English Therapist And Counsellor.

In Berlin. For You.

English-speaking Berlin Counsellor.

Let’s develop the emotional skills and clarity you need to get life moving forward. Now.

Find out more

Addiction

Phobias, panic and PTSD

Anxiety

Depression

Anger

Stress

Marriage and couples

Children and young people

How I work

Approach

Our first goal is to establish emotional composure and mental clarity toward your situation.

It’s hard to think clearly under strain. When emotion takes the lead, focus narrows and clarity fades. Without enough internal bandwidth, even everyday situations can start to feel overwhelming or unclear.

That’s where counselling helps. You might think of it as borrowing a brain – seeking perspective, insight, and calm from someone less entangled in the moment.

When we’re overwhelmed or stuck, it’s often because something important isn’t seen or fully understood.

My role is to help bring those patterns into focus and to provide you with the support and skills you need to move forward.

Therapy

We all have a range of emotional and physical needs. When these are met in balance, we tend to feel steady and well. But when key needs are neglected or blocked, distress often follows.

This principle applies to everyone; yet, how it unfolds in your life is unique. That’s why my approach is always shaped around your personal story and circumstances.

I blend a broad set of evidence-based methods, including visualisation and other practical techniques. The aim is simple: to help you gain insight, restore clarity, and create meaningful change in your everyday life.

Result

Therapy doesn’t need to take years. Most people don’t want long-term therapy — they want a life that works.

That’s why I avoid fixed expectations around how long our work will take. It depends entirely on your situation and what meaningful progress looks and feels like for you.

Still, it helps to have a sense of what to expect. In most cases, I meet with clients four to six times — sometimes less.

For many people, time is limited. Unless we agree otherwise, our work will focus on making the clearest, most useful progress in the shortest time possible.

So, how will you know when that progress has been made?

You’ll feel properly heard and understood. You’ll have a clearer grasp of what’s happening — and the tools to move forward with greater confidence and control.

And if more time is needed, we’ll recognise that together.

Meet Dominic

Dominic is an amazing professional. In a few sessions he was able to help me a lot.

– JZ –

The care and support I received was completely different from my previous experience of therapy.

– KY –

Dominic is a gifted behavioral therapist who relies on a mix of practical and theoretical tools.

– JV –

Wonderful therapist! I made a lot of progress even in just two sessions together. Highly recommend.

– SS –

What is effective counselling?

For many people, seeking assistance for mental distress can feel like a big step, making choosing the right counsellor extremely important. Yet with so many types of treatment available (around 400 different approaches!), assessing what effective support involves requires a leap of faith.

With this in mind, the following outlines, at least from one perspective, what effective counselling might entail. In addition, it reflects the minimum that you’ll be able to expect from me in our work together:

knows how to build rapport quickly with distressed people
understands depression and how to lift it
helps immediately with anxiety problems including trauma or fear related symptoms
is prepared to give advice if needed or asked for
will not use jargon or tell you that counselling or psychotherapy has to be ‘painful’
will not dwell unduly on the past
will be supportive when difficult feelings emerge, but will not encourage people to get emotional beyond the normal need to ‘let go’ of any bottled up feelings
may assist you to develop your social skills so that your needs can be better fulfilled
will help you to draw and build on your own resources (which may prove greater than you thought)
will be considerate of the effects of counselling on the people close to you
may teach you to relax deeply
may help you think about your problems in new and more empowering ways
uses a wide range of techniques as appropriate
may ask you to do things between sessions
will take as few sessions as possible
will increase your self confidence and independence and make sure you feel better after every consultation

How long does treatment last?

The approach I work with is typically brief. Most clients I see for around four to six times in total, and in some cases less. For many people, time is short and so unless agreed otherwise, our work together will focus upon ensuring you can make the fastest possible progress.

Will my public health insurance pay for therapy with you?

No. Please note that I am not part of the German statutory health insurance system. Some private, international insurance might cover the costs of counselling. However, I do not deal directly with your insurance company. You pay and then request reimbursement from the company. I provide all invoices as necessary.

Where is your praxis located?

My praxis is located in Prenzlauer Berg, very close to the Eberswalder Strasse station. The address is Schliemannstraße 41, 10437 Berlin.

Can you offer me any assurances regarding your professional competence?

Yes – and it’s right to ask.

I’m a registered member of the Human Givens Institute (HGI), a professional body that sets clear standards for ethical practice and continuing development.

My work is grounded in evidence-based approaches, and I adhere to a professional code of conduct that ensures clarity, confidentiality, and respect in every session.

You’re welcome to ask more about my qualifications, background, or approach at any time.

How can I book a session?

Please send me a message below. It’s the best way for us to begin. I will then send you a profile overview with some further information, along with a booking link : )

Do you offer online support?

Yes, I do. Online work has become a central part of my practice. While I was initially cautious, experience – and client feedback – has shown just how effective it can be.

