REAL THERAPY
with Gijs Van Breugel
WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE?
You may not be able to name what is wrong.
That is a perfectly good reason to start working with me.
You may reach out when something is not right but you cannot quite name it, or when you know what the problem is but sense it connects to something deeper. And that is where our work begins.
(This is really not exhaustive but illustrates some labels that you may have found for yourself..)
I don't do Labels ...
Here with me you will find broad psychotherapy and coaching across a wide clinical range, not a practice built around one theme, one label, or one kind of suffering.
You will find me and my huge toolbox (EMDR, ACT, DBT, CBT, Mindfulness, Trauma, EFIT, and so on) that I will adapt to whatever meets us in our work together.
What matters is not only what you call it.
What matters is that something in you, or in your life, is no longer holding, no longer moving, no longer changing enough.
You may already understand yourself very well.
You may have read, self-helped, reflected, talked, analysed, coped, kept going.
And still find yourself living inside the same undefined feeling.
Still with me?
If that is where you are, you do not need some other thin version of help.
You do not need another polite hour of talking that leaves the rest of your week to take you over again.
You do not need a kinder label for something that is already costing you too much.
You need serious psychotherapy, taken seriously, inside a structure strong enough to do something with it.
And because of the intensity and continuity of our work, I only work with a small number of clients at a time.
If you are looking for a vague talking space, a quick fix, or a therapist who will help you stay elegantly undecided, this is not for you and that is not me.
If you are looking for real work, real contact, and a form of therapy built to carry much more than a weekly session, then keep reading.
MythBuster
Why the usual therapy route often stays too thin
You may already have had therapy, or not. You may already understand yourself well. You may know your patterns, your history, your diagnosis, your family system, your coping style...
And still you find yourself back in the same place the moment the therapy hour is over, or the self-help book is finished.
And that is the problem.
Not that nothing happened in the session. Not that the therapist said nothing useful. But that your week starts moving again, your life takes over again, and the thing that organises you is still way stronger than the insight you just had.
You may leave the session clearer and still shut down in the same conversation that evening. You may understand your pattern and still disappear inside it on Tuesday morning. You may have brilliant insight and still lose the week that follows to the same fear, the same over-adapting, the same collapse, the same old way of surviving.
That is why I firmly believe that one weekly session is just too thin.
Because the real problem is not only what you can understand in the room. The real problem is what keeps taking over when you are back in your life outside.
If therapy only reaches you in the session, it really does not reach you far and deep enough outside in the real world.
- Well, that is why I work differently.
- Not to be original.
- But because for a lot of what you may bring me, thinner help leaves your real structure totally untouched.
- And if your structure stays untouched, your life stays where it was.
- So is that what you want for you?
What Real Therapy actually is
If you have had enough of one good hour of therapy that vanishes when your week kicks off again, then this is your next step.
Real Therapy is not a weekly session with a little support around it.
It is a fixed therapeutic structure built to keep the work alive while your actual life is still happening.
This is online psychotherapy. It starts with 8 weeks. We meet once a week for 75 minutes online. Between sessions, the work continues through my online therapy platform, written follow-up, reflections, comments, and direct contact between us that keeps the process moving instead of leaving you alone with it the moment the session ends. You have me in your back-pocket.
That is not an extra. That is our work.
The foundation of my approach is Positive Psychology. Not as self-help or forced positivity, but as a serious psychological foundation for working with suffering, resilience, functioning, meaning, strengths and talents, and change in real life. From there, I use my training, methods, and tools that fit you, your problem(s), and the stage of our work.
Because if the hour helps, but the rest of the week still belongs to the old pattern, then the structure and impact are too really thin. If you keep having insight and then losing the thread in your ordinary life, again the structure and impact are too thin. If therapy reaches you in the room but not in your decisions, your reactions, your speech, your relationships, and the way your week actually unfolds, the structure and impact are really too thin. Get it?
I built Real Therapy so that the work does not stop at the session door.
The work does not stop at the exit.
It is also not built around one diagnosis, one theme and label, or one kind of suffering. It is the structure through which I work with you across a broad psychotherapy rainbow.
You are not coming here for one hour of brilliant insight and six days of carrying the rest alone.
