Why Body Psychotherapy

As humans we are cognitive beings, and yet we experience our world primarily through our body. Not only do our sensory organs continuously tell us what they observe; we often also have a direct “gut feeling”, we feel how our stand is or we sense if something is getting too close. In addition to all its other tasks, our body also always acts as a bridge: a bridge to experiencing, to our next impulse, to expression and to learning something new.

Just when our thoughts are going around in circles, or we thought about it all and thus feel like we are stuck, our body can show us new ways and open the gates. The work with the body often is also more immediate than staying purely on the verbal and cognitive level in psychotherapy.

In the course of the process we can learn to experience more fully, feel more connected to our body, feel more secure and trust our body again, to draw from its wisdom and strength again and thereby become whole again.

Daniel Holbach

Who I am

Daniel Holbach, born 1979, in Berlin since 2005. Important to me, apart from my own personal process, were my travels to India, the Middle East and South America, my yoga practice and many different ways of self-exploration.

Professionally I started out as a software engineer, from there I quickly turned to processes and concerns of teams and projects - especially working with volunteers in Open Source communities. I do know the fast-paced working life quite well. In my sabbatical 2017 I became Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie.

As you can easily see from my own development, I firmly believe in second chances in life. I believe our inner wisdom shows us the way and that we can learn more and more to trust our vitality and our bodies.

Why did I become a therapist and why is this work a matter so close to my heart?

For years I was deeply unhappy myself, I lived relationships in ever-repeating loops I did not comprehend. In my core I felt wrong, foreign or insecure a lot of the time. I experienced hollow bleakness and did not see opportunities for change. I thought more than I felt and did not understand urgent impulses of my body. It required crisis on multiple levels and the encouragement of people close to me, for me to finally embark on this voyage. It has led me ever closer to myself and to becoming the person I actually am.

In the midst of my own process I realised how much the work had already changed and inspired me. In 2016 I decided to become a therapist myself and support people on their personal path.

How I work

Often we lose connection to vital parts of our self or repress early experiences, because the pain and confusion were just too much for us to bear at the time. Getting to know these parts again and slowly befriending them, can make us whole as a human being; with this a deeper and more fulfilling life is possible.

For me, this is central to the work:

  • getting to know and using vital and lively resources for coping and change
  • discovering and bringing to life our natural wishes, ideas and plans
  • maturing with the challenges of life

Body Psychotherapy has a lively and very rich tradition and gives us a multitude of possibilities to work directly with breath, grounding, centering, stabilisation, posture and interaction. Through e.g. perception exercises, expression and movement work, massages, stagings and creative processes out of experience and body memory we can create a field for direct, perceptible, holistic and lively experiences in dealing with ourselves and others.

Qualification

To me, healing must be seen holistically - it takes place on different levels: for example the body, our cognition, in the spiritual dimension, our psyche or in our relationships. What is beneficial to us and proves to be a resource is highly personal and different for all of us. My own healing journey illustrated this to me and I continue to explore the field. Psychotherapeutically I’m in continuous training, primarily in the trauma and body psychotherapy fields.

Year Activity / Training
2022-2024 3 year training: Somatic Experiencing BAPt e.V.: Anne Janzen (Berlin)
2023 Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma Janina Fisher, PhD (online)
Shame and Guilt Somatic Experiencing (SE) Deutschland e.V.: Heike Gattnar (Bad Boll)
Melting the Couple Armour - Intro Gabriel Shiraz (online)
2018-2021 4 year training; Body-oriented Psychotherapy Institut für Körperpsychotherapie Dr. Manfred Thielen, Ebba Boyesen, Anna Willach-Holzapfel, Prof. Dr. Ulfried Geuter, Stephan Hamblin-Trué, Stefan Ide (Berlin)
2021 Somatic Experiencing - Introduction BAPt e.V.: Marinka Gattnar (Greifswald)
2020 Trauma and sexuality Akademie für integrative Traumatherapie: Dr. med. Melanie Büttner and Karin Paschinger (online)
Healing the fragmented self fortschritte Hamburg: Janina Fisher, PhD (online)
Points & Positions - Basic massage Matthias Wenke (Bonn)
2019 Somatic Ego-State Therapy® Basis Institut für NeuroTracking: Maggie Phillips PhD (München)
Pain Training Program for Professionals Maggie Phillips, PhD, et al (online)
Healing Sexual Trauma Diane Poole Heller, PhD and Peter Levine, PhD (online)
Start practice
2017 Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie Arche Medica (Berlin)

Memberships

Therapy - who can benefit and how

I offer therapy for people who

  • are at a turning point in their life or in the middle of a crisis
  • feel resigned, burdened or without joy
  • deal with anxiety
  • are confronted with contact problems, interpersonal conflicts, break-ups
  • are on the verge of bursting with anger, but stay polite and well-behaved
  • want to feel more connected and alive
  • feel like rediscovering themselves and try out new ways
  • need a space to clarify current problems in peace
  • wish a deeper, more satisfying life for themselves
  • want more fulfilling relationships with others
  • want to develop good self-esteem

People of all ages, genders, sexual identities and origins are welcome here.

The sessions happen in individual setting and take around 50 minutes. In-person appointments are currently possible on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Therapy in English or German.

As candidate member of DGK/EABP and student member of Somatic Experiencing (SE) Deutschland e.V. I am in regular supervision and intervision.

Session type Fee
First consultation Free of Charge
50 minute session 80€
80 minute session 120€

Sliding scale, depending on your income situation.

Please get in touch for any questions I didn't answer yet on this page.

If you are interested, please contact me (find the information at the bottom end of the website) and we set up a first appointment. Here we can find out what you would like to work on and we get a first impression of each other.