Hypnotherapy for Depression in Berlin and Online

On this page you will find infor­ma­ti­on on how and under what cir­cum­s­tances hyp­no­sis for depres­si­on works and can help. And on the con­di­ti­ons and the bene­fits of hyp­no­the­ra­peu­tic tre­at­ment for peo­p­le suf­fe­ring from depres­si­on at my prac­ti­ce in Ber­lin-Mit­te or online.

• How does hyp­no­the­ra­py work for depression
• When do we speak of being „depres­sed“
• Hyp­no­sis and Lee­la The­ra­py as help for depression
• Reports from my cli­ents after hyp­no­the­ra­py for depression
• Your per­so­nal hyp­no­the­ra­py for depression
• Arran­ge a no-obli­ga­ti­on consultation

How does hypnotherapy work for depression

In the cour­se of the­ra­py it beco­mes clear again and again that the sym­ptoms and com­plaints of depres­si­on were once a useful „stra­tegy“ in the past, lear­ned in order to bear cer­tain hard-to-tole­ra­te expe­ri­en­ces or emo­ti­ons such as fear, shame, anger, pain or humi­lia­ti­on more easi­ly – or not to have to feel them at all. Depres­si­on then „sett­les“ over the­se like a blan­ket and acted as a form of dam­pe­ning. Uncon­scious­ly, a per­son remem­bers such stra­te­gies very well and stores them so that they are available at any time wit­hout delay – just as we remem­ber uncon­scious­ly and auto­ma­ti­cal­ly not to touch the hot sto­ve again once we bur­ned our­sel­ves on it as children.

In the case of depres­si­on, howe­ver, what is stored here is a harmful, suf­fe­ring-pro­du­cing beha­viou­ral pat­tern that is cal­led up invol­un­t­a­ri­ly again and again.

Tre­at­ments and the­ra­pies for depres­si­on in which the cau­ses are not unders­tood and work­ed through can the­r­e­fo­re be limi­t­ed in their effect. Many cli­ents who were pre­vious­ly trea­ted with medi­ca­ti­on alo­ne report, for exam­p­le, that they did not expe­ri­ence the suc­cess of this the­ra­py as lasting.

Hyp­no­the­ra­py, by con­trast, rea­ches pre­cis­e­ly into that uncon­scious and invol­un­t­a­ry area whe­re the­se mecha­nisms of „no lon­ger being able to feel“ have taken hold.

In addi­ti­on, trance sta­tes can have a heal­ing effect on the body and the ner­ves. Many cli­ents report that the par­ti­cu­lar deep rela­xa­ti­on alo­ne has led to an impro­ve­ment in their well­be­ing. In the sta­te of trance the­re is often access to one’s own „buried“ posi­ti­ve resour­ces of moti­va­ti­on, joy in life and self-heal­ing power.

Hyp­no­the­ra­py can dis­sol­ve emo­tio­nal bar­riers very quick­ly in depres­si­on. The natu­ral flow of emo­ti­ons rege­ne­ra­tes, wher­eby old and limi­ting men­tal struc­tures and emo­tio­nal pat­terns normalise.

It is won­derful to obser­ve how quick­ly hyp­no­sis has a posi­ti­ve effect on cli­ents with depression.

When do we speak of being „depressed“

Pha­ses of frus­tra­ti­on, low spi­rits or sad­ness are a nor­mal part of life. But when the­se sta­tes beco­me ent­ren­ched bey­ond a healt­hy degree, or per­sist see­mingly wit­hout any con­cre­te reason, then we can speak of depression.

Depres­si­on is a com­mon ill­ness that has a nega­ti­ve effect on how we feel, how we think and how we act. For­t­u­na­te­ly, it is treatable.

Sad­ness and/​or a lack of dri­ve can per­ma­nent­ly „take up resi­dence“. Depres­si­ve sta­tes can lead to a varie­ty of emo­tio­nal and phy­si­cal pro­blems and limit our abili­ty to func­tion at work and at home.

