Bertine De Jongh

Over the last 10 years, I have worked with many different people and relationships in my private practice in Berlin, primarily with people who moved countries. I personally understand the challenges of living in a country that is not your own, of living in an intercultural relationship and trying to raise my two multilingual kids the best I can. There have been many sacrifices I had to make along the way, but I also feel these experiences have given me so many opportunities. Understanding the importance of relationships and feeling connected to others around me, and truly appreciating differences in strengths and values, are among the most important ones for me. Through my personal experiences as well as working with people from so many different cultural backgrounds within different cultural contexts, connecting and valuing difference have become central to my therapeutic approach: not to persuade one another to comply with our own values, but to become more curious again about our differences and your specific personal journey in life, distinguishing between what you would like to change and what others would like you to change into. My work is heavily influenced by the systemic psychotherapy approach, mindfulness-based approaches, hypnotherapy and emotion-focussed therapy by Susan Johnson. In addition to my therapeutic work, I also teach systemic counselling at the Medical School Berlin, and facilitate training to other mental health professionals in the area of culture, race, migration and mental health.