My professional understanding is based on a holistic approach to the person and their mental health and incorporates psychotherapy and medication.
The three areas of social, psychological and biological existence and functioning are in complex and constant interaction with mutual influence on each other. The outside world with its events and challenges affects the individual according to their personality, coping strategies, and learned responses. This defines human emotions, thoughts and behaviour which, reflected through the genetic make-up, translate into biochemical and brain functional disturbances. The biological abnormalities themselves impact on all previously mentioned emotional, cognitive and behavioural aspects of being.
This structuralistic approach addresses social, psychological and biological problems with different emphasis in different stages of the treatment. The model is as much universal as personalized and this individual approach is central to my work.
An essential characteristic of the philosophy outlined above sees a focus on existential matters with the majority of patients. Exploring the meaning of human existence, loneliness, freedom and death, is the foundation of this existential approach in order to create harmony in human life. I see this as important in the prevention of, or recovery from, affective disorders.
