine and taxi service, valued for what you do rather than who you are.
- You sit on the sofa with your phone while the children play, and feel both guilty and unable to put it down.
- You carry money worries, work stress and family logistics in your head, and talk to nobody about any of it.
- You and your partner argue about how to raise the children, and you often end up giving in or going silent.
- You wonder whether your children will remember you as warm and present, or just as busy and tired.
This is probably not for you if…
Fathers struggle in many different ways, and some need a more specific kind of help. Where a line below fits you better, its link leads to the more useful page.
- You have a baby or toddler, and the first years have turned your life upside down. → new fathers therapy
- Your own father, absent, harsh or never satisfied, is what you most want to work on. → father wound therapy
- Your temper has started to frighten your children, your partner or you. → anger management for men
- Exhaustion from work is the real problem, more than fatherhood itself. → burnout in men
- You want help as a parent in general, rather than as a man and a father. → psychotherapy for parents
- The co-parenting relationship with your partner is the problem, and she or he will come too. → couples therapy
- You are separated or divorced, and your time with your children has changed. → divorced fathers therapy
- You are in immediate danger, or you are thinking about ending your life. Please call 112, or 1813 for urgent mental health help in the Capital Region.
You can also send me an email
Client reviews
The reviews shown here are shared by clients who have worked with me in therapy and chosen to reflect on their experience. They are collected via Google and displayed through an independent verification service, offering an open and transparent picture of how my work is experienced.
Mark’s view
“Looking back over my 22 years of practice, the fathers who worry most about being good enough are rarely failing their children. What they are usually failing is themselves. They give everything to work and family and keep nothing back, then wonder why they are irritable, flat or absent at the dinner table. Their children rarely ask for a perfect father. Underneath, a child is asking ‘Do you see me, Dad?’, and the father is asking ‘Can I have one hour where nobody needs anything from me?’ Both questions are fair. My firm view is that a father who takes his own inner life seriously gives his children something no amount of providing can replace.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
Meet Mark, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA, a psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist specialising in expats and international couples. I work in English and Danish, from my practice in central Copenhagen and online.
Practising since 2004, I bring a bicultural perspective to work with individuals and couples across languages and cultural contexts. My work integrates depth-oriented psychotherapy with approaches such as integral psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, Jungian psychoanalysis, and object relations theory. I also have specialist training in attachment theory, narcissism, and borderline personality disorder.
For support with life between cultures, explore expat psychotherapy or expat couples therapy. My practice is supported by ongoing training and supervision. To read more about my background, training, and approach, visit About me.
The importance of supervision
Good therapy begins with good supervision
I regularly meet with experienced senior psychotherapists in Denmark and abroad to reflect on my work, challenge my thinking, and continue developing my skills. This ongoing process supports the quality of my individual and couples therapy, helping me offer thoughtful, ethical, and effective care.
My focus is simple: excellence, integrity, and impact.
Connect with me:
If you want me to call you ASAP, or if you want to book me, use the buttons below.
You are welcome to get in touch. We can clarify what’s the right therapy for you.
You can also send me an email
A typical situation
Omar is 42, born in Copenhagen to Lebanese parents, an IT architect with a 3-year-old and a 9-year-old. He works long hours, coaches his son’s football team on Saturdays and handles the family finances. His wife says he is there but not there. Last month his son said “you are always on your phone, Dad”, and Omar laughed it off, then could not sleep. He feels he is doing everything right and still getting it wrong.
In our first session, I would ask Omar what fatherhood means to him, and what he saw in his own father. He would probably see that he has been fathering through doing, and that what his son is asking for is something he has never quite been given himself: attention without a task attached.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
This is when you need therapy as a father with me
You have worked hard, provided well and given it everything, and still you feel far from your children or from yourself.
There is no right moment or right reason to come. If something feels wrong in how you are as a father, if you are irritable, tired or disconnected, that is enough. Nothing has to blow up at home first. In 22 years of practice, I have sat with many fathers who thought their struggle did not count because nothing dramatic had happened. I know when a hard season has become a pattern that needs attention.
My professional view is that the work starts with you, not with your children’s behaviour. I will help you see what is going on in you as a father, what keeps it in place and what needs to shift. The 6 questions below are the signs in fathers that I take most seriously.
Are you running on empty to keep the family going?
If so, take it seriously. Many fathers live on a treadmill: work, pickups, homework, bedtimes, emails at 23:00. Nobody asks how you are, and you would not know what to say if they did. You are tired in a way sleep does not fix, and your patience is thinner than you want.
I would look with you at how long this has lasted, what you are carrying alone and whether it is a passing season or the way your family has been organised around you. If this is your week, every week, book a session with me.
