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METHODS - IN MORE DETAIL

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Different personalities with different issues might need different approaches to successfully tackle their problems. No technique is better

than any other, yet in a given situation one might be considerably more appropriate and effective than another.

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In my work as a psychotherapist in NYC, I use a number of different approaches sometimes in a 'chemically pure' fashion, but mostly in complex and integrated ways.

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​Explorative (analytic-/psychodynamic-/Jungian-) psychotherapy

Analytically oriented psychotherapies are mainly rooted in the theories of S. Freud and of the psychoanalytical schools that evolved from his ideas. However, in contrast to the popular image of "the couch", it is nearly impossible to find a psychotherapist today who works that way. In today's parlance, analytically oriented psychotherapies are mainly distinguished by their focus on the deeper layers of the personality - hence the term "exploration" -, and by aiming for a rather profound change of a person's personality, thinking patterns, and emotional functioning. These therapies tend, therefore, to take longer, and draw on a large number of theoretical approaches and therapeutic techniques.

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Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Often, we don't need to change profoundly to overcome our difficulties. Sometimes it is well enough to get to our own resources. Or to improve our communication style. Or to clarify an issue, understand the nature of a problem, and change. Other times we need more

than that, yet have no time or emotional resources to commit ourselves to a longer process of positive change. At such times the proficient handling of a few psychotherapeutic techniques by a professional therapist can help us get to the core of our issues with unexpected speed and clarity.

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Hypnotherapy, hypno-analysis

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

CBT - as its name suggests - has its roots in behavior therapy and in cognitive psychology research. However, as most therapeutic disciplines, CBT has undergone a long and profound process of evolution and has, by now, integrated a number of theories and techniques from various other schools of psychotherapy. By today, CBT aims to gain an awareness and control of our thought processes, bodily sensations, emotional and behavioral automatisms in order to free ourselves from our mistaken identification with them. This way we learn to establish a relationship to - as opposed to being identified with - our own cognitive and emotional reaction patterns and automatic functionings. By learning to pay mindful attention to our here-and-now processes, we can learn to handle our negative, maladaptive, self-sabotaging patterns, and gain a new freedom of choice.

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Couples counseling, sex therapy

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Systemic Family Constellations (Hellinger-therapy)

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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

Eye Movement Desinsitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a relatively new psychotherapeutic technique developed by Francine Shapiro.

It is based on the idea that severe traumas and unresolved inner conflicts may overwhelm our normal coping mechanisms and neurological processes. If traumatic experiences and associated stimuli are processed inadequately, they might get stored in isolated memory networks which, in turn, might result in disturbed cognitive, emotional, and neurological functioning. EMDR therapy aims to re-process stressful or traumatic memories, to interrupt the automatic functioning of certain neurological circuits by using specific eye movements while recalling certain memories, and thereby releiving post-traumatic stress.

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IFS (Internal Family Systems)

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic model that focuses on understanding and healing the various parts or subpersonalities within an individual's psyche. It views the mind as a system of different internal "parts" that may have conflicting beliefs, emotions, or roles. IFS helps individuals develop self-awareness and cultivate a compassionate relationship with their internal parts, fostering integration, harmony, and healing.

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NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the US in the 1970s. They based their therapeutic technique on observing and modeling what some exceptional therapists were doing. So, they observed a few charismatic persons - Milton Erickson (hypnotherapy), Fritz Perls (Gestalt-therapy), and Virginia Satir (family therapy) -, identified a few basic principles, and worked out a number of formalized techniques to treat various psychological conditions.

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Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) was developed my Gary Craig and is based on similar principles. It is using easy-to-learn formalized procedures to process various different emotions, thoughts, associations, and memories. EFT aims to re-process negative memories and emotions, and to interrupt the automatic functioning of certain neurological circuits by using targeted linguistic formulas and by stimulating certain acupuncture points of the body while recalling certain memories.

