Men's Resource Center

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For over a decade, the Men’s Resource Center, with offices located in Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan, has helped men to find more success, joy and love in their lives.  We offer unique and specialized services for men looking for help in their relationships and in their lives in general. Through direct counseling (individual and group), phone coaching, training, and additional materials, our clients learn to recognize problematic beliefs and behaviors, and adopt tools for change, thereby obtaining greater emotional and relational health. 

The Men’s Resource Center also provides support and information to the professionals who work with men in crisis and to the people within their circle of intimacy (children, partners, parents …). We offer couples’ counseling, online classes, training, consultation, workshops and publications.  We provide services as well to those who educate and parent boys and young men; helping them move past the traditional male socialization process.  We provide online and in person services because it is our goal to create a caring, supportive, strong, and safe community for everyone. We welcome you to this site and hope you find the information and answers you are looking for.

A New World

Historically, western society has been a hierarchical world in which dominance at work and home was a marker of masculine identity. Men were celebrated for their physical bravery, glamorized for their sexual prowess, and rewarded for the ability to win at all costs.  But with the turning of the century comes the turning of the tide. Brave men are learning the art of partnership, surrender, and compromise. They have no need for threats or shouting orders, but come to the table with an open heart and mind.

At the Men's Resource Center we help men discover and explore what it means to become a complete person characterized by respect for others and self through an openness to new ideas, acceptance of differences, pursuit of intimacy, and dedication to personal growth.

There was a time when our world needed men to be armored and cut off from their heart and soul in order to be effective warriors, explorers, and capitalists.  Now, many men recognize that they are living lives of quiet desperation. Women, children, and society as a whole wants more from them and rightfully so. Today, men need to know how to take off the armor in order to explore their feelings - face their pain, joy and grief - while engaging in intimacy with others.

This transformation takes support, encouragement, and yes, vulnerability.  For men to open themselves to their humanity requires bravery - every decision they make, every interaction they have with another person defines to themselves and others what a real man is.

Transformation

The Men's Resource Center is part of a movement that transforms social and psychological structures of power based on hierarchy and fear into expressions of power based on human connection and respect. Our unique continuum of services forwards this important mission:

• Specialized Counseling Programs for men who have relationship problems, a mid-life crisis, struggle with pornography addiction, or domestic abuse
• Retreats and Online Classes to help men with anger management, personal growth, relationship problems, and sexual addiction
• Phone coaching for men to avoid domestic abuse, recover from sexual addiction, overcome substance abuse, get help for a mid-life crisis, and resolve relationship problems
•  Consultation and training for therapists, teachers, clergy and other professionals on topics such as raising boys in the new millennium and anti-bullying initiatives in schools
• Transformational Body Work to help connect with emotions and heal from trauma
• Publications for men and the professionals who work with them

Our book, Stop Hurting the Woman You Love: Breaking the Cycle of Abusive Behavior, was recently published by Hazelden. While there are many books for women who have been abused and some texts for treatment professionals, Stop Hurting is the first book to address abusive men themselves in an inviting but confrontational way. Our book lays out a step-by-step plan to help men avoid or stop abusing their partners. We believe it will become an important tool in the international effort to end domestic violence.