Do you want to be closer to your children and also want to escape for a while?
Both are real. Part of you longs to be the dad on the floor building Lego. Another part longs for silence, a run, a closed door. You may feel guilty the moment you take time for yourself, and resentful when you do not.
I do not treat either side as wrong. One protects your love for your children, the other your need to stay whole. I help you understand what each one needs, so you can take time openly and come back more present, instead of being half there all the time.
Do you worry that your children love you less than their mother?
Many fathers carry this quietly. The children run to her when they are hurt. They tell her their secrets. You watch from the edge and feel like the second parent, and you try harder or pull back to protect yourself.
That longing to matter to your children is legitimate, and I will not shame it. I help you calm the comparison, find your own way of connecting and ask your partner for room to father in your own style. Children often need something different from each parent.
Do you reach for your child and then lose patience the moment they need you?
This happens to many fathers. You plan a day together, then snap within the hour. You long for your teenager to talk to you, then lecture the moment she or he does. Closeness feels wanted and demanding at once.
I help you slow this down and see what sets off the shift, often feeling helpless, criticised or reminded of your own childhood. I have compassion for these reactions, and I will also hold you responsible for repairing with your child when you have hurt them.
Do you go quiet and withdraw when family life gets loud?
Many fathers do. The noise, the demands and the feelings at home build up, and you retreat into your phone, the garage, the office or a long run. It gives you control. At home it can look like you do not care.
I will not shame your need for quiet. I help you see what the distance protects you from, often a fear of being overwhelmed or of failing, and help you say “I need 15 minutes, then I am with you” before withdrawal becomes absence. My article on the mental load looks at how unseen tasks are shared in families.
Have you lost track of who you are, apart from being a father and a provider?
Fatherhood can swallow a man. Work, family and duty take up every hour, and the man you were, with friends, interests and dreams, fades. You may not miss him consciously. You just feel flat.
I help you look at which parts of your life are yours and which are roles you took on. Sam Keen, in “Fire in the Belly”, writes about men whose sense of themselves is tied to work and achievement, and the journey towards a fuller life with room for feeling, friendship and care. Fatherhood can be part of that journey. I challenge you when you vanish into duty, without telling you who to be.
If you recognised your own family life here, ask for a free call to talk it over, or book a session if you already know you want to begin.
You can also send me an email
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What therapy for fathers with me will help you do
Understanding why fatherhood is hard for you matters, but your children will only notice the change at breakfast and bedtime.
Working with me will help you understand what fatherhood stirs in you, see the patterns that keep repeating and make changes your family can feel. Insight alone rarely changes how you react to a crying child at 7:00. The work has to reach the daily moments.
I take an active role. I say what I notice about you as a father, ask direct questions and push back on explanations that keep you stuck. Since 2010 I have also been a student of men’s work, which adds to and deepens my training as a psychotherapist. One image from it often helps fathers. Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, in “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover”, describe the King as the part of a man that brings order and blesses: he sees others and lets them know they are good. Many fathers have never been blessed that way themselves. These 6 questions describe what we work towards.
How will I help you see what is really making fatherhood so hard?
I help you separate the central problem from the noise. The rows about screens and bedtimes are real, but often they are symptoms. Underneath may be exhaustion, a fear of failing, grief about your own childhood or a belief that your worth lies only in what you provide.
I tell you what I think and question explanations like “that is just how fathers are”. If you want to get to the root of it, book a session with me.
How can you notice your temper or withdrawal before it takes over?
You can learn to catch the early signs. A whining voice, a mess in the hallway or a comment from your partner can set it off: a tight jaw, a hot face, a thought like “nobody listens to me”. Spot that first link and you have a moment to choose differently.
In sessions, we replay one of those mornings slowly and look at what the reaction protects you from. Recognition is not enough, so we practise a different response until you can use it on a chaotic school morning.
How can you stay calm enough when your child is upset or defiant?
Staying calm does not mean suppressing what you feel. It means staying present enough, with your child in front of you, to choose your answer. Some of your frustration is about your child. Some of it is old and belongs to your own past.
I help you notice when your body moves into alarm and find concrete ways to slow down: lowering your voice, crouching to eye level, taking a breath before you answer. You will need to practise between sessions, a little each day.
How can you tell your partner and children what you need without a fight?
Speaking up at home starts with knowing what you feel and need as a father. Many fathers swallow it until it comes out as a sharp remark or a slammed door. Others never say anything and drift away.
I help you find honest, proportionate words for your partner and age-appropriate ones for your children. I challenge you when you silence yourself, and also when you expect the family to guess your mood. We rehearse real conversations, such as asking for a free evening a week.
