No one expected that these two therapists, with completely different approaches to counselling, would share the goal of making life less complicated for therapists and clients alike.
Johanne, a Danish psychologist trained in behavioral methods. Jakob, a psychoanalyst with an orientation towards Carl Jung. Both charged with prejudices against each other’s approach to counselling, with experiences to back it up.
Prejudices aside, there was still somehow a match between the two. At the first meeting, six years ago at a Berlin café, their differences sparked a conversation about what psychology’s role is today. This conversation continues to this day and it led to the founding of It’s Complicated. But first there was an intermezzo.
See, Johanne and Jakob’s first meeting inspired a project to bring therapeutic conversations out on the streets. This took the form of a group conversations between psychologists, artists, students, authors and architects in bars, cafès and galleries around Berlin. The purpose was to explore psychology as something that happens also outside of the clinical room.
The learnings from these projects left them with a clearer idea of what their ongoing conversation could materialize into. In 2017 they established Mittelweg 50, a practice space for international therapists in Berlin, defined by the diversity of its practitioners. All therapists are from different schools of psychology as well as different parts of the world.
The value of this diversity is not only the creative exchange between practitioners, but that it offers clients seeking therapy a better chance of finding the “right” therapist for them. And, in fact, research shown that the most important factor to consider for a successful therapy is the relationship with one’s therapist.* In other words, a good match means a lot!
The psychiatrist Carl Jung once wrote that, “Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble”. One does not have to be a therapist, though, to realize that life is complicated. But finding the right therapist shouldn’t have to be. This is the founding principle of It’s complicated.
Start preparing your questions about anything “therapy and finding the right therapist”-related for Johanne and Jakob already now – and remember to tune into Reddit’s IAmA on Saturday 25th of January 16-17.30 CET.
* Rita B. Ardito and Daniela Rabellino (2011). Therapeutic Alliance and Outcome of Psychotherapy: Historical Excursus, Measurements, and Prospects for Research. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198542/)
