Private practice in Berlin-Pankow CBT for depression and burnout, in English

Depression looks different from person to person. Some people feel sad and empty, others mainly exhausted, irritable or numb. Perhaps some of this sounds familiar:

Many people go through phases like this. Depression is diagnosed when several typical symptoms occur together, such as low mood, loss of pleasure or lack of energy, nearly every day for at least two weeks. Around 16 to 20 in 100 people develop it at some point in their lives.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, please take them seriously. You can get help around the clock: see In an acute crisis. In therapy, you can talk about these thoughts openly with me.

Burnout is not a medical diagnosis in its own right. In the ICD-11 classification, the World Health Organization describes it as an occupational phenomenon (QD85), caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Typical signs are exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism towards your job, and a sense of achieving less.

Even so, these symptoms deserve to be taken seriously. Long-term overload can raise the risk of depression, and sometimes it is already present behind what feels like burnout. Strain often shows in your sleep and your body too: you struggle to fall asleep, wake too early and think of work straight away, or you get headaches, back pain or stomach trouble.

Bullying at work (Mobbing in German) also takes its toll over time. If you are repeatedly belittled, sidelined or humiliated, you may start to question your own worth. Therapy focuses on how you can regain your footing and protect yourself. Legal advice or mediation in the workplace is not part of what I offer.

Sometimes it is not ongoing pressure but a single event: a break-up, a bereavement, a job loss. How long something like this lingers varies a great deal, and grief often takes time. If you are barely coping right now, I can offer a short-notice appointment where my schedule allows.

In the first appointment we clarify whether the strain you are under is clinically significant. This also affects whether your private insurer or Beihilfe will reimburse the cost. If you mainly want to cope with stress and there is no illness, coaching may be the better fit.

As a licensed psychological psychotherapist, I work with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This approach starts from the idea that thoughts, feelings and actions are closely linked, and it is well researched for depression. I follow the national clinical guideline on depression (Nationale VersorgungsLeitlinie Unipolare Depression), the professional standard in Germany.

The right treatment depends above all on how severe the depression is. The 2022 German national guideline distinguishes three degrees of severity:

Doctors prescribe antidepressants, and I provide the psychotherapy. Physical activity can help too, and the guideline recommends it. What counts is regularity, not performance. If you have health concerns, check with your doctor first.

A session lasts 50 minutes and usually costs €151.55. I bill under the official German fee schedule for psychotherapists (GOP); the fee is exempt from VAT and may vary depending on the work involved.

Mine is a private practice for privately insured patients, people entitled to Beihilfe (the medical allowance for civil servants) and self-paying patients. You receive an invoice from me. Whether and how much your private health insurer or Beihilfe reimburses depends on your policy and the rules that apply to you. It is worth asking them before you start whether therapy needs approval in advance. If you have statutory health insurance (gesetzliche Krankenversicherung), you will usually pay for the sessions yourself.

How long therapy takes depends on how severe the difficulties are and what you want to achieve. We discuss this at the start and check in along the way on where you stand.