Psychiatry & Psychotherapy

In the conventional healthcare system, there are two approaches to mental health problems: the purely medical-psychiatric approach and the psychotherapeutic approach. The latter is reserved for psychiatrists and psychologists. The term “psychotherapist” is protected.

Psychiatry

A psychiatrist (from the ancient Greek iatros = physician and psyche = soul) is a physician who has specialized in mental illnesses after his medical studies. Unlike a psychologist, a psychiatrist is trained to examine the body, prescribe medication, admit patients, and perform special procedures. His diagnosis is based on clinical examination (interview, symptoms, appearance). A psychologist will more often use psychological tests. A psychiatrist may diagnose a physical cause of a mental disorder. General practitioners provide some psychiatric care, too (especially medication).

Biological psychiatry

Definition: In the last decades, a biological approach to mental disorders has gained ground. Like any other organ, the interplay of neurotransmitters and hormones affects the brain, indeed. Psychotropic drugs (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics, sleeping pills, etc.) are in many case the first option to treat various mental problems (e.g., depression, psychosis, anxiety, etc.) They can help to treat emotional pain and keep patients from the psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, these medications can have side effects and only work as long as they are taken. In addition, some problems do not respond well to medication, such as psychological trauma.

Integrative Psychiatry

Definition: A field that combines conventional psychiatric practices with complementary and alternative approaches to address mental health.

More and more patients have become interested in gentle alternatives to conventional medicine. Although scientific studies are sometimes lacking, many people with anxiety, depression, or sleep disorders report good results using homeopathy, acupuncture, energy medicine (EFT, kinesiology), and massage. Neurofeedback is possibly an alternative to Ritalin for ADD and ADHD patients. Brief Therapy techniques such as EMDR (Eyes Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming), EMI (Eyes Movement Integration), or OEI (One Eye Integration), which release blockages without the need for much talking. They can promote neuronal communication between different brain parts, leading to healing.

Psychotherapy

The ancient Greeks had already discovered that you could heal a person through words through language. However, psychotherapy did not develop until the second half of the 19th century. Hypnotists were the first great psychotherapists. Freud in Vienna also learned hypnosis, which he did not like to practice because he then created his method. Thanks to him, psychotherapy became respectable.

Today, three main approaches to psychotherapy are officially taught:

  1. Psychodynamic approach (e.g., psychoanalysis): There are different forces (ancient Greek dynamis = power) in human beings that can conflict with each other. What is unconscious must become conscious.

  2. Systemic therapy: The human being is part of a system (e.g., family) that must be considered whole. Change in the system is achieved through targeted verbal input.

  3. Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy: Behaviors or beliefs can be changed without dealing with them emotionally. Therapy is learning new things.

There are, of course, many other approaches that could be described. Two approaches are of great importance in my work:

  • Energetic approach (kinesiology and EFT)

  • Hypnosis and Imagination Therapy (including NLP)

  • Psychotraumatherapy. This field includes various techniques and approaches such as psychodynamic therapy, behavioral and cognitive therapy, hypnosis, energetic medicine, etc.

On the following pages, you will find a description of some methods I regularly use in my practice.

In conclusion:

My work is based on three pillars: conventional psychiatry, psychotherapy, and alternative psychiatry (with a focus on energetic psychology).