AS INDIVIDUAL AS YOU ARE

Depression is an affective disorder that can manifest itself in low mood, persistent negative thoughts, feeling low and lacking in drive, as well as in loss of appetite and sleeplessness, through to actual pain. In addition to very frequent individual therapy (with up to five individual sessions per week), we focus on a standard multimodal treatment concept that combines elements of gestalt art therapy, physiotherapy, sociotherapy and pharmacotherapy.

Burn-out describes a state of being emotionally and physically ‘spent’, as the result of sustained stress and overload. Patients suffer from lack of energy and fatigue, accompanied by depression. Our treatment focuses on the factors that trigger stress for the individual. The therapy includes compiling a list of priorities, and working on drawing on personal resources to increase the patient’s resilience.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that occurs following one or more stressful events on an extraordinary or catastrophic scale (mental trauma). The individual may have experienced the threatening situation themselves, or simply observed other people in such a situation, for example by witnessing a serious accident or an act of violence.

Our treatment approach is based on the tried and tested EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) method of post-processing the distressing memory. It involves the patient watching the therapist’s fingers as he moves his hand alternately to the right and left. The brain uses this stimulation to activate the person’s own powers of self-healing, and so process the distressing memory.

During an acute crisis, people lose their inner equilibrium when confronted with situations or life circumstances which they are unable to cope with at that time. The mind and emotions become distorted, and thoughts go around in a circle. Our crisis intervention treatment uses short but intensive psychotherapy to discuss and work through current conflicts, and the direct triggers of crisis as quickly as possible. At the same time, we work on tackling the problem to achieve acute relief.

A personality disorder is a deeply rooted pattern of behaviour that manifests itself in fixed reactions to a variety of situations, and has a massive negative impact on the sufferer’s quality of life. The most common forms are borderline, antisocial, narcissistic, schizotypical, avoidant, dependency and compulsive personality disorders. We first work with our patients to develop realistic therapy goals. We then use intervention techniques from behavioural therapy and depth psychology to establish motives for current patterns of behaviour that are difficult or detrimental to the patient, so that we can gradually change this behaviour for the long term.

It is not unusual to see a link between cardiovascular disease and psychological complaints such as depression and anxiety disorders. Our interdisciplinary treatment team therefore develops an integrated treatment plan that comprises both aspects: in addition to intensive inpatient psychotherapy, we support our patients with consultant cardiologist expertise as well as cardiology diagnostics and monitoring throughout their stay.

Behind eating disorders such as binge eating or bulimia, frequently resulting in obesity, are often dysfunctional regulation mechanisms, meaning that difficulties in dealing with emotions are compensated for in eating behaviour. We work with our patients to establish the reasons behind this misregulation, and support and them in developing and practising alternative functional mechanisms to regulate food intake.

Somatoform disorders are long-term physical complaints for which there is no clear medical cause. These disorders often lead to pain in various parts of the body (e.g. back, stomach, head or joints), as well as dizziness, digestive problems and heart and breathing difficulties.

These physical complaints often represent unresolved psychological conflicts. Using dedicated techniques to explore the patient’s life history, we help them to recognise how a lack of coping strategies may express itself in physical complaints, working on the key fundamental that our perception, mind and body form an interrelated unit (= psychosomatic medicine).

Nightmares wake us up even when we are exhausted. People who experience regular nightmares may develop a fear of falling asleep. We teach our patients how to control their dream patterns so that they can enjoy a restful night’s sleep again. During our nightmares therapy, we first improve general sleep hygiene, and concentrate on relaxation and imagination techniques. The second stage is to work on the content of dreams using Imagery Rehearsal Therapy.

Surfing, chatting, gaming: the internet has become an unavoidable part of our everyday lives. On average, we are spending more hours online every day, and the crossover to internet addiction is often fluid. Unlike other addictions, avoiding online media is very difficult, so the treatment aims to teach patients how to use the internet responsibly, while at the same time building on their social skills in the real world.

Please note: it is important for close relatives to also be involved in the therapy if it is to be a success.

Panic attacks are defined as individual, suddenly occurring physical and psychological alarm responses that generally last for just a few minutes, and have no recognisable external trigger. The person having the attack is often not aware that that their symptoms are the expression of a panic reaction. The body’s primal vegetative responses, which serve to produce energy (and so ensure survival) are perceived to be (life) threatening, which only increases the feeling of panic. Our therapy therefore focuses in part on learning strategies to calm yourself down. We also use exposure techniques where patients consciously confront situations that induce anxiety in order to reduce the most dominant symptoms of fear for the long term.

Brooding is an accompanying symptom of many psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. In our therapy, we teach attention management and relaxation techniques to help patients to break through their spiral of thoughts. Methods such as Expressive Writing, where stressful experiences are put down on paper, support the deeper emotional processing of thoughts.