  

Relaxation, imagery, meditation

Relaxation ... imagination ... meditation - this is usually the simplest path we follow when we turn our attention to ourselves and, going still further, aim to reach deeper down into our unconscious, and higher up into our transpersonal and spiritual Self. Whereas relaxation is a

hallway to deeper trance-states, to self-hypnosis, to meditation, to altered and higher states of consciousness, imagery is the language our unconscious and transpersonal mind speaks. S. Freud infamously said: dreams are the royal road to the unconscious. Relaxation, meditation, and symbolic imagery are nothing but conscious dreaming where it becomes possible to consciously interact with our own 'dreams' and to remember all the messages they speak to us.

 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness as a psychotherapeutic technique has its roots in cognitive behavior therapy, in Eastern - mainly Buddhist - meditation techniques, but also in transpersonal psychology, humantistic psychology, hypnotherapy, and a number of other disciplines. By intentionally paying attention to and non-judgementally accepting our thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, we can release the bond that keeps us identified with - and determined by - them. Mindfulness practice, therefore, provides one of the fastest ways of getting a handle on our fears, anxieties, phobias, compulsions, negative moods and affects, and other maladaptive or self-sabotaging patterns. Mindfulness practice is also one of the safest and most expedient paths of feeling our way into non-religion-bound spirituality.

 

Breath- and body-mind techniques, Autogenic Training

Right after S. Freud had conceptualized the unconscious as a source of a number of physical and mental ailments, his first disciples and colleagues went on to establish that all our experiences, all our neuroses, all our fears, denials, repressions, basically all our unconscious precessess are built into our bodies, into our breathing patterns, into our muscular armour, into our neuro-hormonal regulation as well. Therefore they thought that no psychological liberation could be achieved without liberating our bodies. Most relaxational techniques help

us direct our attention to our muscles, to our breathing patterns, to the deeper layers of our physiological functioning, and most of them

also lead us on to deeper, altered states of consciousness.

 

Autogenic Training is probably the best, easiest, yet most comprehensive way of learning to focus on our bodies, on the emotional memories stored in the body, on our breathing patterns, and on deeper levels of consciousness. AT is also one of the best hallways to meditation, to mindfulness, to self-hypnosis, and to the control over our bodily functions or symptoms.

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Music-, movement- and arts therapies

The basic assumption of most psychotherapies is that the client has already tried everything within their reach to solve their problems, and only failed to do so because the reasons for their problems lie outside their conscious awareness. Therefore, from the very beginnings of psychotherapeutic thought, practitioners have tried to steer away from conscious reasoning and used all available techniques to talk to and tap into the client's unconscious: dream analysis, free association, hypnosis, relaxation, painting and drawing, body movement, breathing techniques, symbolic expression, music, etc. Indeed, creative-artistic activities are by their very nature mainly fuelled by unconscious processes, by emotions, by sensory and bodily influences, and constitute therefore not only a highly pleasurable but also a most effective way - another "royal road" - to explore and express our deeper Selves.

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Neuropsychological rehabilitation

Usually, neuropsychological rehabilitation is not regarded as a form of psychotherapy because it mostly deals with organic damages to

the brain through accidents, strokes, brain surgery, neuro-degenerative illnesses, etc. However, changes to the brain effect our thoughts

and emotions in most profound ways, and clients need a lot of professional help to create new ways of coping with the mental and physical changes they experience. Neuropsychological rehabilitation is based on a thorouh diagnosis of what physical, neurologic, mental and emotional functions are effected, and is to a large extent a re-educational approach to help clients regain their formal skills and abilities, and/or to adjust to the changes that cannot be undone.

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Coaching

Coaching has different goals than therapy. Coaching is usually of much shorter duration and has very clearly defined goals, themes, or

targets. Coaching is usually goal-oriented and practical, aims at measurable outcomes, focuses on results and achievements, mobilizes resources, and is concerned with overcoming problems, resistance, self-sabotage, and denial, rather than asking about emotions and unconscious motives. Coaching takes defined goals as givens and looks to achieve them within the shortest possible time frame.

Typical forms of coaching: individual and group/team coaching, corporate/organizational coaching, workshops, trainings etc.