WELCOME
Psychotherapy / Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Velbert

Although I haven't translated the pages of this site, I do offer psychotherapy in English.

This started in 2013, when I worked at a (now defunct) group practice in downtown Düsseldorf. Quite a few English speaking expats contacted us back then. Even though they often had a good level of German for everyday or work situations, they usually felt more comfortable speaking English when talking about feelings, more intimate thoughts or conflicts. I'm not a native English speaker myself (my name is a giveaway, isn't it?), but I did study in Ireland, married a woman from Michigan, USA, and we have bilingual daughters. Somehow, I ended up doing therapy in English a lot.

This continued when I moved to a private practice in Essen, and 2019 to my current practice.

My practice is located in Velbert, a town with good road and rail connections to Essen / Ruhr area and Wuppertal. It's also easy to reach from Düsseldorf. I offer Cognitive Behavior Therapy for a range of issues, including anxiety disorders, depression, burnout, PTSD, substance abuse / relapse prevention and obsessivecompulsive disorders.

The cost of treatment is covered by statutory health insurance funds (Gesetzliche Krankenkassen).

Most private health insurance plans cover psychotherapy, too. Due to high demand for psychotherapy and a limited number of practices in the statutory health care system, there are usually long waiting lists for therapy. However, an initial consultation can usually be scheduled at short notice. This so-called „Psychotherapie-Sprechstunde“ is a 50 minute session centered around your current complaints. At the end of this session, you usually receive a diagnosis and recommendation for treatment.

If you are not familiar with psychotherapy, or with the German health care system, or with how psychotherapy works within German healthcare, you might find this link useful:

Paths to Psychotherapy – published by the federal chamber of psychotherapists in Germany

https://www.bptk.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019-
09_bptk_patientenbroschuere_englisch_web.pdf

If you would like to get in touch with me, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or call me on the phone.

Please understand that during therapy sessions, my telephone is mute, and you'll have to leave me a message. Or call me during my telephone hours, every Tuesday and Thursday between 2pm and 3pm.