Ana Große Halbuer

Psychotherapy

Seeking psychotherapeutic support has become somewhat easier in recent years and, thankfully, is spoken about more openly. And yet the reasons that first bring someone to therapy are often connected to painful or difficult experiences, or to a longing for change that comes with its own uncertainty.

If any of this resonates, I want you to know: change is possible, and healing is possible — even when it does not yet feel that way.

Psychotherapeutic work can support you in developing trust, a sense of safety and genuine freedom of choice in your own experience and in how you act in the world.

In my practice, we work together on what truly matters to you: on what feels stuck and on what is longing to shift. Together we deepen your access to your inner experience, your personal resources and values, and to a more compassionate relationship with yourself. My therapeutic approach is grounded in the conviction that you are the expert on your own life. I understand my role to support you in rediscovering your own choices and possibilities so that you can live in a way that feels genuinely yours.

Because every therapeutic process and every relationship is unique, I work in a way that is oriented towards your needs – leaving room for you to shape your own path. We define therapeutic goals and personal intentions for change right at the beginning of our work together. Unconditional positive regard, empathy, transparency and authenticity are the foundation of everything I offer. Drawing on Gestalt therapy and trauma therapy, I work from a process-oriented psychotherapeutic approach — supported by evidence-based methods and body-oriented psychotherapeutic practices.

The overarching aim of process-oriented work is that you find your own access to your own answers, your choices, and your capacity to act. When you can recognise and trust these differences in your own experience, you will likely begin to have more conscious influence over unconscious, unexamined patterns in feeling, thinking and behaviour. Past experiences can be more fully processed, and limiting beliefs dissolved and reshaped.

We do not always manage to create the changes we long for through insight alone. Often it takes a crisis a rupture, a significant loss or shift to bring us to a pause, and to the wish for something different. And that is profoundly human. You do not have to push through anything. Pain, anger and grief are allowed to be met, honoured and integrated so that they can become part of your story, rather than something that drives it.

In a crisis, fears can arise that feel massive, overwhelming, even threatening. Behind these, there are often traumatic experiences or the fear of the new, of a life not yet lived. Suffering in the present is not only the residue of past experiences and decisions. It can also be a meaningful signal pointing towards what is wanting to unfold, towards the life you are longing to live. Often, this becomes possible when we first acknowledge what has been hard, and what is hard right now – honouring it – before things are allowed to become lighter.

Therapeutic approach

In our work together, I support you with a resource- and competence-oriented approach in the spirit of process-oriented psychotherapy and Gestalt therapy. I believe that every person is their own expert, and carries within them the strength and capacity for a life that feels good and true.

We come into this world fundamentally whole and everything we brought with us as children in terms of our humanity is still here: Curiosity and a spirit of exploration. The search for connection and the capacity for relationship. The desire to create, to express ourselves, to belong. Joy, openness, trust, hope and enthusiasm: for life, for ourselves, for one another. These innate possibilities – present in us from birth – can be recognised, valued and cultivated at any point in life, regardless of what has been. Through attention, practice and dedication, they can be uncovered and developed as your own.

 

 

Individual therapy

At the beginning of therapy, following our first conversation, we agree on a timeframe that fits your needs and the goals we set together. Sessions typically take place weekly or fortnightly. My practice is a private, self-pay practice.

Couples therapy

Trauma-informed and process-oriented therapy

When a relationship is marked by tension, conflict or a loss of closeness and trust, outside support can sometimes be what makes change possible. Couples therapy can be a powerful space for using a crisis as an opportunity for personal and shared growth. This development sometimes requires us to work through unresolved life themes and early attachment wounds, to break through entrenched communication patterns, and to find new ways towards a living, vital connection.

Growing personally and together in crisis

Relationship crises are always also an opportunity for personal and shared development. The experiences we have in our closest relationships often illuminate our own unmet needs, unresolved themes and developmental tasks. Traumatic experiences from early relationships can interrupt our connection to ourselves and to others. Old shame and self-blame can work against the closeness and connection we long for. A couples process requires a willingness to do one’s own inner work in order to move towards the love and connection we truly want.

My approach

In couples and family therapy, I accompany people in relationships from a foundation of attachment and developmental trauma towards new ways of being in living, personal closeness: in communication, sexuality and the shaping of relationship. I have specialised in trauma-sensitive crisis intervention for couples and families, and have found that a framework of around six sessions works well. I see couples together and also individually around couples themes. A longer, process-oriented approach beyond this is also possible, depending on your needs. What makes most sense for you is something we discuss personally.

I also extend my therapeutic offering to families in challenging times. Patchwork and rainbow families, as well as families navigating the wish for a child, pregnancy loss and grief, are warmly welcome.

Therapy together can open many possibilities

I am glad to accompany you if you want to explore how to:

• develop new solutions to old, entrenched difficulties
• break through recurring communication patterns and cycles of hurt
• improve your communication and learn to understand each other again
• find healthy ways of being together within your family or patchwork family
• work with closeness and boundaries in the context of attachment trauma
• experience intimacy, closeness and sexuality more freely and with more aliveness
• create a healthier balance of giving and receiving
• live both togetherness and independence, closeness and space
• recognise and shift entrenched relational patterns
• identify and resolve your own unresolved life themes
• enjoy being together and make genuine room for your differences
• navigate the transitions of life — around the wish for a child, birth and loss, illness, separation and the reshaping of your relationship

You can find further information on this topic under KNOWLEDGE including my blog.