Mid Life Crisis

Many men reach a point in their lives when the old way of living simply doesn’t seem to fit anymore. Jobs are no longer satisfying. The relationship you’re in seems more negative than positive. The desire to escape and to re-capture one’s youth is strong.

Many clichés exist about this point in life, but few realise that a “Mid-life crisis” is nothing unusual at all. While it challenges men to ask many deep and searching questions, it is a very normal transformative period. Welcome to the journey of transformation into mature manhood.

Maturity matris

Maturing men
This journey of transformation is fraught with danger. Men at this stage in life take huge risks with relationships, jobs and their own health. But the journey of transformation, if carefully navigated, can instead result in a deeper more fulfilling relationship with your partner, greater satisfaction from work, the respect of your peers, son’s and daughters, and a renewed zest for life.

Mature men stand apart from their immature counterparts. Mature men take responsibility for themselves and their actions. They are naturally paternal and nurturing to their partners, children and others in their care. They respect themselves and those around them. They listen to and use their emotions to inform wise choices and carefully chosen words. They are creative at work, at home and in bed. Such men have a passion for life that is infectious.

Symptoms
The famous psychotherapist Carl Jung suggested that men typically enter this transformative time in their mid-30’s, but it can happen at any time from your 20’s and into your 60’s and beyond. Indeed, some men never arrive at this place. It might seem odd to consider a grown man as lacking “maturity” - after all, the body is fully grown, a career might well be established, and you’re probably a husband and a father. However, while the body is fully grown, the emotional self is not.

It’s often accompanied by:
  • Anger and irritability
  • Desperate feelings of hopelessness, low moods or depression
  • Low sex drive, and possibly failure to achieve full erections
  • Lethargy, fatigue, lifelessness
  • Poor sleep, strong dreams
  • Weight gain and lack of exercise
  • Risk taking in relationships, in the car, or at work

Kent Counselling for Men is experienced at working through this exciting but dangerous life-phase.


For men. By men.