The lost sources of hap­pi­ness and ful­film­ent that every per­son car­ri­es within must be reco­ver­ed. The­se sources are usual­ly blo­cked by our habits of thought and sub­con­scious mecha­nisms. Through hyp­no­sis this access can be re-estab­lished and self-heal­ing can begin.

The sym­ptoms of depres­si­on can vary from mild to seve­re and can also include the following:

• A fee­ling of meaninglessness
• Chan­ges in appe­ti­te — weight loss or gain unre­la­ted to dieting
• Pro­blems slee­ping or slee­ping too much
• Loss of ener­gy or increased fatigue
• An increase in pur­po­se­l­ess phy­si­cal acti­vi­ty (e.g. an ina­bi­li­ty to sit still, pacing, wrin­ging the hands) or slo­wed move­ments or speech (one indi­ca­ti­on being that the­se actions can be obser­ved by others)
• Fee­ling wort­hl­ess or guilty
• Dif­fi­cul­ty thin­king, con­cen­t­ra­ting or making decisions
• Thoughts of death or suicide
  
  

Depres­si­on is dif­fe­rent from sad­ness, grief or bereavement.

The death of a loved one, the loss of a job or the end of a rela­ti­onship are expe­ri­en­ces that are hard for a per­son to bear. It is nor­mal for grief or sor­row to ari­se in respon­se to such situa­tions. Someone who expe­ri­en­ces a loss may often descri­be them­sel­ves as „depres­sed“.

But being sad is not the same as having depres­si­on. The grie­ving pro­cess is natu­ral and indi­vi­du­al to each per­son and shows some of the same fea­tures as depres­si­on. Both grief and depres­si­on can invol­ve inten­se sad­ness and with­dra­wal from usu­al acti­vi­ties. They dif­fer, howe­ver, in important respects:

• In grief, pain­ful fee­lings come in waves, often mixed with posi­ti­ve memo­ries of the per­son who has died. In seve­re depres­si­on the­se posi­ti­ve, joyful ele­ments and gene­ral inte­rest are great­ly diminished.
• In grief, self-esteem is usual­ly pre­ser­ved. In seve­re depres­si­on, fee­lings of wort­hl­ess­ness and self-hat­red are common.
• In grief, thoughts of death may ari­se when thin­king of the decea­sed loved one or fan­ta­sis­ing about „joi­ning“ them. In seve­re depres­si­on, thoughts focus on ending one’s life becau­se one feels wort­hl­ess or unwor­t­hy of life, or is unable to cope with the pain of the depression.
• Grief and depres­si­on can exist side by side. For some peo­p­le the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, being the vic­tim of a phy­si­cal assault or expe­ri­en­cing a major dis­as­ter can lead to depres­si­on. When grief and depres­si­on occur tog­e­ther, the grief is more seve­re and lasts lon­ger than grief wit­hout depression.
  
  

Pos­si­ble orga­nic cau­ses should be ruled out through medi­cal assess­ment. Hyp­no­the­ra­py for depres­si­on can under cer­tain cir­cum­s­tances also take place along­side medi­cal tre­at­ment and be helpful.

Hypnosis and Leela Therapy help.

Hyp­no­sis as part of Lee­la The­ra­py is an effec­ti­ve instru­ment and can pro­vi­de las­ting help in many situa­tions of depres­si­on and in pha­ses of emo­tio­nal distress.

Self-reflec­tion and reco­g­nis­ing one’s own pat­terns of thought and of suf­fe­ring is an important step towards heal­ing. We can learn to under­stand our emo­ti­ons as well as their cau­ses and „trig­gers“. To do this we often have to look into the past or into child­hood in order to under­stand whe­re we acqui­red the­se pat­terns. Hyp­no­the­ra­py is a very good and effec­ti­ve means for this.

Often, howe­ver – unli­ke in clas­si­cal psy­cho­the­ra­py – it is neither hel­pful nor las­ting to move only within one’s own histo­ry, to reli­ve it again or to keep „stir­ring the same soup“.

With Lee­la The­ra­py Ber­lin, a kind of spi­ri­tual­ly ori­en­ted psy­cho­the­ra­py, the aim is the­r­e­fo­re to build on this and to lea­ve behind and trans­form the old pat­terns and iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons that crea­te suffering.

