by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext – 29. Okt. 2022 updated 2.Jan 2024
What the mainstream media is hiding
How helpful, superior, and indispensable are experts really when mental crises persist? Are they more likely to get along with them than with us? How good are they for those affected? Widely unknown results of therapy research prove something embarrassing: Many laypeople are no worse at helping chronically anxious, depressed, aggressive, traumatized addicts and other mentally stressed people than psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists with university degrees. In dozens of therapy camps organized by my Foundation for Excursions, several hundred people with severe psychological problems have also shown that things can work without professionals – sometimes even better.
“My fifteen healing sessions with you did me much, much better than the previous 480 with my analyst,” said a 47-year-old severely depressed person.
A teacher (62), who had never gotten rid of the early childhood trauma of repeated sexual abuse by her own father, enthused after eight days of camp: “I have already done so much psychotherapy that has helped me in no time. What you have done for me is incredible. So intense!”
“It was as if I had spent the last four decades in a windowless room,” confessed Ludwig (55), who was tormented by constant fears with severe physical symptoms since he lost both parents on the same day. “You opened a window for me; I can finally see the light.”
Like these three, the same thing happens to almost all people with severe psychological problems who find their way to a therapy camp run by my Auswege Foundation. There have been several hundred so far. Whether with persistent depression or anxiety, with bipolar, eating or sleep disorders, compulsions or addictions, with ADHD, hyper aggressiveness, adjustment, and other behavioral disorders, with crises of meaning, feelings of inferiority or relationship conflicts, with trauma or burnout, with autism or schizophrenia: Less than two percent of affected participants say goodbye after a week with unchanged or even worsened symptoms.
The situation is no different for camp participants who are severely affected by a long-term, relentlessly progressive physical illness, as well as for their relatives who travel with them, whose constant concern and care depresses them to such an extent that they are often no less in need of treatment.
What kind of highly effective therapies are used? Which great psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists were the foundation able to recruit for a camp assignment?
Mostly, none at all. Not a single professional spiritual helper took part in two-thirds of the 38 “way out” camps that took place between 2007 and 2023. The successes mentioned were usually achieved by a team of helpers that consisted entirely of psychological amateurs: predominantly spiritual healers, together with individual alternative practitioners and spiritual life helpers, under the supervision of doctors without psychiatric or psychotherapeutic specialization. And where, exceptionally, professionals were deployed, it always remained questionable whether the progress made was solely or mainly due to them.
Does this mean that lay assistance is often equivalent to or even superior to the scientifically proven services that academically trained specialists can provide?
Indeed – in line with a variety of new, largely unknown scientific research results.
Extensively researched: Many laypeople can do more.
Isn’t it entirely out of the question that people with psychological problems belong in the hands of scientifically trained professionals? “Of course!” is what a mass media united front tells the oppressed, whose desk clerks appear serious and educated when they pass on, without research, what supposed experts tell them is “the state of the science.” From this, it supposedly follows: Don’t think you can help yourself! And don’t rely on unauthorized people! “What helps depressed people and their relatives,” the news magazine Stern knows: “Trust in professionals. Seek help from a professional: your family doctor, a psychiatrist, or a psychotherapist. (…) In acute cases, contact a crisis service or a psychiatric clinic.”
Focus also wants to “heal the soul with medication and psychotherapy” and strongly promotes “Little Helpers – Don’t Be Afraid of Psychological Pills.” According to Spiegel online, “The first course of action must be the family doctor. He can determine the severity of the depression and take appropriate steps.” Die Welt warns that “under no circumstances should you attempt ‘do-it-yourself’ therapy,” as this “belongs in the hands of good psychotherapists.” In the event of a “serious depressive episode, treatment should definitely take place in a clinic.”
And Bild, one of the highest-circulation daily newspapers in Europe, also wants to “encourage people to seek professional help.” (1) Shaped by the expropriation of mental health, the zeitgeist can be briefly summarized by the AI “ChatGPT” fed from mainstream sources: “Severe psychological problems require professional help.” (2)
Is that really true? If someone suffering from mental health problems is undecided as to whether they should rely on support in a familiar environment or seek out a professional, What would a useful decision-making aid look like?
Therapy researchers have been trying to do this for decades. They compare what a large number of lay helpers and professional therapists can achieve within a set period of time for people who have been given a wide variety of diagnoses by doctors and psychologists: from A for “anxiety disorder, generalized, ICD F 41.1” to Z for “obsessive-compulsive disorder, predominantly compulsive rumination, ICD F 42.0”. And they check whether and for how long the improvements achieved last. What came of it?
It seems downright grotesque, far-fetched, picked up from the regulars’ table. And yet it is one of the best-confirmed findings in psychological research: the finding that amateurs are generally no less successful in advising and treating people who are considered mentally ill than professional mental health practitioners – provided they are “interpersonally competent.” Social scientists say: open, warm, committed, empathetic, understanding and skilled at conducting conversations.
The majority of laypeople achieve at least the same level; This applies both in general and to individual “disorders”, such as social maladjustment, phobias, psychoses, and obesity. (3) This is now indicated by several hundred comparative studies, as well as over a dozen meta-analyses and statistical summaries of studies that have already taken place.
Some studies even found a clear trend for laypeople to do more. (4) This became apparent both immediately after completing their mission and for a long time afterward. It came to light in various fields of activity: from individual and group psychotherapy to crisis counseling through to health, professional, and social rehabilitation. Where the lay helpers come from turned out to be irrelevant.
Whether students, housewives or pensioners, carers or committed citizens, when it comes to the results of their efforts, many of them can at least keep up with professionals, no matter what measure of success is used – be it psychological tests, behavioral observations or impressions from independent assessors, self-assessments Patients or information from important caregivers, the length of the hospital stay or the relapse rate.
Self-help groups – together out of the abyss
How effective psycho-amateurs can help can be seen, among other things, in self-help groups. Over 100,000 such initiatives bring together around 3.5 million laypeople in Germany (5) to support each other in health, often also mental, needs. Almost one in ten adults has participated at least once (6). As early as 2005, the proportion of the population who attended such groups was 2.8 percent. (7)
As numerous studies show (8), these loose, non-binding communities of similarly affected people generally achieve no less results than group psychotherapy or any other type of professional mental healing. The longer the membership, the more regularly the participation, the greater the personal benefit: those who regularly attend a self-help group can deal better with their illness, see themselves as more self-confident, feel better understood and less lonely, and experience an increase in courage and well-being and suitability for everyday use.
Those with mental illnesses can find among their peers what many of them had previously looked for in vain from professionals. In 45 percent of people who take part in a self-help group because of psychological problems, their symptoms improve significantly, as a patient survey by the University of Saarbrücken found. (9) Several other studies also confirm how good the group experience is. (10)
Telephone counseling is good.
Just as blessedly, around 8,000 laypeople in Germany provide telephone counseling – since 1995, also on the Internet – on a voluntary basis and around the clock. They come from all professional fields, including the unemployed. With dedication, heart education, and angelic patience, they calm, comfort, and encourage 1.8 million helpless, desperate, and tired people every year. (11)
They have a lot of life experience and empathy, resilience, and “communicative competence,” as social scientists say – but hardly ever have a degree in psychology or medicine. To prepare them for their nerve-wracking job, three weekends and around thirty evenings over a year and a half are enough. (12) It remains to be proven that more could be achieved if qualified psychologists and psychiatrists were all on the phone at the 109 contact points nationwide.
A little training is enough to make laypeople even more successful in dealing with psychological distress than many already are. As a rule, less than fifteen hours are sufficient. (13)
From all of this, it follows with shocking clarity: In psychology, long-term, expensive academic training does not lead to any significant advantage over untrained helpers. The therapeutic services provided by laypeople are at least equal, if not superior. At the beginning of their studies – this is also shown by the available studies – professionals were better helpers than after they had completed their studies.
Neither longer training nor increasing professional experience makes them better able to cope with psychological stress. (On the other hand, life experience could certainly be significant – more information on this can be found in my book Stochern im the Nebel, Psychological Lies, Volume 4.)
More years of practice generally do not make professional spiritual helpers more capable. (14) A large-scale study of almost 7,000 patients by 170 psychotherapists over a five-year period shows that, with exceptions, positive therapeutic effects become less frequent and weaker the longer the professional has been practicing. (15)
Outrageous but true: According to current research, professional psychotherapists cannot claim to be generally better than so-called “bloody” laypeople.
Do-it-yourself: Not a fundamentally bad idea, even in the depths of your soul
Worse still, professional psychotherapy usually doesn’t even provide any more benefits than self-help. Comparative tests show that suitable reading is just as useful in the depths of the soul, be it guides, stories of fate, life stories, or novels. The same applies to audio and video material on the respective problem on CDs and DVDs, as well as to suitable computer programs or online instructions. (16)
It is at least as good as appointments with a psychotherapist or psychiatrist to write and create your own texts, for example, about current experiences, biographical experiences and problems, symptoms and complaints, longings and hopes. As meta-analyses of 40 or 52 comparative studies have shown, depressed people, those suffering from anxiety and phobias, as well as those with sexual or sleep disorders, could just as easily go to a bookseller, keep a diary, write stories, or surf the Internet instead of going to a psycho professional. (17)
Writing as self-therapy
Without this unprofessional self-help, what would have happened to the 44th President of the United States? When he was young, Barack Obama repeatedly went through difficult times. If he had fallen into the clutches of psychoprofessionals back then, he would probably have been diagnosed with a severe “identity crisis” or “uprooting syndrome” (ICD 10: F68.8), perhaps also with a pronounced “adjustment disorder” (F43) in connection with one “prolonged depressive reaction” (F43.21).
He was six when his mother moved him to Indonesia to live with her second husband. There, Obama suffered from his role as an outsider: “I was this tall, dark-skinned child who somehow stood out.” He was also in a deep state of mind at the beginning of his studies in New York: “I was isolated (…), very serious, somehow humorless.” At times, he didn’t need psychotherapy or antidepressants – he freed himself by keeping a diary and writing stories. “I believe it helped me understand my identity.
Through writing, I dealt with many things that influenced my life (…). This allowed me to put all the individual parts together into a whole. (…) Words are powerful when it comes to finding out who you are and what you think, what you believe, and what is important. And also in sorting out and interpreting the whirlwind of events in which you constantly stand.” (18) That’s how it is.
The Hamburg naturopath and journalist Beate Münchenbach swears by the healing effect of “creative-biographical writing,” who made a massive difference in this way during several “Way Out” therapy camps for people with psychological problems. For her, the reasons are apparent: “Writing is a process involving all the senses and appeals to body, mind and soul.
Writing helps us become aware of the issues that concern us and thus promote change. Writing is courageous because every text is a message to yourself or to others. Writing is a practice because we can try writing and act as if.”
Reading as over-the-counter medicine
Berlin literary scholar Andrea Gerk swears by reading as non-prescription medicine. The best novels “free us from inner prisons,” she says, “and activate our self-healing powers. They sometimes develop a magical power that touches us deep down.” (19). Bibliotherapy has been recognized as a healing procedure in the USA since 1939.
In Great Britain, patients can be prescribed books to combat depression. (20) The London School of Life recommends literature as self-help, a contact point for those seeking support that was opened in 2008 by the philosopher Alain de Botton, where “you can learn what you don’t learn at schools and universities: a good and fulfilling life lead.” (21)
Numerous studies now show how effective reading is in helping with a variety of psychological problems. (22) It has always been this way – not just since it became another scientific treatment method, as in the “Integrative Poetry and Bibliotherapy” by Hilarion Petzold and Ilse Orth. (23)
Films as psychotherapeutic
Well-made feature films are also ideal for self-help. Who hasn’t used a comedy like “Father of the Bride” to brighten their mood? Who hasn’t cried their own heartache while watching Hollywood dramas like “Love Story”? Even watching Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man, or
Cinema is most valuable in terms of self-therapy when it brings moving life stories of characters with whom we can easily identify to a satisfying, plausible end. From Zach Braff’s “Garden State,” a depressed person learns that it’s okay not always to be happy. Films like Jonathan Demme’s “Philadelphia” and Randa Haines’ “God’s Forgotten Children” make it clear that not even a terminal illness or an incurable disability can prevent a self-confident life that offers plenty of reasons to be proud of oneself.
Oliver Haffner’s “Gift from the Gods” helps unemployed people maintain self-respect, dignity, and confidence. Kay Pollack’s “Like in Heaven” gives you the courage to pursue unfulfilled dreams, to find your own path, not to force anything, and to live genuinely. Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Colors: Blue” shows that even the most terrible blow of fate does not have to plunge us into endless despair. His female protagonist survives a car accident in which she lost her husband and child. At first, she wants to kill herself, but then she manages to find new meaning in music. Such films often move and change significantly more than many professional therapy sessions.
The philosopher and psychotherapist Otto Teischel swears by the art form of film as a “path to the self,” as a “main road to meaning” in group and individual therapy: “Like hardly any other art form, undreamt-of riches of knowledge are hidden in feature films: it speaks to us, with almost all senses at the same time, in the head and in the heart.” (24) Teischel recommends over a hundred films “with psychotherapeutic relevance” for a wide range of psychiatric symptoms. (25)
Why don’t we do it like he once did? Even without expert guidance from outside, Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” touched him deeply many years ago and he watched the rousing road movie repeatedly. (26)
“Paraprofessionals” also deserve respect.
Even so-called paraprofessionals – care workers such as social workers, nurses, and geriatric nurses – who experienced psychiatrists and psychotherapists tend to look down on can demonstrably keep up with academically trained health professionals, as has been shown in comparative studies. Even with severe depression and anxiety, they achieve at least as much. (27)
In a British study, nurses, after being familiarized with the basics of behavioral therapy in two workshops, cared for 222 hypochondriacs – imaginary patients – whom doctors had previously described as highly anxious about their own health among 29,000 inpatients in English specialist clinics had assessed. For comparison, 222 others remained untreated and only received regular care. After five to ten sessions, fears of illness had decreased significantly in the treatment group.
A year later, the support was still having an effect: 13.9 percent of those treated by laypeople were still not overly concerned about their own well-being, compared to only 7.3 percent in the control group. The efforts of the non-professionals also had a beneficial effect on general anxiety and depression. (28)
Honorable monstrosity – so what?
And so psycho professionals have to admit with increasing horror: In their traditional fields of activity, seemingly clueless people can obviously keep up. Worse still, in many cases, they perform better. An increasing number of studies are proving this honorable monstrosity.
Example of family support: Socially committed retirees, as “step-grandparents,” tend to be more helpful in caring for neglected preschool children with behavioral problems than psycho professionals. (29)
Example school problems: Difficult, maladjusted students can be persuaded to behave in the desired way to a degree that hardly any school psychologist could achieve by their peers who are used explicitly as change agents – in other words, as “triggers of change” -: They become more helpful, more attentive and balanced, feel more connected, disturb less, listen better. (30)
Example of addiction prevention: If drug addicts are taken care of by former addicts, the relapse rate drops to a sensational six percent over an observation period of at least three and a half years – compared to 92 percent in state rehabilitation programs. (31)
Example of the prison system: lay helpers contribute to the psychological stabilization of prisoners no worse than prison psychologists, quite the opposite. (32)
Example of rehabilitation: How often do prisoners violate probation conditions when lay people look after them on a voluntary basis? A survey in the city-state of Hamburg showed a failure rate of 24 percent – compared to 45 percent for professional probation officers. (33) Nor did professionals prove to be superior in a study at the University of Long Beach, California, in which students and middle-aged women looked after juvenile delinquents: relapses, job losses, school dropouts, and problem behavior such as binge drinking were no more common than in professional ones Care. (34)
Example of disaster relief: After the devastating earthquake in Kobe in 1995, as well as after the tsunami in northern Japan in 2011, hundreds of volunteers were deployed there as kokoro, “comforters of the heart.” They cared for the survivors, comforted them, and had in-depth conversations with them to help them come to terms with the terrible experiences and losses. Nobody missed any professionals.
Example of refugee aid: Among the hundreds of thousands who fled from war zones to Germany, one in three is considered to be severely traumatized by the violence they themselves experienced or observed: mistreatment, rape, torture, kidnapping, destruction, and shootings. Within two days of the course, teachers and even children easily learned how to provide beneficial support to such deeply shaken people. In sensitive dialogue, they encouraged those affected to work through their terrible experiences in oral and written stories. (35)
Example of psychiatry: Inpatients opened up, rediscovered forgotten abilities, and became livelier, more balanced, and more joyful after they were visited every week for half a year and included in interest groups by 280 students between the ages of 12 and 15 throughout a seven-year support program. There, people chatted, danced, did gymnastics, sang, played, cooked, put on make-up, and did theater. In the usual clinical routine, no professional had ever done anything before. (36) Patients who are allowed to act as “tutors” provide psychotherapy to fellow inmates more successfully than professionals.
Those cared for in this way become more active, more independent, and more decisive. They cope better with disappointments, participate more in problem-solving, and behave more inconspicuously. (37) Even severely mentally handicapped people make astonishing intellectual progress. (38)
Thanks to lay helpers: care and compassion with a long tradition.
In Germany, in particular, lay assistance in psychiatry has a long, blessed tradition. It goes back to 1829 when the first so-called “auxiliary association” was founded in the Herzoglich-Nassau mental asylum in Eberbach am Neckar. Hundreds of others followed him until the eve of the Nazi regime. Out of Christian charity, psycho-amateurs sacrificed a lot of time, heart, and soul to make their humane solitary confinement more bearable for insane people – and to offer them more than beatings, straitjackets, bed shackles, electric shocks, and brain surgical mutilation.
Many people also took care of released mental patients. The increasing professionalization of psychiatry gradually displaced them, and the systematic extermination of “unworthy of life” mental patients during the National Socialist era made them unnecessary.
It was only in the 1970s that the movement revived, stimulated by the psychiatric reform of 1975, which led to the creation of community psychiatric services, contact points and support groups across the country. Many former patients now launched self-help initiatives, one of the first being the “Irrenoffensive” in Berlin.
Until the mid-20th century, doctors and nurses in hospitals that were more like penitentiaries than sanatoriums preferred to physically abuse people, but lay assistants made a beneficial contribution to the mental well-being of patients. Basically, they alone were the ones who contributed to the psychological aspects of psychiatry. They offered care and compassion, listened, and stood by while professionals with respectable degrees but subterranean EQ guarded, tormented, and prepared. They pitted humanity against heartless science. “By founding aid associations,” wrote the wise doctor Caspar Brosius in 1876 in the monthly magazine Der Irrenfreund, which he founded, “society dutifully makes amends as far as possible for what it itself has committed. (…) The intelligent participation that is given to the insane is not only profitable for the sick individuals – which is what humanity aims to do – but also for human society.” (39)
See also > Nine days in the future – from the “Auswege” camp to the clinic of the future.
This text is a revised excerpt from H. Wiesendanger: Psycholügen, Volume 3: Seelentief: in Fall fuer Profis?, Schönbrunn 1st edition 2017.
