JONA – Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy

The Department JONA – Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy – comprises a 16-bed inpatient ward and a psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic outpatient facility.

JONA employs a multimodal therapeutic concept using psychodynamic and systemic approaches, based on the anthroposphic understanding of the human being. Inpatient and outpatient treatment focuses on the individual situation and applies specific anthroposophic therapies and remedies, including specific medicines, external treatments and artistic therapies.
Our therapeutic concept is resource orientated. We seek to understand both health and illness within the context of biographical development. Psychosomatic complaints and symptoms can be an expression of - or even an attempt to resolve - inner and outer problems or biographical crises. An important aspect of the therapeutic work is to understand, together with the patient, the significance of the illness and the dynamic driving the symptomatology. This has the potential to open up new possibilities for the patient and to engender courage and a sense of freedom to undertake processes of transformation and change.

The professional interdisciplinary team at JONA accompanies each patient on an individual path of development, helping to strengthen the patient’s own healing forces and resources. This process takes place in a number of different ways, involving all the senses. The rhythm of daily life on the ward with fixed times for activity and rest, a conscious awareness and management of warmth and cold and the absence of television are as much a part of the treatment as individual and group psychotherapy sessions, artistic therapies, visualisation sessions, movement therapy, garden therapy and the external treatments.

An individual therapeutic objective is developed for each patient together with partners and family if appropriate. If required, counselling with a social worker can be arranged.

The diagnosis and treatment of somatic illnesses should, if possible, have been dealt with before admission to JONA, so that the inpatient admission can focus fully on psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic treatment. This can be clarified in detail in a preliminary outpatient consultation. If there are particular questions in this respect or if acute illness or an emergency arises, the various specialist departments for somatic disease at the Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus for diagnosis and treatment.

At JONA we understand that many psychological and psychosomatic illnesses arise within the context of trauma. Therefore ‘trauma’ is a focal point in our approach to treatment and therapy. Principally Pychodynamic Imaginative Trauma Therapy PITT (Dr. L. Reddemann) is employed, which involves control of closeness and distance, thoughtful handling of one’s own body and working with disturbing emotions. EMDR can be employed if necessary.