Psychotherapy is recommended when a person is suffering from complaints that have emotional or mental origins. Mental ill health may reveal itself through mental or physiological symptoms and problems in relationships.

There are a variety of psychotherapeutic methods available. The statutory health insurance carries the costs of the following two, which I might offer:

• analytical psychotherapy (analytische Psychotherapie)
  
• psychodynamic psychotherapy (tiefenpsychologisch fundierte Psychotherapie) 
  

Analytical therapy is located within the tradition of classical psychoanalysis. It assumes that personal life experiences and above all conflictual unconscious ways of dealing with them can cause or serve to perpetuate mental illnesses. Life experien- ces are above all shaped by our relationships with other people, in which the ear- ly years are particularly formative. Once internalised and made unconscious, they influence a person‘s picture of themselves and other people as well as a person‘s fundamental attitude towards themselves and others. As life continues, ingrained patterns of experience and behaviour come into being that unconsciously influence our feelings, thoughts and actions. If these life experiences lead to unconscious conflicts, mental and physical complaints may develop. In analytical psychotherapy, these life experiences, their processing, and their con- sequences for the present and everyday life are at the heart of treatment.

Like analytical psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy assumes that our life is not only shaped by our will but rather that everything that we feel, think and decide also depends on unconscious psychic influences. These factors, which we are not aware of and cannot influence, include, in particular, inner conflicts which determine our later lives, especially if they were already present in our early years. Working psychodynamically I might help you to uncover the unconscious factors behind your mental complaints. At the same time, I support you in better solving your conflicts, thus enabling you to lead a healthier and less burdensome life. The dialogues demand a high level of openness and trust in the psychotherapist. Psychodynamic psychotherapy takes place in one-on-one conversations, generally once or twice a week, or in a group. A course of therapy can take between three months and two years (Bundespsychotheraputenkammer, Pathways to Psychotherapy).