Hey, I am Sabine,
as a couples therapist, I support couples who are not getting along so well with each other right now. Some also come alone, whom I accompany on their way to become more satisfied with themselves or with their relationship.
I started with the Association for Binational Families and Partnerships, iaf, because I was in a binational relationship myself and also because I was able to gain wonderful experience there while I was doing my therapeutic training in "systemic therapy and counseling" at the renowned Wiesloch Institute for Systemic Solutions, WISL.
The basic idea behind Systemic Psychotherapy is that there are no disorders of the psyche per se, but that joy and suffering are created between individuals at the moment I enter into a relationship with others (or with myself). Everything stands and falls with relationships and communicaton, can you imagine a better therapy school for couples therapy?
In the meantime, I have been getting ideas here and there from other schools of therapy, for example from trauma therapy. At the moment, it seems to me especially important to create a good "starting point" by having everyone pay attention to the state of their autonomic nervous system (the ANS) and learn how to bring themselves back into a regulated state. This is especially important in difficult moments, because only those who are inwardly with themselves can really get into contact with their counterpart without becoming angry or anxious. Exchange and negotiation are otherwise not possible at all.
In 2013, I took the plunge and opened my own living room practice. That's why it's nice and cozy here (at least I hope so). Once at work my little son traipsed through the room, that was really embarrassing, but luckily it hasn't happened since. Since the Sex Education series, living room practices have become more respectable again, although many famous therapists have done it this way, such as Sigmund Freud and Milton Erickson.