Finding Counselling Centres

In all German states, there are specialised counselling centres that offer advice and support for victims of violence. Many counselling centres focus on issues such as sexualised violence, domestic violence, forced marriage, or violence against migrant women.

The services offered by counselling centres are for free and can, upon request, be consulted anonymously. The counsellors are obliged to maintain confidentiality.

Who do the counselling centres address?

The counselling centres address women, and partly also girls, who have been affected by or threatened with physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence by their partners, in their relationships and families, in everyday life or at the workplace, or in other societal contexts. Some centres provide counselling for boys and men affected by violence as well. The counselling centres are also open to relatives of the affected women and girls and to professional supporters. Intervention centres offer counselling and assistance for women affected by violence after the police has been called in because of domestic violence.

What are the counselling centres concerned with?

The counselling centres aim at supporting women affected by violence in coping with violent experiences, improving the protection against further violence, empowering women to claim their rights, and raising public awareness for the fight against women-specific violence.  

The counselling centres employ trained counsellors, mostly social pedagogues with additional training, but also psychologists and therapists.


OTHER COUNSELLING CENTRES

Further addresses of women's counselling centres can be found on the following websites, among others:

Bundesverband Frauenberatungsstellen Frauennotrufe e.V. bff (www.frauen-gegen-gewalt.de)

KOK - Bundesweiter Koordinierungskreis gegen Menschenhandel e.V. (www.kok-gegen-menschenhandel.de)

arbeitsgemeinschaft gegen internationale sexuelle und rassistische ausbeutung, Website von agisra e.V: www.agisra.de

Bundesvereinigung trans* (www.bv-trans.de)

Deutsches Netzwerk zur Überwindung weiblicher Genitalverstümmelung (www.netzwerk-integra.de)

Further advisory services are also listed on a topic-specific basis in the FHK theme portal (currently only available in German).

 

The websites of the FHK member associations provide information on a wide range of other advisory services:

Arbeiterwohlfahrt Bundesverband e.V. (www.awo.org)

Deutscher Caritasverband e.V. (www.caritasverband.de)

Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Gesamtverband e.V. (www.der-paritaetische.de)

Diakonisches Werk der EKD e.V. www.evangelische–beratung.info und www.diakonie.de,

Sozialdienst katholischer Frauen Gesamtverein e.V. (www.skf-zentrale.de/)