Three Paths for the Cognitive Psychotherapy of Anxiety

One Entry for All Three Paths

Which of our three psychotherapeutic paths is preferred may be chosen at registration. Whether the desired path is in fact the best one for the concrete resolution of the problem is decided only by the psychotherapist on the basis of the psychodiagnostic assessment; and before the actual work begins, acceptance of the General Terms and advance payment apply equally to all three paths.

The entry itself is the same for every form: the anonymous, free suitability test, the likewise free registration with an account of how the problem developed and with the definition of goals, and finally the flat-rate, fee-based psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment. After that it is settled what the prospective client suffers from and what is possible with him—and what is not.

Across all three paths, moreover, a single, non-negotiable condition applies to the psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment: every prospective client writes down the misdirected life and learning history of his anxiety. Even those who will later speak before the camera or choose the day block first write out the learning history of their individual development of anxiety; no path exempts anyone from this.

This writing down is no formality but the first psychotherapeutic act of self-therapy; it regularly yields insights even before the actual program begins. Whoever is unwilling or unable to do this during the psychodiagnostic assessment is not suited to a serious cognitive psychotherapy. This is not a harshness but a saving of time and money for both sides.

Only on the basis of the psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment can it be seriously estimated how much time a prospective client will need in total to reach his goals, and where his individual total costs² will probably lie—determined by the number of hours required and by the chosen path. The figures and their derivation are given on the cost page.

The Principal Path: Written Cognitive Psychotherapy (WCP)

Written Cognitive Psychotherapy is not the most comfortable but the most consistent form of effective psychotherapy. The written word cannot be blurred with impunity: it compels both sides to clarity, remains permanently available, and can be read as often as it takes to be understood. It demands of the client the greatest cognitive effort of his own and thereby gives him back the highest thing a psychotherapy has to teach: the ability to recognize and correct himself. This form is discreet, independent of place, and reaches the goal in the shortest time. It is our principal path and our recommendation, unless some reason speaks for another form.

The Comfortable Path: Video-Supported Cognitive Psychotherapy (VCP)

Not everyone who can write also wants to. For those who prefer the spoken word, Video-Supported Cognitive Psychotherapy offers the same path by way of the screen: the same work on the same thinking, only spoken rather than written, at a fixed, appointed hour and from any place with a camera. It is the more comfortable path—one need neither leave the house nor take up the pen. What this comfort costs, the section on costs states without varnish.

The session does not run over the platform of some outside corporation that turns conversations into data—that would be the opposite of what our data protection seeks. It runs over our own, encrypted instance: without an account, without an app, in the bare browser, and, in a session between two people, directly from device to device. Nothing is recorded—on the server side, no recording is even set up. That a second camera defeats any technical barrier everyone knows; that is why the contract forbids recording to both sides alike, and bindingly.

The Compact Path: Day-Block Cognitive Psychotherapy (DCP)

Whoever wishes to place everything on a single day rather than spread it over weeks chooses the day block: eight concentrated hours in direct, personal conversation with the psychotherapist in Switzerland. The same work on the same thinking, only in one piece and face to face. It is the most demanding of the three paths—a whole bound day, a place, a journey—and precisely that is reflected in the price; here, too, one buys no greater healing, but the condensed form.

This form, however, presupposes what it promises: the ability to sustain a whole working day of concentration, high motivation, and cognitive resilience. Precisely this the prospective client must already have demonstrated in the psychodiagnostic and probationary assessment. The day block can therefore be requested but not ordered: it is carried out only when the psychotherapists consider it sensible. How it proceeds is vividly described in the therapy report of a physician³ who, after a decade on the wrong track, overcame his anxiety disorder in the cognitive day block, as well as in an article on cognitive psychotherapy of agoraphobia in Zurich⁴.

What the Three Paths Cost—and Why

The three paths do not cost the same, and the reason is plain: they bind unequal amounts of the psychotherapist's time and unequal amounts of logistics. The written word can be worked on in pieces, without a fixed appointment and without a place; the video conversation requires a fixed, appointed hour; the day block a whole day together with place and travel. From this the gradation follows: the WCP is the least expensive path, the day block the most expensive, the video conversation lies between them.

What this gradation reveals about effectiveness is, for the more expensive end, little flattering. The least expensive path is at the same time the most effective: whoever writes thinks most thoroughly and keeps a record he can reread for a lifetime. Whoever prefers conversation buys comfort and pays for it twice—with the higher price and with that measure of effectiveness which fleeting speech forfeits against the lasting word. This is no objection to the comfortable paths, but an honest account of their price.

Measured against the return, even the most expensive path remains a good bargain. For a vacation whose recuperation evaporates within weeks, most people spend more than for a psychotherapy whose effect remains. Rational economics would speak unequivocally for the lasting return—why most nevertheless decide otherwise is a question for another time. The concrete figures and their derivation are given on the cost page.²

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do the Three Paths Differ?

Only in the channel, not in the method: Written Cognitive Psychotherapy works with the written word, Video-Supported Cognitive Psychotherapy in the video conversation, the day block in personal conversation on a single concentrated day. The work on one's own thinking remains the same in all three.

Which Path Is the Most Effective?

Written Cognitive Psychotherapy. The written word demands the greatest cognitive effort and leaves a lasting record. The video conversation and the day block are more comfortable and forfeit a measure of effectiveness for it.

Must I Also Write for the Video Path and the Day Block?

Yes, once. Every prospective client writes down, at the outset, the life and learning history of his anxiety; that is psychodiagnostics and the first therapeutic step (the probationary assessment) at once. No path exempts anyone from this.

How Confidential Are the Video Sessions?

The sessions run over our own, encrypted instance without an account and without an app, in a session between two people directly from device to device. Nothing is recorded on the server side; the contract forbids recording to both sides.

How Do I Choose My Path, and Can I Switch?

You name the desired path at registration. Whether it is suitable for you is decided by the psychotherapist after the psychodiagnostics. A switch is possible, provided it is professionally sensible.

One Method, One Goal

However different the three paths appear, they lead through the same gateway of cognitive psychotherapy and to the same goal of freedom from pathological anxiety. In each of them the client does the work himself, in each the relationship ends as soon as he no longer needs it, and in each the goal is the same: to become his own therapist.

What we offer in this is instruction toward self-help and self-healing, not curative treatment—with health insurers we therefore do not settle accounts, and whoever seeks a treatment he merely passively receives is in the wrong place here. This is our contribution to more effective psychotherapy. The first step is the same for all three paths—the suitability test.

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