Why do people come to psychotherapy?
People usually come to psychotherapy for two broad and often overlapping reasons.
When distress or a specific problem brings them to therapy. This may include anxiety, depression, panic or obsessive symptoms, the effects of traumatic experiences, chronic stress and overwhelm, psychosomatic difficulties, grief, a life crisis, relationship problems, anger, impulsivity, self-harm, or other self-destructive patterns.
When they want to understand themselves better and live with greater freedom and stability. There does not need to be a diagnosis or an immediate crisis. Psychotherapy can help people recognise limiting patterns, develop greater emotional resilience, make decisions with more clarity, and build healthier relationships.
Who do I work with—and what are the limits of psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy works with a person, not simply a diagnosis. Diagnostic categories can help us identify certain difficulties and organise treatment, but they rarely capture the whole of someone’s experience. When treated as a final explanation of the person, they can become stigmatising and close down questions that still need to be understood.
My work is therefore not limited to a single diagnosis or a narrow group of problems. Individual psychotherapy has the most to offer when someone comes at least partly by choice and can take part in the process. In an acute psychiatric crisis, substance dependence requiring detoxification or inpatient treatment, or serious violent or antisocial behaviour, it cannot be the only or the first form of help. If someone is forced into treatment and has no personal reason for attending, what psychotherapy can achieve is also limited.
How do I work?
I see psychotherapy as a shared exploration of inner psychological reality—the way you experience yourself, other people, and the world. It is an active collaboration rather than coming to an expert for a ready-made prescription. At times, we explore how past experiences have shaped the ways you now understand yourself and anticipate the world; at others, the work is more future-oriented, developing different ways of understanding and responding to new situations.
You bring the experience of your own life, while I contribute questions, observations, professional knowledge and experience, as well as what I notice in our relationship. I do not impose any explanation as final; together, we consider how useful it is in understanding what is happening. My work is grounded in constructivist psychotherapy and significantly influenced by psychoanalytic thought.
Will I always feel better after a session?
The therapeutic relationship should feel safe enough for us to speak about what we usually hide from other people, and sometimes from ourselves. Some sessions may bring relief, while others may leave you unsettled, reflective, or closer to something you would rather avoid. What matters is not that every conversation ends with a pleasant feeling, but that the process gradually leads to a better understanding and integration of different parts of your experience.
Change usually develops over time: by returning to important themes, recognising patterns when they reappear, and developing different ways of bearing what once felt too difficult. What we cannot bear often begins to govern us. As we become better able to understand and tolerate our own experience, more room for choice and change can emerge.
What happens in the first session?
In our first session, we will talk about what brings you to therapy, how you currently understand the difficulty, and what you would like to be different. It is also an opportunity for you to consider whether my way of working feels right for you.
I offer individual psychotherapy in person in Belgrade and online. Sessions last 60 minutes and usually take place once a week.