How can you make big family decisions without guilt or fear in charge?
Decisions about work hours, a job abroad, schools or another child become clearer when you separate guilt, duty and other people’s expectations from what you actually value. If you are raising children far from where you grew up, my article on raising children abroad may help.
I help you lay out the family options side by side and see what each would ask of you. You will get my honest view, including when I think you are putting the decision off. The decision stays yours.
What does it look like to be a father in a way that fits you?
Lasting change reaches beyond the therapy room. It may mean leaving work earlier 2 days a week, a phone-free hour at dinner, a regular one-to-one outing with each child, a friendship with another father where you can be honest, and time for yourself that you take without apology.
I help you sort what to change as a father from what is already good. Your steadiness, your humour and your care are not the problem. The goal is a way of fathering that is recognisably yours.
You can also send me an email
What happens when you begin therapy as a father with me
You do not need a clear problem or the right words. I start with what is happening in your family now.
In the first sessions, I listen for the core of what is hard for you as a father and give the work a direction. You do not need to explain your whole history first.
This is focused psychotherapy, structured individual work on you as a father. It differs from psychotherapy for parents, which looks at parenthood for mothers and fathers alike, because here we look at fatherhood through a man’s life: the provider role, your own father and what you want to pass on. If you and your partner want to work on co-parenting together, couples therapy offers long-term relational development and healing. For a planned course, therapy discounts and bundles give you real savings and an agreed plan.
What happens in our first session as a father?
I ask what brought you here now, what feels hardest about fatherhood, what you have tried and what you want to be different. I listen for when the struggle started and what it reminds you of. Your full family history can unfold later.
Before the hour is up, you will hear my first take on what is happening for you as a father, and a suggested direction, and you decide if that is useful. To talk before booking, request a free 30-minute discovery call.
When is individual therapy the right choice for a father?
Individual work fits when the focus is mainly you: your temper, your exhaustion, your distance, your history with your own father. We can explore your family in depth without anyone else attending.
From one session to the next, I keep hold of the thread and tell you honestly what I notice. Psychotherapy Copenhagen describes my individual work more broadly, if fatherhood has opened wider questions.
When is couples therapy with your children’s other parent the better route?
Choose couples therapy when the relationship between you and your partner needs sustained attention: repeated rows about the children, a sense of being a team in name only, or distance that has grown since the children came. Both of you need to be willing.
As an EFT couples therapist, I help both partners see the cycle between them and build a closer, safer partnership. Couples therapy Copenhagen is long-term relational development and healing. Some fathers do individual sessions first.
How often should you come?
That depends on how hard things are, how much time you have and how much continuity you need. If home feels close to breaking point, sessions close together help. If the pattern is long-standing, a steady rhythm works well.
I recommend starting weekly or every second week. I will tell you honestly if the gaps are too long or when we can slow down. Sessions back-to-back over a few days are possible if your work schedule makes regular sessions hard.
When does a bundle make sense for a father?
A bundle makes sense when you know you want to commit to the work for a few months. Busy fathers often cancel themselves first. A planned course protects your time for the work, the same way you protect time for your children.
For a father, a bundle gives significant savings and the safety of a structured plan in a week that is already full. I will help you decide whether one fits. Compare the options on therapy discounts and bundles and in the cards below.
How will we know when the work as a father is complete?
It has done its job when you feel steadier, closer to your children and more yourself, and when the old reactions no longer run family life. Your partner and children may notice before you do.
We check honestly, as we go, whether the sessions are still giving you something, and I will not stretch them out. Sessions can thin out, pause or stop. Coming back later, when a child reaches a new stage, is part of a father’s life, not a failure.
How it works with me
- Get in touch through a free 30-minute call, or book your first session. Tell me briefly what is hardest about fatherhood right now, so I can check this is the right starting point.
- The first session is a 1-hour appointment with 50 minutes of therapy for you alone, at Møntergade 4 in central Copenhagen or online, in English or Danish. Early and late times between 08:00 and 21:00 Copenhagen time, 7 days a week, can fit around school runs, subject to availability.
- For the first stretch, fathers usually come weekly or every second week, and try at home what we have agreed.
- Every few sessions, we review what has changed and decide whether to keep going, space out, bring in couples therapy or finish.
- If you expect several sessions, a therapy bundle saves you 10 per cent and gives you a clear plan from the start. You can see the bundles just below, or on therapy discounts and bundles.
Save with a prepaid session bundle
How the bundle works
- Current bundle savings are shown on the Pricing page.
- Your bundle is valid for 180 days from the date of purchase.
