Coaching Personally, I see the difference between coaching and therapy as rather fluid. Coaching usually makes sense when a client, due to confusion and/or insecurity, can no longer clearly see their own path – but is otherwise mentally, energetically, and physically in good shape. In such cases, the client merely needs professional reflection and orientation. Once clarity is regained, they can continue on their way independently. What I personally dislike and do not offer is the entire field of optimization coaching – those approaches that mainly serve motivation, artificial self-esteem/ego-boosting, or power enhancement. Whenever someone seeks to make themselves more successful, efficient, wealthy, or happy purely on a rational, intellectual level, I get a somewhat uneasy feeling. This is because such desires are usually rooted in weaknesses, fears, and/or feelings of inferiority, which – if masked by artificially inflated motivation – often lead to a dramatic collapse later on. In my experience, such coaching only makes sense when a client is afraid to live out their true potential and authentic personality. Most other forms of motivational or optimization coaching distort the client’s personality, which in the long term tends to create more problems than solutions.

For me, coaching is a clarifying, cleansing, and structuring process carried out with a counterpart who reflects my themes and, where appropriate, offers possible solutions. I would distinguish three categories: 1. General, orienting coaching Simply clearing things up inside and out, r egaining focus in life, and getting things back in order on the relevant levels. 2. Situational coaching Usually related to exceptional situations such as separations, bereavement, job loss, and similar crises. In short: To receive support and guidance in difficult times. 3. Integrative Coaching Useful after psychotherapy, in order to support the concrete implementation of insights and decisions. For example: a career restart, reintegration after burnout or other serious psychological issues, psychiatric crises, depression, coming-of-age struggles, ending toxic/manipulative relationships, or after substance withdrawal.

Through the technique of connected breathing and working with inner images, levels beyond our everyday logic can be accessed – leading to insights, solutions, and transformation. For this kind of soul work, time must be taken, since reaching regressive, often early- childhood or family-system-related behavioural patterns requires us to go beyond the surface of our everyday understanding of self and world. This brings us into regions of our being that can take on a partly mythical or mystical character. Sometimes it is possible to go deeper through conversation alone, achieving insight and transformation. If this is not sufficient, we offer psychotherapy on-site here in Lower Bavaria. This usually lasts between one and four weeks and should definitely be clarified and coordinated in an initial consultation (also by phone). It often makes sense to begin with a few online sessions, as this allows for initial contact and helps the client prepare for the more intensive phase.

Psychotherapy Our emotional world, our behaviour, and our actions are not only influenced by our conscious awareness, but also significantly by unconscious or only partially conscious factors. This can result in situations where we clearly see our problems and self-destructive behaviours, yet remain unable to change them. In such cases, coaching or counselling is, to put it bluntly, “a waste of time,” because despite better knowledge, we repeatedly slip back into old destructive patterns or states of being. It may also happen that life circumstances throw us off balance, making us feel that our lives cannot go on as they are. Most people are very aware when they are slipping into problems and entanglements they can no longer escape on their own. Such deeper issues cannot be resolved in just a few sessions; they require considerably more time and energy.

Therapy with Inner Images In fact, the method I am about to describe as best as words allow is nothing new. In Jungian psychotherapy, it was originally called active imagination. In the Freudian, psychoanalytic tradition, it was first referred to as guided affective imagery, and in shamanic traditions, so-called daydreaming or trance images have been used for thousands of years as a healing remedy for body, mind, and soul. Yet no matter which of these techniques one explores, it becomes apparent that almost always and everywhere there is an attempt to put the wisdom of our inner world of images at the service of our rational mind. For example, one might imagine one’s wounded inner child, standing lonely and sad on scorched earth, only to then guide it to a safe, healing, gentle, and harmonious place. But the very problem here is that true insight and healing cannot be commanded dogmatically; they must unfold through a developmental process that has little to do with our rational mind.In my experience, whenever inner images are used in therapy,

in most cases hasty therapeutic conclusions are drawn, and clients are pushed in a “pseudo-healing direction” that I personally consider highly questionable.So let us begin at the very beginning: what are inner images, dreams, or fantasies, and what purpose do they serve in our lives? What we can say is that —especially nighttime dreaming—is incredibly important for our daily, waking lives. Dream research has shown that people who are prevented from dreaming, but who still sleep eight hours, begin to hallucinate after only a few days. They experience how the inner world of images spills over into everyday life. From a purely medical-scientific perspective, dreams are understood as a kind of screensaver of the brain, and our capacity for imagination is linked to the release of hormones and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and noradrenaline. The impact of our inner images on the outer world—and especially on our own mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being— is far too often neglected.

Yet inner images, whether they are memories, hopes, or dreams, are likely one of the greatest motivators and resources for our daily lives. Had our ancestors not recognized the image of a rolling stone in their imagination as a model for transport, the wheel might never have been invented.Our inner world of images is much more than our rational mind can grasp. It is a timeless and spaceless dimension of our world and our lives. It connects past and future, moves through our physical existence as well as our emotional world and all realms of thought, and liberates our being from all physical-material boundaries. Without the power of imagination—of envisioning what a house should look like—no architect could ever practice their profession.