Discreet Psychological Counseling · Est. 1997

A Few Words About Me

Psychology has always been a path of insight for me — never merely a profession. My journey began with an apprenticeship in banking. Soon I was working for several years with corporate and private clients as well as in securities consulting. It was there that I realized: at its core, the stock market is psychology. This insight marked a turning point — in the best sense. If markets are driven by expectations, perceptions, and emotions, then I wanted to understand psychology itself.

While still working in the securities department, I bought a book that has accompanied me ever since: Zimbardo’s Introduction to Psychology. Suddenly, the Handelsblatt and the Börsenzeitung had competition. I read the book at every opportunity — during breaks, on my way home, on weekends. It opened up a world far beyond therapy or coaching — from psychophysics to the subtle mechanisms of perception. That copy, now visibly worn, still has a place of honor on my shelf. It reminds me that psychology is not just a discipline, but a vast and profound field that fundamentally expands our understanding of human beings and the world.

I experienced my years at university as pure luxury — not in the material sense, but as the freedom to devote myself entirely to thinking and learning. My small student room was my kingdom, the city — 2,000 years old, steeped in history and atmosphere — my stage. At that time, Bonn was a center of General Psychology, and I had the privilege of attending lectures by figures such as Bredenkamp, who had a formative influence on the discipline in Germany. It was a daily rhythm of encounters, of material that had long fascinated me, sustained by curiosity and intellectual abundance.

Yet this luxury was not only academic. Bonn is a city where history can be breathed in, set within a landscape full of allure — the Rhine, the old buildings, the distinctive microclimate at the gateway to the Romantic Rhine Valley. Evenings in the pubs, barbecues with driftwood along the riverbank, encounters with people from all over the world. Even the roadblocks during state visits, or the occasional closure of the street leading to my apartment because the Minister of Labor lived just two streets away and arrived with his security detail, had in their own way a certain charm. For me, it was a very special time in my life: carried by curiosity, intellectual abundance, and a great sense of lightness — and by that unique atmosphere that only Bonn could bestow.

The sense of freedom I experienced during that stage of my life has never left me. Even after my studies, I have continued to understand psychology in its full breadth and to carry it forward. I gave lectures, accompanied people in independent counseling, and developed concepts that remain relevant to this day. For me, it was natural not to see the richness of that formative period as a closed chapter, but as an ongoing movement.

For almost two decades I have accompanied people whose requirements for confidentiality, depth, and clarity are particularly high. Many of them are in public life or bear responsibility in business, politics, or society. For them I have developed, over decades, an architecture of discretion that is unique in its consistency — a protected space in which thoughts are free to unfold.

Modern academic psychology is scarcely a century and a half old — a young discipline, considering that human beings have always reflected on soul, consciousness, and behavior. In many cultures, this knowledge has been preserved in ancient systems. When one brushes away the dust, something remarkable appears: across continents and millennia, one finds ideas that are essentially alike. This convergence has broadened my perspective and continues to guide me — and in connection with my idea of Open‑Source Psychology, it creates the possibility of building bridges and opening new perspectives in fascinating ways.

Out of this inner freedom grew a certain caution toward the counseling concepts I encountered. Not because I reject structures, but because I believe they only make sense when they truly serve people. It never, for example, made sense to me that so‑called professional neutrality should replace loyal and attentive counseling. Those who seek advice do not expect a detached observer with a clinical gaze, but a knowledgeable ally on their path toward clarity.

In this way, my own approaches emerged in practice – shaped by values I often found missing in the world around me. New guiding principles crystallized almost naturally in my daily work; all I had to do was put them into writing. One of them is Open‑Source Psychology – the psychology of open sources. It obliges me, and anyone who joins in, to disclose to clients the sources and the underlying mechanisms. This also includes translating complex content into everyday language, while at the same time reflecting on the limits of spoken words. How the unspeakable can nevertheless be conveyed, I demonstrated in my article “Two Sages and a Child”. For it is about nothing less than the psyche of other human beings. To me, this principle is more than a method: it is a manifesto.

What was once pure luxury — even a grace — I now pass on. The freedom with which I was once allowed to learn — freedom of thought, freedom of time, the freedom to let ideas mature — has never left me. Today I offer it to my guests: a space in which thinking can once again become free.

In my profession, one does not plaster billboards — one is found by those who resonate. I am glad that you have found me.

Karl-Heinz Meisters

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Consultations available in German, English and Spanish

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Ethics as the Foundation of My Counseling

Counseling thrives on trust – and trust grows when values are clearly articulated. My Ethics Code reveals the principles that guide my work: respect for human dignity, responsibility in action, and clarity in dialogue. In this way, a space emerges in which genuine development becomes possible. [read more...]

Guidelines of My Consulting

Principles that are non‑negotiable: Read why I am partial, judgmental, biased and stubborn.

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