Most of my clients now choose to meet online, and many find it offers greater flexibility and comfort without compromising depth or connection.

Get in touch

Would like to explore
working together?

Please get in touch to arrange your introduction call.

My praxis:

Schliemannstraße 41
10437 Berlin

Addiction

You may choose to call it a craving, a fancy, or a bit of reliance. Whatever the word, anyone who feels increasingly dependent on an activity—alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, gambling, sex—is often trying to fill a gap or block something out. Addiction generally begins when something essential feels absent—stability, meaning, comfort or connection. Perhaps following a loss, such as the death of someone close, the end of a relationship, redundancy, or illness. Or addiction may emerge from a quiet, persistent dissatisfaction: boredom, numbness, or the sense of being trapped. These circumstances can first lead to low mood, withdrawal, or anxiety—then into patterns of coping that feel harder and harder to step away from.

Whatever the activity, it’s often an attempt to solve or remove — temporarily, at least — what feels intolerable. And for a while, it may work. But anyone caught up in addiction will intuitively know it’s a false relief. The experience long since stopped delivering on its promises. An activity that once felt enabling — a reward, a release, a way to feel something or nothing — has slowly become disabling. As such, you want to curtail how it influences your choices and undermines your freedom.

To get away from addictive behaviour, it is necessary to understand two things: the way our natural reward mechanisms work, and the way life should be constructed in order to receive the natural rewards that make addictive activities less attractive. Our work together will support you to:

Understand what causes and fuels addictive behaviour
Isolate destructive impulses that keep you locked in on autopilot
Ensure important emotional needs are constructively met
Develop new expectations for your life and the future
Find pleasure and fulfilment in new and meaningful ways
Develop practical skills for dealing with withdrawal symptoms
Learn to deal with stress or temptations that might lie ahead
Have a solid plan for relapse prevention

Would like to book a session?

Phobias, panic and PTSD

There are two kinds of difficult memories. Some fade slowly, until a year or so later they quieten into something manageable—no longer intrusive and emotionally raw. These memories become part of your past, rather than something you keep reliving. But others don’t follow this pattern. Traumatic memories may grow sharper with time, not softer. They remain vivid, sensory, and emotionally charged—far beyond what the event itself might seem to warrant. This happens because the brain’s emotional alarm system is designed to keep us safe. But when panic, phobias, or post-traumatic stress take hold, that system goes into overdrive—it continues to fire, even when the danger has passed.

Living in that state is exhausting. You may find yourself reacting strongly to situations that don’t make sense to others—or even to yourself. If this sounds familiar, you’ll know how disruptive and life-restricting traumatic patterns can become. You may begin to avoid places, people, or situations that once felt ordinary. You might scan for danger even in moments that should feel safe. Or feel suddenly flooded by memories or sensations you can’t control. Whatever your experience, it’s possible to process and reduce the intensity of what you feel—and to reclaim space and control in your daily life.

Even the most severe phobic and post-traumatic stress symptoms can be successfully reduced and removed (and faster than you might imagine). In working together, we will:

Utilise safe, non-intrusive treatment methods to confront the issue at source
Share information that provides a clear understanding for your experience
Utilise evidence-based techniques to remove the power from your emotional distress
Learn to deeply relax, enableing you to access your strengths and resources
Lift the excess weight restricting your enjoyment of experiences
Ensure that you are able to rejoin places or situations that you might otherwise avoid
Cover the techniques you need to move forward with confidence and independence

Would like to book a session?

Anxiety

A degree of anxiety is normal. It serves to avoid danger or get us motivated to act. For instance, before a big speech or exam, it would be unnatural not to feel some effects—racing pulse, dry mouth, sweaty palms, and. shallow breathing. But when anxiety becomes too frequent or intense, the ever-present vigilance reduces life. You may have begun with understandable worries—money, health, work, relationships—only to find your thoughts spiralling beyond proportion. Or perhaps there’s no clear origin at all, just a constant sense of being tense, wired, or on edge. The accompanying thoughts can feel chaotic—rapid, repetitive, and hard to switch off. You may notice yourself scanning for threats, second-guessing your decisions, or feeling strangely exposed in everyday situations.

When anxiety escalates, it can be as limiting as any physical illness. You can experience overwhelming fears or panic, phobias, obsessive patterns, or post-traumatic stress reactions. Over time, these patterns can begin to shape your choices—where you go, what you say yes to, and how much freedom you feel in your own life. You likely notice that you’re no longer living the way you want to. Anxiety isn’t a mystery. It follows patterns. And with the right support, those patterns can shift.

Anxiety comprises three elements: the physical sensations you experience, the emotions you have whilst experiencing them and the thoughts that go through your mind at the time. In working together, we will focus upon the critical skills for reducing anxiety and placing you back in control. Our work together will support you to:

Separate yourself from anxious feelings
Relax more effectively
Improve sleep for restoration
Reduce irrational fears
Identify and control negative thinking
Utilise wider perspectives
Harness the positive power of your imagination
Cope effectively in uncertain situations

Would like to book a session?

* P.S. You may also be interested to check out Anxiety Master - my specific support to help you regain control for a calm and confident future.

Depression

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Far from refreshed, you might wake already exhausted—unmotivated, flat, or reluctant to face the day. Depression may have crept in gradually. A dullness. A sense of disconnection. The world seems less vivid. You might still go through the motions—working, ticking off tasks—but socialising feels like heavy labour. Interaction becomes something to brace for. You can find yourself forgetting what you just did, or wondering where the last half-hour went. Crossing a room can feel like pushing through glue. Even small tasks—shopping, replying to messages—begin to feel strangely out of reach.

Concentration slips. Simple decisions become hard to make. And things that once lifted you—the walk, the film, the music—just pass through. It may feel as though you’re looking at the world through fog. Not quite in it. Not quite moved by anything, even the things that once meant something. And if you’ve experienced depression before, that familiarity can make it feel even more immovable now. It can start to feel like this is just how things are now. But depression isn’t fixed. It’s a state—one that can change.

Until recently depression was little understood, yet key new insights into its causes and symptoms have made treatment easier and more consistently effective. Our work together will support you to:

Understand essential information about what causes depression
Have a clear explanation of your symptoms and what you can do about them
Build resilience to deal with grief and uncertainty
Understand why some forms of counselling can exacerbate symptoms
Manage bipolar depression from a psychological perspective
Tackle rigid thinking, negative expectancy and the pessimistic rumination that causes depression
Implement practical help to break the cycle and prevent relapse
Make an immediate positive difference

Would like to book a session?

Anger

Do you feel powerless in the face of your anger? Terrifying to witness in others, and often overwhelming when it erupts in ourselves. Plane rage, queue rage—anger is showing up in ever more unexpected places. Sometimes it arrives with a clear trigger. Other times, it flares from nowhere—sudden, disorienting, hard to contain. There may even be a short-lived sense of liberation in that surge of emotional assertion. Yet as unregulated frustration spills into work or relationships, the emotional fallout can be far-reaching—often cascading into further distress.

At other times, anger builds slowly—almost imperceptibly—gathering pressure like a sealed valve. Once released, the aftermath feels hollow—and often tinged with guilt. You may be left facing the emotional mess: exhaustion, shame, regret. Over time, these repeated surges can wear down both body and mind. However, it doesn’t have to stay this way. Anger isn’t your enemy—it’s a signal. And equipped with the right knowledge and understanding, it becomes easier to recognise, manage, and move through.

Anger does not come out of the blue, nor is it ever inexplicable or unmanageable. If anger is affecting your quality of life, it’s time to take charge. Together, our work will provide:

Important understanding as to the causes of disproportionate anger
Knowledge to inoculate yourself from excessive stress build-up
Insight into what triggers your personal anger and how to control it
Information on the myths about anger that we each must understand
A toolbox of effective strategies for calming down and dealing with angry people
Better communication and conflict resolution skills
Strategies that prevent resentments or annoyances from escalating into bitter or dangerous confrontations
Techniques to quickly implement calm with a level-headed perspective

Would like to book a session?

Stress

Stress builds when mental and physical pressures accumulate past the point where you can absorb or adapt. What one person brushes off, another might find overwhelming. And what energises you on one day might exhaust you the next. Sometimes stress is situational—loss, illness, work strain, caregiving, relationship tension. Other times, it’s cumulative. Small things stack up until the system begins to fray. Even changes we’d call positive—starting a new job, becoming a parent, moving in with a partner—can place excessive demands on the nervous system.

When that pressure builds without pause, capacity runs dry. Focus slips. Motivation drops. You feel depleted before the day has begun. This is often the point when people stop coping and start bracing. Stress becomes not just a response, but a state of being. When this becomes your baseline, it’s a sign your system needs space—not more effort. In therapy, we make room to notice what’s being carried—and explore how to carry it differently.

Our work will ensure you develop the necessary, practical steps to:

Reduce excessive pressures in your life
Alleviate associated symptoms
Manage situations that exacerbate stress
Reset your coping mechanisms
Set suitable boundaries and expectations
Restore balance and calm
Implement strategies that prevent stress relapse
Regain control and ownerrship over daily life

Would like to book a session?

Marriage and couples

Most couples don’t fall apart all at once. It’s a slow drift - missed signals, differing expectations and emotional misunderstandings. A relationship is an emotional investment. And with any investment, we hope for a fair and steady return. We trust each partner is upholding the unwritten agreement that keeps the foundation stable: loyalty, honesty, safety, and trust. When conflict arises, those foundations wobble. Perhaps your expectations around roles and responsibilities have diverged. Or your values and priorities no longer align in the way they once did. Equally, life transitions—parenthood, relocation—can place strain on your belief that you’ll pull through together.

It’s here that misunderstandings emerge, and both partners begin telling themselves a story: about what went wrong, who’s to blame, and what the other should be doing to make it right. When these tensions remain unresolved, intimacy dwindles, empathy wears thin, and trust begins to fade. Yet at its core, what most couples want is simple: to be understood—and to understand. A strong relationship makes room for both perspectives. And sometimes, careful, grounded support from an objective professional can open that space—and make all the difference.

In good relationships both partners concern themselves with how they can help each other get essential physical and emotional needs met. With this framework in mind, our work together will enable you both to:

Quickly regain and maintain supportive rapport
Recognise disruptive behaviour patterns
Identify conflict triggers and implement effective interventions
Utilise the valuable resources that each partner brings to the relationship
Engage in joint problem-solving
Effectively manage setbacks together
Employ non-blaming communication styles
Maximise cooperation
Ensure the wellbeing of others involved (e.g. children)

Would like to book a session?

Children and young people

Childhood is a time of ongoing transition. To develop well, children and adolescents need certain core conditions: a sense of safety, affirmative attention, and the chance to learn how to tolerate frustration.As their world expands, we hope they will grow in self-awareness, take increasing responsibility for their actions, and begin to regulate themselves with greater confidence. This is often easier said than done—for them, and for us. With age, new pressures emerge: Academic expectations, shifting peer dynamics, emotional changes, and identity concerns. And many of these developments unfold beyond the reach of direct parental influence.

As a parent, you’re constantly responding to new challenges, often while trying to manage your own responsibilities, work, and emotional bandwidth. It’s understandable to feel stretched, unsure, or at a loss at times. However, there are grounded, well-established ways to support both your child and yourself through these stages of change. Sometimes, it helps to think through what’s really being asked of them - and of you.

Utilising extensive teaching and therapeutic experience across child age ranges, our work can integrate a wide range of points for support. We might support your child to:

Adopt healthy and long-lasting ways to engender self-esteem
Regulate difficult emotions and how to process them effectively
Deal with transitions related to school, peers and developing relationships
Become mindful of their influence and control in social situations
Develop resilience and optimism in the face of uncertainty and adversity
Nurture innate motivation for getting stuff done
Reduce stress and anxiety for calm and reflection
Implement realistic goals that encourage ownership and responsibility

Would like to book a session?

* P.S. If your child is between 8-11 years-old, you may also be interested in the Strive program - a ten-week learning pathway to nurture emotional health and well being.

Thank you for being here!

Hello. My name is Dominic Decker, a British-trained and qualified teacher and counsellor from Oxford, England. I’ve supported individuals and families since 2001 across social, educational, and therapeutic settings. Now based in Berlin and available online, I offer counselling that helps people restore calm, think clearly, and make sense of events so thy can move forward with courage and self-assurance. You can think of counselling as borrowing a brain — a chance to view your situation with calm distance and objective clarity. Or as taking something valuable for careful repair: you want a competent specialist who handles your wellbeing with craft and respect.

People often come to me when they feel stuck: in relationships, at work, or within themselves. Together, we look carefully at what’s happening, identify what needs to change, and make sense of the emotions that arise along the way. The process is collaborative, purposeful, and attuned to each person’s circumstances. Outside of counselling, I teach and write about mental health, resilience, and personal development — work that continues to shape my commitment to clear, compassionate communication and genuine psychological care.

Would like to book a session?

English Therapist And Counsellor.

In Berlin. For You.

English-speaking Berlin Counsellor.

Let’s develop the emotional skills and clarity you need to get life moving forward. Now.

Addiction

Phobias, panic and PTSD

Anxiety

Depression

Anger

Stress

Marriage and couples

Children and young people

Approach

Therapy

Result

Dominic is an amazing professional. In a few sessions he was able to help me a lot.

The care and support I received was completely different from my previous experience of therapy.

Dominic is a gifted behavioral therapist who relies on a mix of practical and theoretical tools.

Wonderful therapist! I made a lot of progress even in just two sessions together. Highly recommend.

What is effective counselling?

How long does treatment last?

Will my public health insurance pay for therapy with you?

Where is your praxis located?

Can you offer me any assurances regarding your professional competence?

How can I book a session?

Do you offer online support?

Would like to explore working together?

Addiction

Would like to book a session?

Phobias, panic and PTSD

Would like to book a session?

Anxiety

Would like to book a session?

Depression

Would like to book a session?

Anger

Would like to book a session?

Stress

Would like to book a session?

Marriage and couples

Would like to book a session?

Children and young people

Would like to book a session?

Thank you for being here!

Would like to book a session?

Would like to explore
working together?