More of this series:
1 Extensively researched: Many laypeople can do more
3 Dodo bird in the psychotechnics race
4 How much does psychotherapy really help?
5 Why is psychotherapy useful?
6 Why some Laypeople are better Therapists
7 Embarrassing, telling: successful imposters
8 Psychotherapy as a source of danger
9 What some professionals can do better – and why
10 Pragmatism instead of lobbying – for wise psycho-politics
Support “Ways Out Charity“! With your support, we can help and move forward. > https://bit.ly/3wuNgdO
Remarks
* Pseudonyme
1 Stern Nr. 43, 23.3.2017, S. 42; Focus 4.3.2005 und PDF-Ratgeber Depression: Leben am Tiefpunkt; Spiegel online, 25.9.2016: „Mein Partner ist depressiv – was tun?“; Welt/N24, 17.12.2009: „Depression – die Krankheit mit dem Mangel an Sinn“; Bild, 26.12.2016: „Tipps für den Umgang mit Depressiven“.
2 ChatGPT am 24.10.2023 auf meine Frage: “Können Laien bei psychischen Problemen helfen?”
3 Siehe zusammenfassend Hildegard Müller-Kohlenberg: Laienkompetenz im psychosozialen Bereich. Beratung – Erziehung – Therapie, Opladen 1996.
4 Siehe Robert R. Carkhuff: „Differential functioning of lay and professional helpers“, Journal of Counseling Psychology 15 (2) 1968, S. 117-126, dort S. 122. Averil E. Karlsruher: „The nonprofessional as a psychotherapeutic agent“, American Journal of Community Psychology 2 (1) 1974, S. 61-77; J. A. Durlak: „Comparative effectiveness of paraprofessional and professional helpers“, Psychological Bulletin 86/1979, S. 80-92.
5 Diese Zahlen nennt die Internetplattform www.selbsthilfe-wirkt.de
6 Robert Koch-Institut: Telefonischer Gesundheitssurvey des Robert Koch-Instituts zu chronischen Krankheiten und ihren Bedingungen.
7 Alf Trojan, Stefan Nickel, Robert Amhof, Jan Böcken: “Soziale Einflussfaktoren der Teilnahme an Selbsthilfezusammenschlüssen. Ergebnisse ausgewählter Fragen des Gesundheitsmonitors”, Gesundheitswesen 68/2006, S. 364–375.
8 M. Peböck/S. Doblhammer/J. Holzner: „Einblicke und Ausblicke – Selbsthilfe als Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Forschung“, in O. Meggeneder (Hrsg.): Selbsthilfe im Wandel der Zeit. Neue Herausforderungen für die Selbsthilfe im Gesundheitswesen, Frankfurt/Main 2011, S. 227-255; B. Borgetto: Selbsthilfe und Gesundheit. Analysen, Forschungsergebnisse und Perspektiven, Bern 2004.
9 Stiftung Warentest: „Mehr Lebensfreude“, test 2/2003, S. 91-95.
10 M. L. Moeller: „Wodurch wirken Selbsthilfe-Gruppen? Zu einigen therapeutischen Prinzipien der Gruppenbehandlung“, Gruppenpsychologische Gruppendynamik 8/1977, S. 337-357; A. Bachl/R. B. Büchner/W. Stark: „Beratungskonzepte und Dienstleistungen gesundheitsbezogener Selbsthilfe-Initiativen“, Gesundheitswesen 58 (2) 1996, S. 120-124; E. Vonderlin: „Die Bedeutung von Gesprächsgruppen für die Bewältigung einer Frühgeburt durch die Eltern“, Frühförderung interdisziplinär 18/1999, S.19-27.
11 Nach Telefonseelsorge: „Gesamtstatistik für das Jahr 2015“, www.telefonseelsorge.de, abgerufen am 18.12.2016.
12 Siehe www.telefonseelsorge-ostoberfranken.de : „Information über die Ausbildung zur ehrenamtlichen Mitarbeit“, abgerufen am 18.12.2016.
13 T. Gunzelmann u.a.: „Laienhelfer in der psychosozialen Versorgung: Meta-Analyse zur differentiellen Effektivität von Laien und professionellen Helfern“, Gruppendynamik 18/1987, S. 361-384, S. 379.
