Mackenzie Friend Herne Bay

Herne Bay has a particular kind of pressure, an older economy, tight finances, a lot of fathers carrying childhood stuff of their own. When separation hits and the court process begins, the cost can be brutal, financially and in terms of contact with children. Many fathers represent themselves not by choice but because they've run out of road with solicitors' fees.

Family court matters from Herne Bay are typically heard at Canterbury Combined Court Centre. A short drive, but for a man already trying to hold his life together, anything that reduces friction matters.

• Court preparation

  Working through what each hearing is actually for, what the judge is likely to want to hear, and how to walk in steady rather than dysregulated.

• Document organisation

  Pulling years of messages, emails, school reports and contact records into a calm, indexed bundle the court can actually use.

• Preparing your statement

  Helping you write a position statement or witness statement in your own words, focused on facts and the child's welfare, not on grievance.

• Attendance at hearings

  With the court's permission, sitting beside you in the hearing, taking notes, and quietly prompting so you can speak for yourself with less panic.

• Emotional support between hearings

  Trauma-informed coaching support for the stress, grief and fear most fathers carry in this process. This is the part of the work that keeps a man functioning while the case rolls on.

• Community Supported Space

  A lower-cost option for fathers who could not otherwise access this kind of help, run as part of MendCoaching's wider work with men in East Kent.

Local support means we can sit together with your bundle in person, walk to the train, and you don't have to explain Kent geography to someone working from another county. It also means I'm in the same world you are, in terms of what life around here actually costs.