- The bundle can only be used for the type of session stated on your invoice.
- If you request a refund, sessions already used are recalculated at the standard single-session price.
- The administration fee applied to a bundle refund is shown on the Pricing page.
- VAT follows the type of therapy included in the bundle: VAT-exempt sessions remain VAT exempt, while VAT-liable sessions include applicable VAT.
Compare with nearby options
Not sure this is the right starting point? Here is how it compares with the options fathers most often consider.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Therapy for fathers (this page) | You want help as a man and a father with the pressure and distance in family life. | Weekly 1-hour sessions at first |
| Psychotherapy for parents | You want help with parenthood in general, as a mother or a father. | 1-hour sessions on your own |
| New fathers therapy | You have a baby or toddler and are struggling with the change. | Weekly or every second week |
| Divorced fathers therapy | You are separated and your role as a father has changed. | A steady course of sessions |
Frequently asked questions
What is therapy for fathers with you?
Therapy for fathers is individual psychotherapy for men who are struggling with what fatherhood asks of them: pressure, exhaustion, temper, distance or a feeling of not being good enough. It helps you understand what is happening in you and become steadier and more present. Fathers see me in English or Danish, in central Copenhagen or online.
I work with the whole man: your history, your body, your own father and what you want to pass on. Within my psychotherapy for men, it is the branch for fatherhood.
When should I come to you as a father?
Come when you notice yourself snapping, withdrawing or feeling like a stranger to your children, and it has lasted for months. You do not need to wait for a crisis. Your own sense that something is wrong is enough.
I look at how long it has lasted, whether it is spreading into your relationship and health, and what you have stopped enjoying. Fathers often come late, because they think they should cope. Earlier is easier.
Can you help me stop losing my temper with my children?
Yes, often. Temper in fathers usually sits on top of exhaustion, stress or something old. I cannot promise how fast it changes, but steady work on what lies underneath usually helps more than willpower alone. If your anger ever makes your children or partner unsafe, safety comes first, and anger management for men is the more focused page.
In my clinical experience, many fathers who shout are frightened, not cruel. I would focus with you on what sets the anger off and how to repair with your child afterwards.
My partner thinks I need therapy. Should I come?
If part of you also thinks something is not working, yes. Many fathers come because a partner gave them a push, and that is a fine way to start. We begin with what you want, not with your partner’s list.
I will not take sides or tell you how to be a father. I will help you see what is in your way. If a few sessions in it is not helping, you are free to stop.
Why do I want to be close to my kids and then pull away?
Both moves are ways of feeling safe. Closeness with a child can feel tender and exposing at once, especially if you were not held that way yourself. So you reach for them, then retreat into tasks or a screen. It is not a flaw. It is an old pattern meeting a new situation.
I help you see what happens in you just before you pull back, and what it costs you and your child. Then we work on staying a little longer each time.
What will we talk about in my first session?
We start with your family as it is now: a normal weekday, the hardest moments, what you would like to be different. I also ask about your own father and how you were raised, because that often shapes how a man fathers. You leave with my early view of what is driving the strain.
No homework beforehand. Book a session when your week allows, or start with a free call.
How many sessions will I need?
Plan for a course over a few months, weekly or every second week. Older patterns, especially those tied to your own childhood, usually need longer.
With busy fathers especially, I like to agree a first block of sessions and then step back and look at it together, so the work does not slide. That is when you decide whether to go on.
Should I come in person or online?
Come in person if you can, because an hour away from home and work is part of the value. Online works just as well if childcare, travel or distance make it hard, and the sessions last just as long.
Whichever you choose, the sessions are part of my psychotherapy for men. If you are torn between the 2, we can talk it through on a free call.
What does therapy for fathers cost?
You book individual psychotherapy as 1-hour appointments with 50 minutes of therapy, and you can check the price per session on my prices page. Payment is by invoice and bank transfer.
A bundle of sessions saves 10 per cent and gives you a fixed plan, which you can see on therapy discounts and bundles. Transfer the payment on the same day from a Danish bank and you keep a further 3 per cent.
How do I book therapy for fathers with you?
Book a first session for yourself as a father, or request a free 30-minute discovery call if you would like to talk first. A line about what is hardest is enough.
If no time suits your family schedule, contact me directly and we will look for one. Book now, and we start where you are.
You can also send me an email
My approach and values
My mission
My mission is to help individuals, couples and families rediscover connection, communicate with understanding, and build a stronger, more loving relationship that can thrive through any challenge.
My vision
My vision is to create a world where every person in my therapy room feels supported, connected, and empowered to grow, and to step one step closer to your Self.
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Individual psychotherapy
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