Are you struggling with … ?
Depression, anxiety, emotional troubles (e.g. anger, sadness, feeling of emptiness, senselessness, restlessness), somatization, learning difficulties, truancy, isolation and loneliness, addiction, eating disorders? Problems related with sexuality, low self-esteem and self-confidence, identity, relocation and integration, interculturality, relationships (e.g. separation, divorce), bereavement and loss, life transitions (e.g. adolescence, parenthood, retirement), traumatic experiences?
It is worth remembering that you do not have to face these difficulties alone.
Education and training
I have received training at the Technion in Israel (BA, BSc), the Free University of Berlin in Germany (BA), and, most recently, the University of Leuven in Belgium (MA, MPhil), where I am currently a doctoral candidate in philosophy with a focus on psychoanalysis, phenomenology and philosophy of psychology and psychiatry.
Additionally, I have completed a course of study in Existential Well-being Counselling: A Person-centred Experiential Approach (KU Leuven certificate).
Association
I am a member of:
- International Society for Philosophical Practice (IGPP)
- German Society for Phenomenological Anthropology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGAP)
- Phenomenology and Mental Health Network at the Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice in Health and Social Care, Oxford (PMH)
- World Association for Person Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling (WAPCEPC)
Theory and method
I offer a counselling based on the Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalytical theory of depth psychology and a philosophical praxis, which stands in the Socratic tradition of seeking a good life and its conviction that an unexamined life is not worth living. Philosophical practice cannot be equated with coaching, psychotherapy, meditation or group dynamics, even though all these techniques have learned from philosophy and enriched it in return. It is an opportunity to speak to a philosophically and psychoanalytically trained, fully attentive and neutral interlocutor about that which has become a problem for you.
You will not hear quotations from famous philosophers or be given advise. The counselling is there to help you clarify your situation, develop the tools to deal with it or find a more suitable assistance elsewhere. Any philosophical ideas, if at all mentioned, will only be used to conceptualize the concrete, everyday reality and the challenges it can pose. “Who am I? What do I really want? What can I hope for? What are my options? Are there constellations in my biography and contradictions in my self-image that hinder me from achieving my goals?” However, addressing these questions in the protected and confidential analytical setting will only aim at helping you overcome concrete symptoms and live your life without ruminating excessively about it.
Practice and deliverables
We can work both short and longer term, depending on your personal circumstances and the nature of the issues involved. Here are some of the tangible results you can expect from this work:
- Achieving a better rational and emotional grasp on relations with self and others.
- Helping yourself out of the deadlocks of recurring conflicts, destructive relationships, obsessive thoughts and behaviours, etc.
- Facilitating and regulating the dynamic processes of independent thinking, sense-giving and expression.
- Dealing with mental difficulties in conjunction with or instead of clinical therapy.
Any open questions?
By demand, I provide a free telephone consultation to help you make a more informed decision.
Practical Info
Individual and Couple Counselling
Public: Adults, Adolescents
Languages: English, German, Russian, Polish, Hebrew
In-person consultations in Brussels, Belgium:
- Private practice (21 avenue du Venezuela, 1000 Bruxelles)
- Centre d’Accompagnement Thérapeutique Pluridisciplinaire (3 place de l’Alma, 1200 Woluwe-Saint-Lambert)
Telephone: +32 (0)2 580 06 82
E-mail: practice@danieltkatch.net