About us: Mental Health Club For collective mental health.
When more people understand the mind, fewer people are left on their own. That is why we teach the core skills of therapy to people whose work involves meeting others and who want to do it better.
Why Mental Health Club exists.
- Observation
Most helping happens outside the therapy room.
Psychotherapist Ville Merinen saw the same thing in his practice and on social media, where he has 300,000 followers: people want to understand the mind in everyday language. Nurses, teachers, managers and parents meet people under strain every day without the tools to help them.
- Turning point
The core skills of therapy can be taught in a year.
Ville and Jukka Erätuli decided to teach these skills online, on Sundays, with no qualification in health or social care required and no upfront fee. Jukka is a former professional snowboarder and a therapist trained in Ihminen tavattavissa, a four-year Finnish therapist training. We call it a Club because other people’s thoughts and experiences teach you what you cannot learn by reading on your own.
- Our answer
Empathic Realism.
Our teaching is integrative. We combine several therapeutic traditions, our lead trainers work from a psychodynamic orientation, and we add Empathic Realism, an approach we developed ourselves for meeting another person. There is a book about Empathic Realism (in Finnish).
- Today
Training, a community and a directory.
The Mental Health Coach year, the MHC Brief Therapist year, the community and a therapist directory. Taught by five psychotherapists. The first Brief Therapist year starts in January 2027. The programmes are currently taught in Finnish: live sessions, recordings and peer groups.
What we believe.
- We believe no one gets better on their own.
- We believe safety and connection come first, and then the truth, told with compassion.
- We believe an understanding of the mind belongs in homes and workplaces as well as in clinics.
- We believe advice is the quickest way to abandon someone.
- We believe a small step is better than a big insight.
- We believe other people’s thoughts show us what we cannot see alone.
Empathic Realism.
Empathy gives truth a heart. Realism gives it a backbone.
A hundred years ago, Freud defended lay analysis: he argued that understanding the mind is not reserved for doctors. Mental Health Club continues in the same spirit and brings mental health skills to the places where people live their lives.
Acceptance first
People explore themselves only when they are not afraid of being judged.
There is always more beneath the surface
Behaviour is a message. Most often it says: “I need something, and I don’t know how to ask.”
Everyone has their own inner leanings
Feeling and thinking, action and reflection, values and experience. Our leanings shift with the day and with pressure, so we do not label anyone.
The past lives on in the present
Many habits that look like personality traits are solutions to situations that are already over.
Responsibility is freedom
Relief comes after you start moving. The right step is small enough that you will be sure to take it.
Mental health is a shared concern
No one falls apart or gets better on their own. Loneliness and burnout arise within communities.
What we are not.
MHC programmes do not qualify you as a psychotherapist in Finland. We do not treat illnesses, and we do not promise that your life will change. In one year, together with the right people, you learn to help others and to recognise when to refer them on to other help.
The people behind the day-to-day work.
Ville Merinen, known as Terapeutti-Ville
Psychodynamic psychotherapist and Member of the Finnish Parliament, known online as Terapeutti-Ville (Therapist Ville). He is responsible for the training content and teaches the way he works in therapy: unhurried, and without avoiding difficult subjects.
info@mentalhealthclub.fi
Jukka Erätuli
Ihminen tavattavissa therapist, PCM practitioner and former professional snowboarder. He is responsible for systems and for training for organisations, and he makes sure that good ideas become training that works.
jukka@mentalhealthclub.fi+358 50 585 9309
Roosa Tähtinen
Social psychologist. She makes sure the community is a good and safe place to be, and she guides members to the right support. You can contact her about anything to do with the community.
roosa@mentalhealthclub.fi- followers across our channels
- 300,000+
- students in our programmes
- 90+
- evening lessons a year
- 44
Taught by psychotherapists.
Behind every evening lesson is a psychotherapist who does the same work in their own practice. You can also browse our therapist directory (profiles in Finnish).
Designed the programme content and is responsible for its quality. Also trains companies. More than 300,000 people follow his mental health content on Instagram and TikTok (in Finnish).
A psychotherapist with long experience who helps students put the core skills of therapy into practice and practise them safely. Also trains companies.
Teaches evening lessons, runs training for organisations and has her own private practice. Profile in the therapist directory (in Finnish).
Teaches evening lessons, runs training for organisations and has her own private practice. Profile in the therapist directory (in Finnish).
Teaches evening lessons, runs training for organisations and has her own private practice. Profile in the therapist directory (in Finnish).
You become the person others feel safe being themselves with.
The Mental Health Coach year: €129/month (incl. 25.5% VAT), paid month by month. Currently taught in Finnish.