Peteris Vinkelis

We become who we are through our relationships — and the ways of relating we learn early don't stay in the past. They go on shaping how you see yourself, what you expect from others, and how you connect, right now, in your present life. They aren't fixed traits; they're patterns. And patterns that formed in relationship are patterns that can change in relationship. That, more than anything, is why this kind of therapy works the way it does.

So while your history matters, the work itself lives mostly in the present. I'm less interested in a symptom as something to be corrected than as the visible edge of something more complicated underneath — a pattern, an old solution to an old problem that has quietly stopped working. As we come to understand what's underneath, the symptoms themselves tend to ease.

Here's what that actually looks like in a session. There's no agenda, no worksheets, no set of exercises. You're invited to speak as freely and honestly as you can — including the things that feel unimportant, embarrassing, or beside the point, since those often lead somewhere that matters. I listen closely, and I'll help you notice things: a feeling you skipped past, a place you went quiet, a pattern surfacing in what you're describing. I talk too — this is a genuine collaboration, not a silent analyst and a monologue.

Much of the real work happens between us. The relationship with your therapist becomes a space where your habitual ways of relating show up in real time — where they can be noticed and understood together, as they happen, rather than only discussed in the abstract. If you find yourself irritated with me, or wanting to avoid a subject, or holding back, that isn't a problem to get past; it's often the most valuable material we have, because it's the pattern appearing live, where we can both see it. Being genuinely understood by another person, slowly and repeatedly, in the room, is in my experience what actually changes people.

Because these ways of relating took years to form, they take time to loosen — this is slower work than many people expect, and I don't disguise that. There's no fixed number of sessions. What there is instead is a serious, regular, long-term commitment on both our parts: a steady relationship in which understanding can deepen and gradually take hold. Change usually arrives quietly — a slightly different reaction, a little more room to feel, a choice made differently — before anything larger becomes visible.

I tend to work well with people ready for something more exploratory than a quick fix: those living with anxiety or depression, difficult or repeating patterns in relationships, grief, or a more diffuse sense that something isn't right even when nothing in particular has gone wrong.

1989-1995 Psychological Counselling Service of the Moscow University

1991-2002 Diplomatic Service, Republic of Latvia

2002-2024 Psychological Counselling, Organizational Development, Private Practice

2009-2024 Counsellor, Europan Parliament

2024+ Clinical and Counselling Psychologist in Private Practice

2024+ Clinical Psychologist and Therapist, Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic "Dzintari"

1991 - Master's degree in Psychology, Lomonossov Moscow State University (MGU)

1992 - 1993 - Aufabaustudium in Psychology, Bonn University

2024 - Psychoanalytic Therapist, Psychoanalyst-in-Formation (Estonian-Latvian Psychoanalytical Society, component society of the International Psychoanalytical Association, IPA)

2025 - Clinical Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA)