Psychotherapeutic Counselling in Freiburg
PBS: Psychotherapeutic Counselling
Students who experience personal or study related problems should not feel alone! Many students experience difficulties during their studies. Professional support/counselling can help solve these problems. A short conversation can often help clarify a student’s path.
Psychotherapeutic counselling offered by Student Services is the right place to turn for such advice, which is given through one-on-one appointments. Students must make an appointment for one-on-one counselling or turn up during open office hours once a week.
Counselling sessions are also available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Slovenian. All sessions remain confidential.
Sometimes students may feel that a fellow student is experiencing difficulties. It is important to look for certain signs.
The therapeutic team in Freiburg consists of doctors and qualified psychologists with profound psychotherapeutic training:
- Jürgen Griesser, medical doctor for psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, head of PBS
- Almuth Wöhrle, psychologist, deputy head of PBS
- Mona Akra, M.A. psychologist
- Margarete Dietl, psychologist
- Selina Seitz, M.Sc. psychologist
- Sebastian Maier, psychologist
- Mutram Peters, M.Sc. psychologist
- Lena Preusche, M.Sc. psychologist
- Matic Rozman, psychologist
- Marina Schmölz, M.Sc. psychologist
- Christina Unmüßig, psychologist
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Rosa Meyer, Secretary and Registration
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Mrs. Dr. Ying Zhang provides counselling in chinese language
Group photo PBS
It is not uncommon to run into problems during university. The feelings of fear and uncertainty or stagnation are not rare. The therapist at the Psychotherapeutic Counselling Office can help to clarify issues, aspirations, feelings and doubts by enhancing student’s understanding of themselves and providing them with ways to find their own solutions.
There is very little waiting time and sessions last for forty-five minutes.
How long the counselling lasts is different from case to case. Where some issues can be resolved in one or two sessions others require more. The student and counsellor decide on the duration of counselling together. The same concerns (or different) can be discussed again after the sessions. However, the appropriate amount of time should be given to see improvements.
The first four sessions are free of charge! Additional appointments require a contribution of eight Euros. Continuous counselling over an extended period of time is not available. If continuous counselling is needed our therapists help student find additional external therapists.
Counselling services are available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Slovenian.
For appointments outside of office hours, please call.
Conversations via video counseling are possible in exceptional cases by prior arrangement. The consent for video consultation is in the info box on the right.
Students who would like to speak to a counsellor without making an appointment in advance can use the Open Office Hours. It takes place on Wednesdays from 13.00 to 14.00 1 to 2 p.m. During this time, you can come in for a short consultation of about 10 minutes to clarify the further procedure.
The Psychotherapeutic Counselling Centre offers an extensive seminar programme. Topics include "test anxiety", "rhetoric", "stress management", "writer's block" or "time management".
For the seminar programme, please click here
In acute crises and outside our working hours you will find help at the following positions:
Outpatient Clinic of the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Hauptstraße 5, Freiburg
Phone: 0761/270-6 55 00 or 0761/270-6 50 10 or 0761/270-650 20
Emergency practice of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Baden-Württemberg
at Medical University Hospital
Ground floor, Hugstetter Str. 55, Freiburg
Phone: 116 117Mon/Tue/Thu 20.00 - 6.00 o'clock;
Wed + Fri 16.00 - 6.00 o'clock;
Sat/Sun/Holiday 0.00 - 24.00 h
As a victim of sexual violence/violence, you can turn to specialised counselling services in addition to the police(110):
Frauenhorizonte gegen sexuelle Gewalt e.V. Freiburg with a 24-hour emergency telephone number: 0761 2 85 85 85, www.frauenhorizonte.de
Wildwasser registered association: www.wildwasser-freiburg.de, Tel. 0761 33645
At first you need to make an appointment for an initial talk by phoning the secretary of the psychotherapy counselling or by coming in person. The subsequent appointments can be made directly with the therapist.
No – you can talk to a therapist about any problems or questions of a personal nature.
Whenever you need help solving problems, whether they are personal or study-related difficulties. Here are some of the reasons why we are typically visited: Problems with detachment from home and reorientation in studies or problems with completing studies; anxiety, depression; suicidal ideation; learning, work and concentration disorders; test anxiety; fears of presentations; contact problems; relationship conflicts; conflicts of couples; Insecurity as a foreign student in a foreign country; sexual difficulties; experiences of sexual violence or discrimination; problems with parenting; psychosomatic complaints.
You can also contact the PBS with these problems.
