kAleiDoscope – Anja Dittmeier, M.A.
Health Practitioner for Psychotherapy

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

(Carl Gustav Jung)

My psychotherapeutic services are aimed at all people who want to address burdening problems, situations or topics in a sustainable and holistic way.
This service is especially aimed at people with intercultural backgrounds and experiences.
Please contact me for your initial anamnesis session.

Topics I can support you with:

General psychological concerns and problems of conducting life
Anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma
Emotional commotion, helplessness, conflicts
Personality disorders, issues of behavior and personality development
Relationship problems
Migration and integration issues of expatriates, global nomads (TCK / ATCK), refugees and displaced persons

Why attachment-based and culturally sensitive psychotherapy is important

Individual attachment experiences, how and where we grew up, how we became who we are – all these collective memories design a kind of “autopilot” or “default program” by which we go through life. They determine the way in which we perceive, judge, evaluate and react to things and situations. In short: Attachment experiences determine our behavior. This is especially important in unfamiliar and challenging life circumstances.

Starting a new life in an unfamiliar place, like in another country or, whether out of a hunger for adventure, for professional reasons, for a better future or because of flight and displacement, is challenging and is usually accompanied by feelings of loss, sadness, fear, loneliness or even helplessness, shock and general worry.

Thus, in order to be ready to (re)build a new and fulfilled life, a therapeutic view of the complexity of the individual attachment-history and previous cultural experiences is particularly helpful.

Taking all of this into account, a relationship-based and culturally sensitive approach is of outmost importance to me. I therefore tailor my treatments to the very individual backgrounds of my clients.

Not only, but especially living in Berlin, we are surrounded by different cultural experiences on a daily basis: Whether we run into a Bavarian who has moved to Prussia, whether we work together with international colleagues, whether a great Irish woman wants to build her life together with a wonderful Chilean woman, whether a Mexican opens a café in Köpenick or a Syrian family tries to gain a foothold here. All of them will “suddenly” meet the experiences of the others with their own.

After all, what is most often overlook in interpersonal and intercultural interaction is what Harville Hendrix (founder of Imago Relationship Therapy) explained: “What is difficult in relationships is – the other one isn’t me!”. I would like to sharpen this awareness.

Integrative therapeutic approach

When people make burdening or traumatic experiences, the accompanying memories and emotions are stored in the human body. Therefore, the application of holistic and body-oriented methods is an important part of my therapeutic treatment.

I use methods like Brainspotting and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), as well as elements of systemic and behavioral therapy. To facilitate the coping-process, the so-called CRM (Comprehensive Resource Model) can also be integrated. Furthermore, techniques of resource activation and affect regulation are practiced to support self-efficacy, coping with everyday life and improve connectivity. These techniques include meditation, breathing and mindfulness exercises, tapping, visualization as well as imagination exercises.

What is EMDR, Brainspotting & CRM?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) uses the rapid eye movements of the REM sleep phase in the waking state for the therapeutic processing in order to reprocess memory elements of the trauma within a secure setting. So-to-speak, scattered pieces of the puzzle are put together to form an image which can then be processed so that the psychological wound can heal. This method was discovered by Dr. Francine Shapiro (Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California). She suspected a connection between eye movements, straining thoughts and emotions. This assumption, made in 1987, has since become a scientifically recognized method. (Further information can be found here)

The trauma processing method of Brainspotting has developed EMDR further along. In 2003, the EMDR therapist David Grand, PhD, established a connection between the localized viewpoints of clients and trauma processing. This means that the trauma-processing integration process can be carried out on the basis of a certain spotting point the client’s eye is looking at. Since 2011, Brainspotting is also scientifically recognized. (Further information can be found here)

The Comprehensive Resource Model® (CRM) is also a trauma processing method and was developed by Lisa Schwarz, M.Ed., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CRM is a neurobiologically based and affect focused treatment model that facilitates the processing of traumatic experiences. For this process, the client’s intrapersonal resources are consciously activated and used for the trauma process. Thereby certain aspects of the mid- and brainstem are addressed, which can lead to a very profound trauma processing. Here too, localized eye viewpoints are used. Unconscious parts, problems, topics but also physical symptoms can be recognized and better understood. (Further information can be found here)

These procedures belong to the body psychotherapeutic methods and can be used complementarily. In the end, they also lead to better recognition of oneself and to learning to treat oneself and others with more love.

Privat Psychotherapy

A psychotherapeutic process takes usually longer than a coaching process. Also, the reasons for starting a psychotherapy or trauma therapy are usually different from the reasons for starting a coaching process. Therefore, I charge different prices for psychotherapeutic or trauma therapy treatments as compared to coaching sessions.

I have a license to practice psychotherapy in accordance with the German Health Practitioner Statue (HPG). This service is not covered by the statutory health insurance companies. As a result, therapy clients can either receive a coverage by a supplementary insurance for alternative practitioners (they would have to check in with their insurance company, to make sure that such a service is included in their plan) or pay for the treatment themselves. For this reason, my prices for psychotherapy and trauma therapy vary within a certain range according to one’s personal self-assessment. I have decided on a price range according to someone’s financial self-assessment, as it is an important professional and social concern of mine that as many people as possible can receive affordable help.

In general, as a private client you have the advantage that no reports or claims will have to be submitted to the statutory health insurance company, which is otherwise usually necessary. This means that the fact that you are receiving psychotherapy is your private matter and not on record. Furthermore, independent therapists have the possibility to use a greater variety of therapeutic methods for the benefit of their clients and are not bound to the restrictions of the therapeutic methods which are covered by health insurance.

Socially-Conscious Price Range

Private clients pay between 60€ and 85€ for 60 minutes of psychotherapy depending on their own financial situation.

Please let me know before we start working together (during the anamnesis interview) what amount you are planning on paying, given your individual situation. You can schedule your anamnesis interview here. Your Investment for the 2 hour (approx.) anamnesis session is 70€.

There are special conditions for people with very low income (e.g. ALG I or II; proof required), trainees, high school or college students (e.g. those receiving BaFöG or financing their studies without parental help). Please contact me.

Refugees will be granted free psychotherapy. Please contact me.

kAleiDoscope – Anja Dittmeier, M.A. Health Practitioner for Psychotherapy