Wake-Up Call

Reflections on all kinds of cutting tools

Psychological counseling beyond the realm of medical treatment is like a Swiss Army knife: versatile, flexible, the first choice for many situations. Psychotherapy is like a scalpel: precise, specialized, legally regulated. Both tools have their place – but they are, of course, not the same.

Once upon a time, there was a pocketknife that had strayed into a world full of scalpels. The scalpels were admired in this world, for it was their world – they were sharp, shiny, medically certified. The pocketknife felt inferior there.

So it tried to become a scalpel. It rubbed its blade against stones to sharpen it, hid its other tools to look like a scalpel from afar. The saw, the tweezers, the magnifying glass, and the little flashlight – all became invisible.

It wanted at least to be a third-rate scalpel. To be mistaken for a real one from a distance. But the more it adapted, the duller it became. The unused functions fell into oblivion and eventually even rusted.

Dear pocketknives out there – You can and may do everything, except operate. You are versatile, flexible, creative. You shine, grasp, saw, open, hold things together.

Stop hiding. Stop bending yourselves just to perform exactly the ten percent you were not made for. The world needs you more than ever – your ninety percent. Behind you stand millennia of accumulated knowledge. The world is wondering right now where you are, and whether it can manage without you at all.

Wake up and be proud of yourselves – so much so that the first scalpels will soon start disguising themselves as Swiss Army knives.

The diversity of psychological knowledge lies largely outside the field of medical treatment and has long since permeated our world: in advertising, industry, diplomacy, and politics. It shapes markets, influences decisions, molds power, and helps determine war or peace. And yet it remains astonishingly inaccessible to the individual. Psychotherapy has other tasks and legally defined boundaries. Only psychological counseling can close this gap and open the door to the diversity of psychological insight for individuals. This is only possible if counseling stops trying to live off the academic crumbs that fall from the table of medical treatment. It is time to stand tall with confidence – and finally cultivate a vast field.

Counseling is not therapy lite – it is expertise in its own right. In public provision there is a glaring gap: people seek orientation, development, clarity – and often find only therapy slots with months of waiting time. Yet it is not always about healing. It is about life issues, decisions, roles, meaning. Counseling could shine here. But too often it presents itself as near-therapy. With a healing posture, therapeutic language, and the implicit promise of being “almost as good.” That is a misunderstanding – and a strategic mistake. Because whoever presents themselves like therapy will also be judged like therapy. And will lose: in price, in trust, in positioning. I argue for a confident rethinking. Counseling is not a substitute – it is an independent format with its own depth, its own methodology, and its own target group. My analysis shows: 97% of the German population uses neither medical treatment nor coaching. A gigantic market. For many of these people need clarity, resonance, perspective – and are willing to honor the value of counseling. This is precisely where the opportunity lies for counseling as an independent format – if it dares to show its strengths.

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