Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis

Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a treatment approach grounded in psychoanalysis. Sessions usually take place once a week, with both therapist and patient seated. At the outset, we identify the main area that treatment will address. This may include persistent inner distress, recurring difficulties in relating to yourself or others, or problems that show up in different areas of life.

The work involves recognising and working on the associated emotional responses and recurring patterns of thinking and relating. We consider how these developed in the course of your life, as well as their significance for how you currently behave, make decisions, relate to others and cope with stress in everyday life.

Compared with psychoanalysis, psychodynamic psychotherapy is more limited in its treatment aims and the themes it addresses. The aim is to bring about change in one or more specific areas, rather than to work on the personality as a whole. The scope of treatment is broader than the clearly defined focus of short-term psychotherapy and may encompass several interconnected themes.

Psychoanalysis is generally a longer-term form of treatment and usually involves several sessions a week. Within Germany’s statutory health insurance system, this approach is provided in a regulated form under the German designation Analytische Psychotherapie (“analytical psychotherapy”). Under the Psychotherapy Directive (Psychotherapie-Richtlinie), it takes place within an approved, limited number of sessions. Psychoanalysis can be more open-ended: its ending is generally not determined at the outset, but emerges over the course of treatment and is discussed together as the work progresses.

Sessions may take place seated or lying down. Compared with psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychoanalysis engages more fully with the personality as a whole. The focus is on recurring patterns of experiencing and relating, as well as how you relate to yourself. Over the course of treatment, there is scope to become increasingly aware of the associated feelings and inner experiences. This can help you to understand their meaning and connections with your life history, and to work through them emotionally. Aspects of yourself that have previously remained largely outside awareness or been difficult to access can thus be more readily accepted and gradually integrated into your personality. More frequent sessions provide a continuous framework for this work.

Psychoanalysis may be considered when difficulties are long-standing, affect many areas of life or are pronounced. The aim is not only to relieve symptoms, but also to support deeper personality development. The intention is that entrenched patterns of experiencing and relating can be better understood and gradually changed. As a result, new ways of relating to your own feelings, to yourself and to other people can develop.

Short-term psychotherapy is a time-limited treatment. Sessions usually take place once a week, with both therapist and patient seated. At the outset, we formulate a clearly defined treatment focus together. This establishes which symptoms or difficulties will be central to the work within the limited time available. The treatment focus guides the work on current symptoms.

Short-term psychotherapy may be considered, for example, in the case of current distress, a life crisis, a transition or a recurring difficulty in a particular area of life. It requires that a sufficiently clear focus and a realistic treatment goal can be formulated for the limited time available. The distress does not have to be minor; what matters is that the therapeutic work can be meaningfully focused on a specific area.

Counselling is for people who wish to clarify personal or professional questions, where the treatment of a mental health condition is not the central concern. Sessions take place seated and are arranged according to individual needs. Counselling can take the form of a single appointment or a limited series of sessions, at shorter or longer intervals.

Counselling may address decisions, changes in working life, transitions in personal life or difficulties in relationships and in working with others. The focus is on clarifying the issue together, reflecting on habitual ways of responding and acting, developing new perspectives and reaching sound decisions. It may be appropriate for a clearly defined personal or professional concern that does not require psychotherapeutic treatment for a mental health condition. It is offered on a self-funded basis.