Psychotherapy
If you are interested in getting psychotherapy, you can sign up for it by calling us. Contact details and more information on registration can be found here.
Is psychotherapy the right treatment for me?
Psychotherapy helps people who suffer from a mental disorder. These include:
- Depression (e.g. severe dejection, lack of drive, constant circling of thoughts and concentration problems).
- Anxiety disorders (e.g. panic attacks, fear of exams, fear of embarrassing oneself or suffering from a serious illness)
- Persistent complaints after drastic life events (e.g. severe diagnosis, death of a close relative)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g. compulsive washing or checking, obsessive thoughts e.g. recurrent, intrusive thoughts of having accidentally hurt someone)
- Trauma related disorders (e.g. uncontrollable, real memories of a traumatic experience)
- Somatoform disorders such as physical complaints with an unclear cause or chronic pain.
- Eating disorders (e.g. binge eating or fear of gaining weight)
- Sleep disorders (e.g. difficulty falling asleep, sleeping through the night or early morning awakenings)
- Personality disorders (e.g. deep interpersonal problems)
- Bipolar disorders (severe mood swings or self-harming behaviour with strong euphoria or irritability)
- Aftercare for addictive disorders (e.g. alcohol or drug dependence)
- Aftercare for psychotic illnesses (e.g. hearing voices that no one else hears)
As we only offer outpatient therapies, we cannot treat patients with an acute suicide risk. You can find emergency contacts here
What is psychotherapy?
Psychological symptoms and disorders can cause a severe impairment of well-being and quality of life. If there is psychological strain or if important areas of life are affected, such as social life or work, psychotherapeutic treatment is recommended. Here, mental disorders are treated using scientifically recognised procedures and methods. Causative factors are investigated and the associated symptoms are relieved, reduced or a better way of dealing with them is worked out. An important basis for the treatment is a trusting therapeutic relationship between patient and therapist. Based on this, a targeted examination of the patient's own experience, behaviour and relationship experiences takes place. This is done through therapeutic conversation and, depending on the psychotherapy method, through different methods, techniques and focuses.
We offer behavioural therapy and depth psychology-based treatments (see below). Both methods, along with systemic therapy and analytical psychotherapy, are recognised as benefits by the statutory health insurance. Outpatient psychotherapy can take place as individual therapy, in groups or in a combination of both. Individual treatments at our outpatient clinic usually take the form of weekly sessions lasting 50 minutes.
Which kinds of psychotherapy are offered at the outpatient clinic?
Behaviour therapy
Behaviour therapy is based on the assumption that human behaviour is learned and can therefore also be relearned or modified. The term "behaviour" includes not only outwardly visible behaviour, but also thoughts or attitudes, feelings or physiological processes. In therapy, we first work out together which aspects of the personal life history or the current life situation have contributed to the development of the complaints. Factors that promote, trigger and maintain the symptoms are examined and therapy goals and a treatment plan are developed. The therapeutic interventions tailored to these goals focus on the symptoms as well as possible causes of the problem. The therapy is a learning and transformation process in which new, more helpful ways of behaving and thinking are elaborated, practised and transferred into everyday life. This takes place in the sessions themselves, as well as in the time between sessions through the implementation of agreed homework by the patient. In behaviour therapy, the work is resource-oriented - existing abilities and competences of the patients are actively used for the process of change. The aim is to "help people to help themselves", so that difficult situations can be better managed in the future, symptoms can be prevented or a better way of dealing with them can be achieved. An important basis of therapy is a good and trusting working relationship between patient and therapist. Behavioural therapy is characterised by a transparent approach.
The effectiveness of behaviour therapy has now been scientifically proven for almost all mental disorders in a large number of studies. Behavioural therapy is based on current research and is constantly evolving.
Depth psychologically based psychotherapy
Depth psychology-based psychotherapy has developed from psychoanalysis. Firstly, the focus of treatment is on current conflicts in relationships and unresolved relationship experiences or conflicts from earlier phases of life, which influence later life and can result in mental disorders. Here, the unconscious plays a central role. Therapy aims to understand how unconscious motivations and conflicts influence one's own behaviour and experience. The aim of treatment is to heal or alleviate symptoms by giving the patient insights into the connections and causes of the current symptoms and thus enabling him/her to achieve changes in experience or behaviour. The therapeutic relationship itself will always play a significant role, because here, new and positive relationship experiences can be made in a safe framework, which also contributes to an improvement of the symptoms. Another focus of depth psychology-based treatment can be on so-called structural or developmental disorders. These include fundamental difficulties in regulating one's own feelings or communicating well with others, which may lead to self-injurious behaviour, for example. The patient and therapist then work together to understand these difficulties and to improve the reduced structural abilities (e.g. to cope with feelings) or to find a way of dealing with them.
In contrast to psychoanalysis, psychotherapy based on depth psychology is limited in time. Therefore, the treatment focuses on the most important issues and conflicts that are burdening the patient. Unlike classical psychoanalysis, the patient does not lie on the couch in depth psychology-based psychotherapy, but sits in front of the therapist. Numerous controlled studies prove the effectiveness of depth psychology-based psychotherapy for a wide range of disorders, ranging from depression and anxiety disorders to somatoform and personality disorders.