My understanding of psychotherapy

What does it take for real and sustainable change

Often, we only seek professional help when the warning signs become clearer or the symptoms are already severe. To a certain point, this is also understandable and comprehensible.

There is still a certain stigma attached to psychotherapy for some. It may not be easy to admit that we currently need help. In addition, especially at the beginning, we don't even know who can really help us, who we can really openly confide in and where we want to invest our valuable time and sometimes also financial resources. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to face our issues and maybe we really only do it out of necessity because we realize that things can't go on like this and that we have to change something. These are all understandable reasons that sometimes make us hesitate.

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At some point, however, many come to the point where they realize that things cannot go on like this and that something really has to/may change. And so it is often precisely our challenges, difficulties and symptoms that send us on this journey.

This willingness and openness is the first step and this is exactly how a crisis can become an opportunity. There is often great opportunity in rethinking our own patterns, getting rid of things that are no longer good for us, expanding our comfort zone or, in some cases, closing them altogether. All of this offers us the opportunity to change and become more and more who we really are.

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This path takes courage . He needs the willingness to get involved in this process and to start the journey into the unknown. , to get involved and to analyze, reconsider and, if necessary, change your own thought and behavior patterns more precisely. It takes openness to communicate honestly and as uncensored as possible, and openness to open yourself to new inputs and possibilities. And it takes the will to overcome obstacles and take concrete steps.

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Trust and honesty are needed for a successful therapeutic process and for a common basis. Only on this basis is an open exploration of the topics possible. In this process we are invited both to face our shadows and to develop an ever greater self-acceptance as well as to (re)discover, live and celebrate our beauty and uniqueness.

In addition, a healthy balance must be found between patience and self-acceptance and the willingness to face challenges and to leave the comfort zone again and again, both internally and externally. Neither of these two poles leads to real growth without the other.

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At the beginning of therapy, it is extremely important to define a goal for the journey or collaboration. This serves as the "North Star" in this process and it is always possible to evaluate what brings us closer to this goal and what keeps us from it.

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Basically, the therapeutic process aims to achieve health, stability and abundance. All of this always begins where we have the greatest opportunity for change: within ourselves. 

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Psychotherapy has the very basic goal of alleviating suffering and expanding strengths and thus enabling health, happiness and abundance. With the help of certain methods and tools, but especially through the relationship between the client and the therapist, it is possible for the client to experience himself in a new way, to gain new knowledge and insights.

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In my work, I aim to get to the root of the issue. The roots lie in our experiences, impressions and memories, which are then reflected in our thinking, feeling and belief patterns. This is exactly where they can be edited, changed or corrected.

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At the same time, I am convinced that real change has to happen on different levels. A healthy psyche can only be at home in a healthy body. Only those who create suitable living conditions that are healthy for him/her and maintain healthy relationships can flourish. It takes sustained, healthy lifestyles to maintain health and stability over the long term.

This is a brief overview of my understanding of psychotherapeutic work.

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Important methods of my work are:

- Awareness: we can't change anything we don't understand, and everything we understand is already halfway resolved.

- active self-care: it is about putting together individual tools that work for a person in order to practice successful self-care. Self-care is a key requirement for health and growth

- Working with the inner child: For me, working with the inner child is one of the central tools in dealing with emotions. Many of our imprints and experiences live on in us and have a central influence on our emotional experience. The inner child can hold ingrained feelings of sadness, neglect, or being unseen, but is also the source of deep joy, aliveness, and creativity.

- Inclusion of the body: Change does not only happen on a psychological level and certainly not only on an intellectual level. The experience in the body and the changes that take place in the body during the therapy are always in focus

- Working with ego states: ego states involve different "inner parts", different "voices" (e.g. pros and cons or "desire for freedom, desire for security" etc.). These can support each other or sabotage each other, which can be a reason why some things keep failing, although we actually want this or that so much.

- specific tools and methods: body work, logosynthesis, gestalt work (with the chairs), inner team building, regression work, EFT tapping technique, visualizations, imagination work, trauma therapeutic elements (EMDR, recall-change, etc.), psychoeducation in general, etc.