14 H. N. Garb: „Clinical judgment, clinical training, and professional experience“, Psychological Bulletin 105/1989, S. 387–396; Frank Jacobi u.a.: „Wie häufig ist therapeutischer Misserfolg in der ambulanten Psychotherapie?“, Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie 40 (4) 2011, S. 246-256, dort S. 252.
15 M. L. Smith/G. V. Glass: „Metaanalysis of Psychotherapy Outcome Studies“, American Psychologist 32/1977, S. 752 – 760, nach methodisch strengeren Kriterien bestätigt durch J. T. Landman/R. M. Dawes: „Psychotherapy Outcome: Smith and Glass’ Conclusions Stand Up to Scrutinity“, American Psychologist 37/1982: 504-516. Carkhuff (s. Anm. 14), S. 120.
16 E. Mayo-Wilson u.a.: „Media-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy and behavioural therapy (self-help) for anxiety disorders in adults“, Cochrane Database Systematic Review 9/2013, CD005330.
17 F. Scogin u.a.: „Efficacy of selfadministered treatment programs. Meta-analytic review“, Professional Psychology Research and Practice 21/1990, S. 42-47; R. A. Gould/G. A. Clum: „A metaanalysis of self-help treatment approaches“, Clinical Psychology Review 13/1993, S. 169-186; Silke Heimes: Warum Schreiben hilft. Die Wirksamkeitsnachweise zur Poesietherapie, Göttingen 2012.
18 Barack Obama im Interview mit der New York Times, in deutscher Übersetzung veröffentlicht in der Süddeutschen Zeitung Nr. 14, 18.1.2017, S. 9.
19 Zit. nach Frankfurter Rundschau, 28.1.2015: „Lesen rettet uns vor uns selbst“; siehe Andrea Gerk: Lesen als Medizin. Die wundersame Wirkung der Literatur, Berlin 2015.
20 Cornelia Geissler: „Rettungsanker“, Frankfurter Rundschau, 26.3.2015.
21 www.theschooloflife.com/berlin/ueber-uns/#&panel1-3, abgerufen am 23.1.2017.
22 Silke Heimes u.a.: „Die Heilkraft der Sprache in der Poesietherapie“, Musik-, Tanz- und Kunsttherapie 19 (1) 2008, S. 36-47; dies.: „Kreative Bewältigung einer Lebenskrise mit Hilfe der Poesietherapie“, Musik-, Tanz- und Kunsttherapie 19 (2) 2008, S. 93-97, Karen A. Baikie/Kay Wilhelm: „Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing“, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 11/2005, S. 338-346.
23 Hilarion Petzold, Ilse Orth (Hrsg.): Poesie und Therapie. Über die Heilkraft der Sprache. Poesietherapie, Bibliotherapie, Literarische Werkstätten. Aisthesis, 2005; Petzold, H. G., Leeser, B., Klempnauer, E. (Hrsg.): Wenn Sprache heilt. Handbuch für Poesie- und Bibliotherapie, Biographiearbeit, Kreatives Schreiben. Aisthesis Verlag, Bielefeld 2017.
24 www.teischel.com/filmtherapie, abgerufen am 23.1.2017; s. sein Buch Die Filmdeutung als Weg zum Selbst, Norderstedt 2007.
25 Teischel: Die Filmdeutung …, a.a.O., S. 221.
26 Susan Vahabzadeh: „Schau hin“, Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr. 17, 21.1.2017, S. 49.
27 P. Boer u.a.: „Paraprofessionals for anxiety and depressive disorders“, Cochrane Database Systematic Review 2/2005, CD004688.
28 Peter Tyrer u.a.: „Clinical and cost-effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients: a multicentre randomised controlled trial“, Lancet 383/Januar 2014, No. 9913, S. 219–225.