Myths and misunderstandings about hypnosis

• Myth: „I lose control.“
• Rea­li­ty: You stay awa­ke, recep­ti­ve and have a say throughout.
  
  
• Myth: „Hyp­no­sis is magic.“
• Rea­li­ty: It is a the­ra­peu­tic tool with a sci­en­ti­fic grounding.
  
  
• Myth: „Only high­ly sug­ges­ti­ble peo­p­le benefit.“
• Rea­li­ty: Almost ever­yo­ne can bene­fit from hyp­no­the­ra­py – not through sug­ges­ti­bi­li­ty alo­ne, but through moti­va­ti­on, rela­ti­onship and the­ra­peu­tic support.
  
  
• Myth: „One ses­si­on is enough for everything.“
• Rea­li­ty: First chan­ges are often noti­ceable quick­ly; las­ting deve­lo­p­ment usual­ly needs seve­ral sessions.

With Lee­la The­ra­py and hyp­no­the­ra­py (a com­bi­na­ti­on of hyp­no­the­ra­py accor­ding to Mil­ton H. Erick­son, mindful­ness trai­ning and the tea­ching of the Enne­agram) I offer cli­ents suf­fe­ring from depres­si­on various pos­si­bi­li­ties for tre­at­ment and sup­port (a selection):

• Resol­ving con­flicts through hyp­no­the­ra­peu­tic methods such as work with child­hood, a jour­ney into the past with pos­si­bi­li­ties of heal­ing through „chan­ge and sup­port“. Trans­for­ma­ti­on of trau­ma and trau­ma­tic events.
• Sup­port with grief and bere­a­ve­ment.
• Hyp­no­the­ra­peu­tic inter­ven­ti­ons for encoun­ters with peo­p­le from the past or pre­sent, to bring clo­sure to unfi­nis­hed or per­sis­t­ent­ly bur­den­so­me con­nec­tions (Soul Connection).
• Sup­port for the self-heal­ing of phy­si­cal com­plaints and for fin­ding root causes.
• Hyp­no­sis methods for streng­thening self-esteem and for over­co­ming fears that can trig­ger depres­si­ve states.
• Deep­ly rela­xing trance sta­tes, bene­fi­ci­al for the body, the ner­vous sys­tem and the psyche.

A client’s account:

„It was very good for me to get into the posi­ti­on of sin­king into the situa­ti­on that weig­hed on me in my dai­ly life and let­ting mys­elf go. But it always felt as though I didn’t have to achie­ve any­thing or meet any expec­ta­ti­ons. That crea­ted trust in me and a fee­ling of rela­xa­ti­on. Johan­nes allo­wed me to look at my situa­ti­on wit­hout wan­ting to chan­ge any­thing. He allo­wed me to feel the dif­fe­rent aspects of the con­flict and at the same time to be with them. In this way I could inte­gra­te both sides, which felt powerful. I felt con­nec­ted to my inner wis­hes and stop­ped fight­ing, which felt won­derful. I could see that the­re is a strong power in inte­gra­ting, accep­ting and allo­wing vul­nerabi­li­ty.
With this mix­tu­re of hyp­no­sis and spi­ri­tu­al psy­cho­the­ra­py you can sink into expe­ri­en­ces and fee­lings that are nor­mal­ly hid­den and pro­tec­ted. But I never felt forced; I could always deci­de how deep I wan­ted to go.“

Your indi­vi­du­al hyp­no­the­ra­py fol­lo­wing the Lee­la The­ra­py method in 3–8 indi­vi­du­al ses­si­ons. Dis­coun­ted packa­ge pri­ces are available, or sin­gle appointments

Arrange a no-obligation consultation

• I’ll be hap­py to advi­se you indi­vi­du­al­ly and with no obli­ga­ti­on at 030 54907420 or by email: office@johannes-gwinner.com
• Lea­ve your cont­act details below and I’ll be glad to get back to you.
• Book a free con­sul­ta­ti­on online here: