Depression, Exhaustion and Burnout · Berlin
Heaviness · Withdrawal · Lost Vitality
Some days begin before the body has truly caught up. Getting up, showering, replying or making a decision can demand energy that once felt readily available.
At the conSenso® Practice in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, we support people experiencing depression, exhaustion and burnout when withdrawal, disturbed sleep, inner emptiness or the feeling of barely being able to reach their own body begin to shape everyday life.
Depression does not always appear as visible sadness. Some people feel empty, irritable or physically heavy. Others continue to function while joy, energy and a sense of connection grow increasingly quiet.
Exhaustion can have many causes. Existing medical, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic assessments and treatments are therefore taken into account.
Movement can become laborious, posture may collapse and even a short walk can require considerable effort. Some people feel pressure in the chest, a tense jaw or pain for which there is no simple explanation.
This heaviness is not laziness or a lack of will. It can be part of depression or profound exhaustion and can change the way the body itself is experienced.
Things that once mattered or brought pleasure may suddenly barely reach a person. Conversations, music, closeness or familiar activities evoke little or seem far away.
This does not mean that gratitude or affection are absent. Rather, access to them is often muted. This change in particular can be difficult for those affected and for the people close to them to understand.
Functioning for Too Long
Many people meet demands, organise and carry responsibility for a long time while appearing resilient from the outside. Fatigue, sleep problems, irritability or physical tension are repeatedly pushed aside.
Over time, awareness of one’s own limits can become less clear. Even days off or holidays may no longer bring genuine recovery.
Burnout primarily describes exhaustion associated with chronic occupational strain. It is not the same as depression. The symptoms may overlap, however, and require careful differentiation.
Some people sleep a great deal and still wake exhausted. Others cannot settle into restful sleep despite their fatigue, or wake early long before the day is meant to begin.
When recovery does not come, even small tasks can become too much. The body is given a pause, yet no longer finds its way naturally into restoration.
Concentration, memory and decision-making may slow down. A simple message, a shopping trip or the question of where to begin can suddenly feel overwhelming.
Many people experience this as personal failure. In reality, depression and exhaustion can significantly impair attention, memory and the ability to make decisions.
Some people feel not only emotionally empty but barely able to reach themselves physically. Breathing, posture or touch are perceived only indistinctly. The body seems to be carried rather than inhabited.
Others experience closeness and touch as too much more readily. Both responses deserve to be taken seriously, without trying to force contact or vitality.
Persistent pain can alter sleep, movement and mood. Conversely, an exhausted body may respond more sensitively to strain and find it harder to release tension.
The aim is not to explain pain psychologically. What matters is whether physical symptoms, withdrawal and exhaustion genuinely interact in the individual course of events.
Careful Differentiation
Not every form of exhaustion is depression—and burnout is not simply another word for it.
Persistent fatigue, disturbed sleep, concentration difficulties or physical heaviness can also have other health-related causes. New or pronounced exhaustion should therefore be medically assessed.
In its narrower sense, burnout relates to chronic strain in an occupational context. Depression, by contrast, can affect every area of life and may involve persistent low mood, loss of interest, hopelessness, disturbed sleep and lack of energy.
Existing medical and psychotherapeutic treatments are not replaced, but are taken into account in any further support.
conSenso® Practice 2 · Kurfürstendamm
For carefully selected patients experiencing depression, an intravenous ketamine infusion may be embedded within a body-psychotherapeutic or talking-therapy setting.
Medical indication, informed consent, infusion and monitoring are the responsibility of a physician experienced in this treatment. Preparation, therapeutic accompaniment and subsequent integration are provided psychotherapeutically.
Not every depressive condition requires ketamine treatment. Whether this option may be appropriate is considered in a detailed psychotherapeutic consultation and a separate medical consultation.
When the Situation Becomes Acute
Thoughts of no longer wanting to live require immediate and reliable help.
If you no longer feel safe, have specific suicidal thoughts or fear that you may harm yourself, please call the emergency services on 112 or contact the Berlin Crisis Service.
The Berlin Crisis Service is available around the clock, free of charge and anonymously if desired. The conSenso® Practice is not a psychotherapeutic or psychiatric emergency service.
conSenso® Practice 1 · Wilmersdorf
Body-psychotherapeutic support for depression, exhaustion and burnout takes place at Pfalzburger Straße 43 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
In the undisturbed individual appointment there is no parallel waiting-room or treatment activity. There is time to consider everyday life, physical heaviness, sleep and withdrawal without having to function or present a neatly ordered story.
Support does not demand strength that is not currently available. It begins where perception and contact are still possible.
The aim is not rapid activation. At first, a sense of support, connection and bodily vitality may simply become accessible again.
Complimentary introductory consultation
In the complimentary introductory consultation, you can describe how long your energy, sleep, interest or body awareness have been altered and how you are currently managing everyday life.
Existing medical, psychiatric or psychotherapeutic treatment may also be important for the initial orientation. You do not need to have fully organised or explained your situation beforehand.
