Atelier Virtus Mentis was founded on the conviction that men’s mental health needs more attention.
For years men were taught above all self-reliance, responsibility, action and control over their emotions. Being able to cope is a strength. The problem begins when it turns into the belief that whatever happens, you have to manage on your own.
Not every man will easily say: „I need help”.
Sometimes it is easier to say that you’re sleeping badly. That you’re tired, increasingly irritable, that nothing gives you pleasure. That things aren’t working in your relationship or at work. That there is anger, tension, trouble concentrating, alcohol, withdrawal, or a sense that life has stopped looking the way it should.
Sometimes a person can’t even say what exactly is wrong.
He only knows that the way he has been coping has stopped being enough.
That is exactly when it is worth talking.
Not only once a crisis arrives.
Behind the statistics on men’s mental health stand specific people — partners, fathers, sons, brothers, friends.
Suicide data shows the most dramatic end of a longer process.
It does not show all the men who live for months or years with depression, anxiety, loneliness, chronic stress, burnout or a sense of lost meaning and do not seek professional help.
According to a 2025 report by the National Institute of Public Health PZH, 16.2% of the men surveyed in Poland reported depressive symptoms of moderate or high severity.
NIZP-PZH also draws attention to the exceptional weight of suicide in men’s premature mortality. In 2023, suicide accounted for more potential years of life lost among men than lung cancer, stroke or heart attack.
This shows that men’s mental health is not a marginal problem.
The WHO points to an apparent paradox: men seek help for mental health problems less often than women, and at the same time die by suicide far more often.
Among the most significant barriers to seeking help, the WHO Health Evidence Network identifies:
On top of this comes the stigma around mental health problems. The WHO notes that shame and taboo around mental health and suicide can mean that some people in crisis do not look for help and do not receive it.
This does not mean that men do not want to talk.
Research reviewed by the WHO also shows something very important: men are able to speak about their vulnerability and seek help when they are in an environment, and among people, they trust.
So what matters is not only whether help exists.
What also matters is what the place where it is offered looks like, how it is talked about, and whether a person feels he can walk in without the sense that he has just admitted defeat.
Stopping. Understanding the situation. Regaining influence. Making a conscious decision about what comes next.
Or when everything looks fine from the outside and inwardly it really isn’t.
That is enough.
Atelier Virtus Mentis is meant to be a place you can come to before a problem becomes a crisis.
A place for conversation without judgement, without moralising, and without the expectation that you should already know how to cope.
Atelier Virtus Mentis was created primarily with men in mind, not because their problems are more important.
But because they so often go unspoken.
Men, like women, experience anxiety, depression, loneliness, crises in relationships, overload, loss, problems with self-worth and a loss of meaning.
They do not always talk about them in the same way, though.
And they do not always look for help as quickly.
So for many years a man can function, work, support a family, make decisions and give the impression of someone who is coping well.
And at the same time he may not be coping at all.
He might say:
Or he’ll say nothing at all.
Mental health problems don’t always look like sadness and tears. They can hide behind irritability, anger, withdrawal, overwork, alcohol, risky behaviour, sleep problems or gradually cutting yourself off from others.
That is why the first task is sometimes not even solving the problem.
First it has to be seen and named.
The WHO notes that effective help should take account of the needs of different groups of men and the barriers that make using support harder for them.
That is why we want to create a place where you don’t have to fit a stereotypical idea of therapy.
What you can do instead is look together at what is happening now, why the old solutions have stopped working, and what can be done next.
Concretely.
Without judgement.
At a pace that allows trust to build.
There is one more belief we want to dispel.
Using psychological help does not mean that a person failed to cope.
It can mean that he no longer wants to leave important things to chance.
A man who consults a specialist about a problem is not handing anyone control over his life.
He still makes his own decisions.
A psychologist can help him see the situation more clearly, understand his own reactions, notice patterns he hadn’t seen before, and find other possible ways forward.
What he does with that understanding remains his decision.
Men’s mental health is a particular focus of Atelier Virtus Mentis and an important part of our mission.
That does not mean closing the door to women.
Psychological help remains available to women, couples and anyone whose difficulty concerns a relationship with an important man in their life.
Specialisation means direction and particular attention — not exclusion.