Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy
What is psychotherapy?
The term psychotherapy comes from the Greek and it means treatment of the soul (Kanfer & Schmelzer,
2005). Psychotherapy deals systematically with the patient's thoughts, emotions and behaviors and aimes at solving the patient's psychological problems.
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Therapeutically effective psychotherapy-methods.
In Germany there are four psychotherapy-methods which are recognized as being therapeutically effective. For these four methods the treatment is covered by the government health-insurance as well as by the private health-insurance:
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the behavioral psychotherapy (during the therapy the patient learns to use new toughts, emotions and behaviors which are helping her / him to solve her / his
problems.
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psychodynamic psychotherapy (past relationship experiences and conflict patterns become analyzed and thus the patient receives a better understanding of her /
his problems).
- analytical psychotherapy (patient's unconscious conflicts are uncovered and processed).
- systemic psychotherapiy (deals with interactions and conflicts between family members).
Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy
I was trained in cognitive behavioural psychotherapy at IFKV Bad Dürkheim.
According to Kanfer & Schmelzer (2005) behavioral psychotherapy is the psychotherapy-method which shows the best results for almost all psychological problems and leads in a relatively short time to considerable ameliorations. No other psychotherapy-method can demonstrate a better efficacy.
When does somebody get a psychological disorder?
People get sometimes confronted in their lives with events and situations, which have an overwhelming impact on them. In such situations people don’t have enough resources to cope with these difficulties. While trying to find a way out, people develop certain strategies, beliefs and behaviors, which for the moment represent the best working solution. On the long run however these strategies become more and more harmful, because they are not suitable for coping with new situations.
How does the cognitive behavioral psychotherapy work?
As a behavioral psychotherapist I help you to help yourself - in other word I help you to find your own solutions for the
problems that bother you. I will not act as a substitutional problem solver for you, but rather giving you hints how to independently find your own solutions. During the psychotherapy we
search together for thoughts, beliefs, strategies and behaviors which help you solve your psychological difficulties. In order to learn these new skills we
will use several cognitive-behavioral techniques and exercises. In the behavioral psychotherapy the patient plays an active role in the planing and structuring of the therapy.
We meet once or twice a week and each session is 50 minutes long. Depending on the severity of your problems a psychotherapy can last up to 24 sessions (short-term psychotherapy) or up to 60 sessions (long-term psychotherapy). For the iformation that I get from you during the therapy applies confidentiality and professional secrecy. The therapy is covered by all types of health-insurances.
Switching to another psychotherapist
During the first sessions (four probatory sessions) you can find out without any commitment if you can get along with me. If during this probatory sessions for some reason you feel uncomfortable with my treatment, you can switch any time to another psychotherapist.
Your English speaking psychotherapist in Heidelberg
R. Zank