Sebastian Winkler
Clinical Psychologist | Psychotherapist
There are many reasons for which you might seek counseling or psychotherapy. Be it that you are living through an acute crisis, are looking to improve a long-standing condition, or simply feel that your personal situation is stuck in some way. Most of the time, such moments and phases are marked by diminished clarity and sense of orientation. In counseling or therapy you can find accompaniment on the quest of thoroughly looking at and understanding your situation, both compassionately and dispassionately.
Clientele and Modalities. In my practice, I work with adults and adolescents in one-on-one, couples, and group settings. See below for more details on each modality.
Counseling or Therapy. In practise, making a strict distinction between the two is rarely useful, because they seemlessly blend into one another. In a nutshell, the difference is mostly one of weighing and emphasis. From the start, counselling is more solution oriented, whereas therapy takes more time to linger on the problem itself (e.g., its origin, its meaning, and how it manifests itself in different areas of life). The latter may seem like a wasteful approach to our expedience oriented way of thinking. However, it can sometimes be a very much needed first step. (You can read more on the differences here.)
But really, to start, you really only need to know that you want to begin your process.
In-Person or Online. While sharing the same physical space is still generally the best way to go about counselling and therapy, today's video-call solutions (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet, etc.) can offer a good meeting experience. I have come to consider online work to be on-par with in-person work, while also offering some obvious advantages. It is finding a quiet private corner that permits an intimate get-together of this kind, that can sometimes pose a challenge.
Hi, I’m Sebastian! Father of four, born 1972 in Hamburg, Germany, I’ve been living in Portugal since 2000.
I came to my profession later in life, beginning my training as a clinical psychologist in my mid-thirties. Initially, I intended to follow in my mother’s footsteps to become a behavior therapist. However, due to what I perceived as irreconcilable differences concerning that school’s inherent conception of man, I had to reorient myself. After some searching, I finally came across Gestalt Therapy, and that’s when things truly clicked for me.
What initially captivated me was Gestalt Therapy’s impressive “ingredient list”: the unique and vibrant blend of rich, fascinating sources and influences from diverse origins upon which it is founded. Beyond that, I resonated deeply with the founding personalities themselves—Fritz Perls’ eclectic free spirit, Paul Goodman’s sharp counter-culture, and Lore Perls’ warm-hearted existentialism.
Today, Gestalt forms the underpinnings of my therapeutic work, while other, complementary perspectives have increasingly shaped my work in the foreground:
Taken together, I would characterize my therapeutic stance today as:
For questions and appointments, please contact me by phone or message at +351 934 414 733, or email me at contact@sebastianwinkler.pt.