29 Hildegard Müller-Kohlenberg: Laienkompetenz im psychosozialen Bereich, Opladen 1996, S. 129 f.; E. L. Cowen/E. Leibowitz/G. Leibowitz: „Utilization of retired people as mental health aides with children, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 38/1968, S. 900-909.
30 J. R. Hilgard/D. C. Staight/U. S. Moore: „Better-adjusted peers as resources in group therapy with adolescents“, Journal of Psychology 73/1969, S. 75-100; D. K. O´Leary: „Der Einzug von Laienhelfern in das Klassenzimmer“, in G. Sommer/H. Ernst (Hrsg.): Gemeindepsychologie, München 1977, S. 120-131.
31 Efren Ramirez: „Help for the addict“, American Journal of Nursing 11/1967, S. 2348-2353. Professioneller Suchtprävention überlegen erwiesen sich „Ex-Addicts“ ebenfalls in einer Studie von Leonard Lo Sciuto u.a.: „Paraprofessional versus professional drug abuse counselors: Attitudes and expectations of the counselors and their clients“, International Journal of the Addictions 19 (3) 1984, S. 233-252. Andere Untersuchungen fanden zumindest keinen Erfolgsvorsprung von Profis: N. J. Konzel/B. S. Brown: „The counselor role as seen by ex-addict counselors, nonaddict counselors, and significant others“, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 41 (2) 1973, S. 315 ff.; B. S. Brown/R. F. Thompson: „The effectiveness of formerly addicted and nonaddicted counselors on client functioning“, Drug Forum 5 (2) 1975, S. 123-129; L. S. Aiken u.a.: „Paraprofessional versus professional drug counselors: Diverse routes to the same role“, International Journal of the Addictions 19 (2) 1984, S. 153-173 (Teil 1), 19 (4) 1984, S. 383-401 (Teil 2).
32 Hildegard Müller-Kohlenberg: Laienkompetenz im psychosozialen Bereich, Opladen 1996, S. 77-89.
33 H. J. Kerner u.a.: „Straf(rest)aussetzung und Bewährungshilfe“, Arbeitspapiere aus dem Institut für Kriminologie der Universität Heidelberg 3/1984.
34 D. A. Dowell: „Volunteers in probation: A research note on evaluation“, Journal of Criminal Justice 6/1978, S. 357-361. In einer weiteren Studie der Universität Nebraska wurden 32 zufällig ausgewählte Straftäter von Richtern, also ebenfalls Personen ohne übliche Vorbildung, nicht minder erfolgreich betreut wie von entsprechend vorgebildeten Fachleuten. John Berman: „The volunteer in parole program“, Criminology 13/1975, S. 111-113.
35 Ärzteblatt, 24.2.2016: „Traumata bei Flüchtlingen: Experte schlägt Laientherapie vor“.
36 Arié Schlosberg: „Seven-year follow-up of an adolescent volunteer program in a psychiatric hospital“, Hospital and Community Psychiatry 42 (6) 1991, S. 632-633.
37 W. E. Needham/H. White/B. J. Fitzgerald: „A patient-therapist program“, Hospital and Community Psychiatry 17 (3) 1966, S. 44-45; E. Pfeiffer: „Patients as therapists“, American Journal of Psychiatry 123 (11) 1967, S. 1413-1418; C. K. Whalen/A. B. Henker: „Creating therapeutic pyramids using mentally retarded patients“, American Journal of Mental Deficiency 74/1969, S. 331-337; M. Mercatoris u.a.: „Mentally retarded residents as paraprofessionals in modifying mealtime behavior“, Journal of Abnormal Psychology 84 (3) 1975, S. 299-302; P. Wagner/M. Sternlicht: „Retarded persons as teachers: retarded adolescents tutoring retarded children“, American Journal of Mental Deficiency 79/1975, S. 674-679.
38 Harold M. Skeels: „Adult status of children with contrasting life experiences“, Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development 105/1966.
39 Caspar Brosius in Der Irrenfreund 18/1876, S. 73.
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