Anja Benesch

Anja Benesch is a psychological psychotherapist (Diplom-Psychologin with state licensure) and a certified trainer in mindfulness and self-compassion. She works from a private practice in Berlin-Pankow, in German and English.

Her therapy is rooted in cognitive behavioural therapy. She adds mindfulness-based approaches such as Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and ACT, schema therapy, and body-oriented methods. She also offers coaching for life crises, relationship themes and professional strain such as stress or burnout.

As a teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion, she leads courses, workshops and retreats. Alongside these she offers psychedelic breathwork and deep imagination journeys, drawing on her training in integrative deep imagination and ritual work. She has also trained for several years in the meditation method "The 3 Doors", which she teaches.

Her own meditation practice spans more than 20 years, mainly in the Bön Buddhist tradition of Tibet. She says it gives her calm and creative energy to share with others. She describes practising together as one of the loveliest ways of being human with one another. Her retreats bring together mindfulness and self-compassion, breathwork, imagination journeys, Kundalini yoga, movement in nature, and plenty of silence and community. Her guiding line for them is "Alles darf sein, nichts muss", meaning everything may be, nothing must.