In addition, there are also specialized counseling facilities in Freiburg:
Frauenhorizonte gegen sexuelle Gewalt e.V. Freiburg with 24-hour emergency phone: 0761 2 85 85, www.frauenhorizonte.de
Wildwasser e.V.: www.wildwasser-freiburg.de, Tel. 0761 33645
In acute emergency situations police emergency number 110
You have the possibility to make an appointment for a one-on-one talk where you can discuss your personal situation. The first four talks are free of charge. One talk lasts 45 minutes, normaly we schedule one talk per week. Of course you can choose to come to only one talk if you would like. At the end of every meeting we will have the possibility to decide if we should meet again. Starting with the fifth meeting a charge of 8 € per talk will be demanded. If you need a longer psychotherapy we will recommend you a resident psychotherapist as we can only offer a limited amount of talks for students. Depending on the type of health insurance you have the appointment with the resident psychotherapist may or may not be covered. You can use our counceling service during the full length of your studies. The meetings can be spaced out over longer periods of time (month or even years).
Additionally we also offer short courses (usually held on weekends) giving helpful advice to students who for example face problems handling exams, scheduling their work day, giving presentations and methods of relaxation.
Psychotherapy counselling combines counselling with therapeutic aspects which, in part, originate from so-called “short-term therapy”. The aim is to acquire, within a short and reasonable amount of time, an in-depth and enhanced understanding of yourself so that you may be able, in the future, to resolve your problems on your own and strengthen your personal potential for development.
All students who are currently registered at university are allowed to use our services.
The early years of adulthood are particularly subject to changes and developmental demands which can be accompanied by crisis-laden changes. Periods of strong insecurity and stagnation are not uncommon at this time. What is particularly important to do, when going through such a phase, is to seek help as soon as you realize that you are no longer able to manage things on your own, so as to avoid an entrenchment of the problem. Crises or unresolved inner conflicts can be so all-consuming that they can strongly hinder your aptitude to concentrate and take in information, thereby compromising your ability to study. Even students who have previously been academically successful can be confronted with such problems. The most often cited reasons why students come to our offices are the following: disruption at work, apprehension facing exams, depression, anxiety, doubts relating to self-esteem, difficulty communicating with others, conflicts in personal relationships. According to our latest census figures of German student unions, 14% of students indicated having used psychotherapy counselling because of mental health problems.
This often requires conversation and reflection with an experienced and neutral counterpart. Even severe crises and massive uncertainties do not automatically mean being seriously ill and requiring long treatment. It is an important task of counseling to clarify whether a few conversations are sufficient to cope alone with the difficulties in life or study again or whether this requires continuous processing within the framework of psychotherapy.
The first four talks are free of charge. Every additional appointment will cost you 8 Euros.
Waiting time is usually between one and two weeks. If you don’t have an session and you urgently need to speak to us, you have the possibility of dropping in on us on Wednesdays between 1 and 2 p.m. for a short 10-minute talk. The "open consultation hour" takes place in person.
The therapeutic team uses a psychoanalytical counselling concept; the therapists have a sound education and many years of professional experience. The one-on-one sessions are about working together to find meaning and to understand the background of current difficulties, to expand the inner and outer scope in dealing with the difficulties and thus to open the road to independent problem-solving and further personal developments.
Yes. We can consider together, what kind of therapy is best suited for you, we can give you general information about what kind of therapy is usually covered by health insurance and can help you find a psychotherapist.
When you have the feeling that one of your fellow students is going though a difficult crisis, behaves strangely or is withdrawn or even has suicidal thoughts, it can make you feel helpless, because you may not know, if and how you should speak to the person.
In some cases the person may even refuse help. In such cases you can also make an appointment with us and we can try to work out together what the best way of handling the situation is.
If the situation is urgent, please contact one of the following offices
- Rescue service/emergency doctor Telephone 112
- Outpatient Clinic of the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hauptstraße 5, Freiburg, Phone 0761/270-6 55 00, -6 55 10 or -6 55 20
- Offenburg: MediClin Klinik an der Lindenhöhe, Offenburg Phone 0781/91920
- Emmendingen: Centre for Psychiatry, Neubronnstraße 25, Phone 07641/4610
The therapists are bound by confidentiality and have the right to refuse to give evidence. No one outside the PBS will know whether or why you are visiting us - not even other departments of the Studierendenwerk or the university.
Our workshop program offers a wide range of courses for groups of up to 15 participants on various topics. The offer varies from semester to semester. The fixed core includes workshops on optimizing learning techniques, improving time management, solving writer's block, and much more. A large part of the workshops is organized by the PBS (Psychotherapeutic Counseling Service of the Student Union).
All workshops are published on our website on 01.03. and 01.09. of each semester and can be booked directly there. Payment can be made by bank transfer or cash in our info store. You are also welcome to talk to the PBS to find out which workshop is right for you.
The current prices* are categorized by type of workshop. There are Univers short workshops for 14 euros, day workshops for 29 euros, workshop series for 34 euros, and full weekend workshops for 54 euros.
* subject to change without notice