About me

Patricia Bust, Dipl. Sozialpäd. (FH), Systemische Therapeutin (DGSF), Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie

1. Therapeutic practice and qualifications

Since 2011: Working in my own practice for psychotherapy, coaching, couples and family therapy

• 2011 – 2015: Location Hannover-Oststadt
• Since 2015: Location Hannover City (main areas: individual, couples, family and trauma therapy)
• 2014 – 2018: Systemische Einzel‑, Paar- und Familientherapie / Praxis Institut Nord (DGSF-certified)
• 2010 – 2012: Training & state licence as Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie / Paracelsusschule Hannover

2. Academic background

• 1994 – 1997: Studies in social pedagogy / Evangelische Fachhochschule Hannover
  • Main areas: developmental and attachment psychology, school social work, couples therapy, family law
  • Diploma thesis (2009): “Methoden der Konfliktregelung in der psychosozialen Arbeit mit Paaren” (main areas: attachment theory, escalation dynamics, transactional analysis)
  • Practical placements:
    • Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (psychiatric day clinic)
    • School social work (IGS-Mühlenberg)
    • Special needs school “Schule auf der Bult” (focus: early childhood trauma and attachment disorders)
    • Pre-study placement / AWO Kindertagesstätte

3. Ongoing specialist therapeutic training (selection)

• Trauma therapy and acute support:
  • EMDR in Therapie und Coaching (EMDR-Ausbildungszentrum München, 2017)
  • Arbeit mit traumatisierten Menschen (Praxis Institut Nord and ZPTN, 2016)
• Therapy and counselling approaches:
  • Tiefenpsychologischer Fortbildungskurs (Winnicott Institut Hannover, 2015–2016)
  • Verhaltenstherapie für Kinder, Jugendliche und Erwachsene (Paracelsusschule, 2015)
  • Sexualtherapie (Hartmut Gutsche, 2015)
  • Paarcoaching / specialist training (Tasso Hildebrand, 2013)
  • Hypnose-Grundlagen (Thomas Schnura, 2013)
  • NLP-Practitioner (Zentrum für Metakommunikation Hannover, 2013–2014)
• Communication skills and relaxation:
  • Lösungsorientierte Gesprächsführung (Paracelsusschule Hannover, 2012)
  • Gewaltfreie Kommunikation nach Marshall B. Rosenberg (Ela Windels, 2013)
  • Progressive Muskelentspannung (PMR) nach Jacobson – seminar leader certificate (2014)

4. Specialist talks, congresses and knowledge transfer

• 2024: Attendance at the M.E.G. Jahrestagung Kassel: “Ericksonsche Hypnose und Psychotherapie” / Milton Erickson Gesellschaft e.V.
• 2024: Workshop attendance “Generation-Code wird 30 Jahre” / workshop / Institut für transgenerative Prozesse
• 2023: Specialist talk “MAD WORLD – Wenn Patient:innen globale Krisen als Thema einbringen” (in cooperation with Dipl.-Psych. Fabian Chmielewski)
• 2012: Attendance at specialist workshops & symposia (including the Psychotherapie-Symposium Dresden on the topics:
  • Systemic approaches and the Milan School
  • Resource-oriented management of anxiety
  • Resilience in the face of loss and crisis and Creative methods in therapy

5. Earlier career

• 1999 – 2011: Bilingual host (DE/EN) for events, congresses and panel discussions
• 1989 – 1993: Regional manager, “Pro Concept Marketing”, Cologne
• Before 1999: International work in hosting, presentation and performance (including engagements as the assistant in a magic show on cruise ships and as a catwalk model) as well as in marketing.

About me

My path into psychotherapy was shaped to a large extent by a varied and eventful life story. On my mother’s side I come from a lively family with French roots, and I grew up in Hesse surrounded by my parents, my mother’s five sisters and my grandparents. During my primary school years my family moved to Hannover, where my father built up an electronics wholesale business.

My early enthusiasm for expression and movement took me on stage in 1983 as a dancer with a band of the “Neue Deutsche Welle” – an exciting time.

From 1989 onwards came many years of work as a bilingual host for panel discussions and events. Here I honed skills that benefit me in therapy today: deep listening, structuring complex topics and my feeling for people.

Yet my life also held early, profound upheavals in store: after my mother’s sudden death in an accident and the subsequent loss of my father following a serious illness, I was on my own at the age of 19. I had to learn early on to take on existential responsibility. Consciously working through these traumatic experiences taught me how to go through the deepest pain and emerge from it stronger.

Today I draw a great deal of empathy and open-minded understanding for my clients from this crisis-tested life experience, from many years of therapeutic work on myself and from my creative background. Together with the backing and the experience of my long marriage (since 1997) and the loving contact with our adult son, I have matured through these steps and so have a solid foundation for my daily work in the practice.