I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had to confront an enormous challenge or been exposed to extreme stress at least once in their lives. People are often tempted to sweep unpleasant thoughts and feelings under the rug to avoid dealing with them, although talking about them frequently brings relief, especially when you know that someone is really listening.

Why psychotherapy

There are many reasons to start psychotherapy. The one thing they all have in common is a desire for change. Whether it‘s because life as it is no longer seems bearable, or because you can’t get negative thoughts out of your head, because you don’t see a way out, have questions you can’t answer, or because you feel you’re missing out on something in your life. Or maybe you feel lonely in spite of a relationship, can’t cope with your own family or have feelings of powerlessness.

You don’t have to do it alone!

I offer a protected space where we can talk about your challenges and burdens. Based on systemic family therapy together we develop individual approaches to get you through the crisis, mobilise your functional resources and thus support you in your personal development – always focusing on the interdependencies with your social environment and always taking into account your current life situation. You don’t have to do it alone.

How psychotherapy can help

I know from personal experience what psychotherapy can do and how much more free we feel when we make peace with our lives, our thoughts, our feelings and experiences, our actions and our bodies. Because true agency arises from a feeling of liberation from within.

What I offer

• Individual therapy
• Couples therapy
• Family therapy
• Group therapy

Specialties

• Crises
• Dying, death and grief
• Psychosomatics
• Anxiety
• Growing up
• Personal development
• Self-awareness and desire for change
• Quest for meaning
• Relationships
• Separation, divorce
• Desire to have children
• Patchwork families
• Depression
• Emotional abuse

My profile on www.psyonline.at

I’m not currently offering group therapy in English. If you’re interested, please contact me.

The term group dynamics has more than one meaning. It describes what happens in groups, it’s a social-science discipline and, lastly, it’s a social learning process.

Experiencing, examining, and changing the effects of behaviour

As a social learning process, the term goes back first and foremost to the social psychologist Kurt Lewin, in addition to having roots in group pedagogy and group therapy. In 1946, Lewin and his research colleagues noticed that training participants were prepared to contemplate and change their behaviour when they received feedback from other participants, as well as from the trainers. This conscious feedback regarding how behaviour was perceived and what effect it had on the observers formed the basis for a broad tradition of social learning. Group dynamics training groups are based on this discovery and developed over time into an environment where the effects of behaviour can simultaneously be experienced, examined, and changed.

The group dynamics training group

Training group participants take a behind-the-scenes look at dynamics and processes, while also contributing to them and experiencing them themselves. In this way they gain understanding of the forces at work in social structures and how they are interrelated – and their own contributions to it. Through heightened perception of yourself and your interactions with others, you unlock a personal learning potential that is like no other.

(Source: www.oeggo.at)

Why group dynamics?

Group dynamics training groups can be, due to time limitations as well as to their focus on what is happening in the group, very intense. But it’s this very intensity that pays off! It makes possible different levels of learning, including

• reflecting on your own behaviour in the group,
• comparing your own perceptions with the perceptions of others,
• identifying and discussing your own role and the roles of others in the group,
• analysing and understanding how groups develop,
• perceiving the dynamics and processes that take place in groups,
• and becoming aware of your own impact on the group.

There are few other situations where it is possible to learn so much about yourself and about groups in such a short time span than during this five-day experience.

Dates and locations will be announced here.

No prior knowledge is necessary to participate. If you are interested, please contact me.

I was born in Vienna and grew up in a patchwork family of doctors and psychoanalysts. Early on, I grappled with the question of why people are the way they are, and why life seems so easy for some, but not for others. Through the different families I am part of I learned from a very young age how differently systems can function, that we can be the same person and yet in certain settings we can behave completely differently ̶ without even realizing it.

Finding answers

I’ve always been interested in people, their life stories and their relationships. That’s why I studied psychology at the University of Vienna and started group dynamics training at the ÖGGO. I have often sought professional change. My many experiences ̶ at a home for the disabled in Italy, as a counsellor at the Grüner Kreis, as a freelance journalist and as an internal communication specialist at a large international company and, finally, on the board of the ÖGGO – put me in contact with a variety of individuals of different cultures. I learned that there are as many different ways to lead your life as there are different characters. During this time I came to understand that everyone, even if they are not yet aware of it, already has the answers to all their questions inside themselves. My goal is to help individual people, couples, and families find the answers they’re looking for.

Training

Psychotherapist (systemic family therapy, ÖAS)
Group dynamics training (ÖGGO)
University studies of psychology (Magistra, University of Vienna)

Publications

Buchinger, S. (2023). Warum es sinnvoll ist, als Psychotherapeut:in etwas von gruppendynamischen Prozessen zu verstehen. Ein Plädoyer. (Why it makes sense as a psychotherapist to understand something about group dynamic processes. A plea.) In: ÖAS Netzwerke. Nr. 01/ 23, S. 14-17.

Buchinger, S., Csar, M., Krainz, U., Taubmann, F., Vogel, U. B. (2015). Wie Kooperationen zwischen Organisationen gelingen können: Einblicke in das Feld der Jugendhilfe. (How Cooperation between Organisations Can Succeed: Insights into the Field of Youth Services.) In: Offene Jugendarbeit. Heft 2/2015. S. 44-49.

Buchinger, S. (2010). Psychologische Diagnostik. Was Kleckse über die Seele verraten. (Psychological Diagnostics. What Inkblots Reveal. About the Mind.) In: Medical Tribune. Nr. 20/ 42. Jg., 19. Mai 2009, S. 16.

Buchinger, S. (2009). Chronische Unterbauchschmerzen. Wenn keine Ursachen zu finden sind. (Chronic Lower Abdominal Pain. When No Cause Can Be Found.) In: Medical Tribune. Nr. 24/ 41. Jg., 10. Juni 2009, S. 10.

Buchinger, S. (2009). Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marianne Springer-Kremser. Heutige Schwachpunkte der Medizin: Frauen, Psychosomatik & Sexualität. (Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marianne Springer-Kremser. Present-Day Weak Points in Medicine: Women, Psychosomatics & Sexuality.) In: Medical Tribune. Nr. 10/ 41. Jg., 4. März 2009, S. 10.

Buchinger, S. (2008). Wofür ist die Psychiatrie zuständig? Wenn Kinder sich selbst oder andere gefährden. (What Is Psychiatry Responsible For? When Children Endanger Themselves and Others.) In: Medical Tribune. Nr. 50- 52, 40. Jg., 10. Dezember 2008, S. 10.

Buchinger, S. (2008). Medizinische Sachverständige im Blickfeld. Experte zwischen Richter und Urteil. (Focus on Medical Expert Witnesses. Experts between Judge and Verdict.) In: Medical Tribune. Nr. 45/ 40. Jg., 5. November 2008, S. 2.

Mag.a Sophie Buchinger

Alser Straße 25/9
1080 Vienna
+43 660 7040 540
praxis@sophiebuchinger.at

Appointments by arrangement