You are coming into a therapeutic working relationship with me, strong enough to hold the process while your life is moving, while your patterns are active, and while your old structure is trying to take over again.
That is why my Real Therapy works differently.
Again .. That is why my Real Therapy works differently.
And if you are looking for real therapy that actually reaches you
beyond the 55 minute session,
then this is exactly what you have been missing.
What this work asks of you
This is not passive therapy.
You are not coming to me to talk for 75 minutes, feel a bit clearer, and then leave the rest of the week to chance.
You are coming into a structure with me that asks something back from you.
That matters, because a lot of people want serious change while still hoping they can stay mainly in passive reflection. You cannot build this kind of work on one hour a week and some good intentions and a smile. Not if what is organising your life is already stronger than some insight on its own.
So yes, this asks work, from you AND from me.
You will have me in your
back-pocket.
We meet weekly for 75 minutes. Between sessions, the work continues. You will be asked to stay engaged with it. That can mean writing, reflecting, noticing patterns as they happen, working on my online platform, reading what I send you, responding, and using the space between sessions as part of the therapy instead of treating it as dead time. You will have me in your back-pocket. Especially when it gets rough for you between our meets. A quick talk, chat, or direction, to help you through these rough patches.
Mind you, this is not homework for the sake of just homework. It is there because your life does not pause between our sessions, and neither does the thing we are working on.
The frame is fixed. The work inside it is tailored. I adjust to the person, the problem, and what can realistically be carried by you at that moment. But I do not turn the structure vague in order to make saying yes easier.
So if you come to me, you are not saying yes to a weekly session only. You are saying yes to real engagement, real continuity, and a form of psychotherapy that expects you to enter the work with me.
So is My Real Therapy for You?
Who this is for..
This is for you if you want much more than just a weekly talking hour.
This is for you if you are ready for a fixed frame, real work between sessions, and change that has to reach your actual life, not only your understanding.
Who this is not for..
This is not for you if you want to stay in a “maybe".
This is not for you if you want vague flexibility before commitment, passive therapy, reassurances without challenge, or a weekly hour with as little demand as possible around it.
This is not for you if you are looking for a quick fix, a method to apply, or a softer structure that lets you delay the real work.
Who this is for..
This is for you if you can tolerate directness and pragmatism, if you are willing to work, and if you already know that thinner help has not been enough.
This is for you if you want broad psychotherapy held inside a clear structure.
It is for you if you want me in your back-pocket when it really matters
Who this is not for
This is not for you if you cannot or will not make room for what this asks:
time, attention, continuity, and engagement between sessions.
I am not asking for hours of your day, but continuity and regular work.
If you want something easier to say yes to, this is not it.
SO WHo do I think I am
Pragmatic, Human and to the point,
and always with a smile..
I work from my home in Normandy — quietly, with clients around the world.
I work with English, French and dutch speaking clients.
I’m not here to fix you. I’m here to make sure you stop fixing yourself.
I’m Gijs Van Breugel — psychotherapist and coach.
My work isn’t soft or clinical. It’s human and pragmatic.
I don’t care much for labels, diagnoses or the performance of progress.
I care about the moments when you finally stop performing — and something real slips through and you get it.
Between sessions, I stay connected — not to manage you, but to make sure what we touch doesn’t fade back into noise or worse, into oblivion.
When we work together, you won’t be polished. You’ll be present.
And that changes everything for you.
Price and payment
Our work starts with a fixed 8-week frame.
That first 8-week phase is €1000. You can pay that in one payment, or in 2 payments of €500 every 4 weeks.
When we continue after those first 8 weeks, our work continues in 4-weeks blocks at €500, until notice.
The notice period is 2 weeks.
Payment is preferably done by card through Stripe. Bank transfer is also possible.
My Pragmatism and transparency matter here too
I do not offer pay-per-session options.
That is not because I like rigidity. It is because our work needs a real frame.
I do not offer loose sessions around a vague "maybe".
I offer you a structured therapeutic process, and the financial side is part of that structure.
Because of the intensity and continuity of this work, I only work with a small number of clients at a time.
So now you know..
Before we speak, you now know clearly what the frame is,
what it costs,
and what you will be saying YES to.
Let’s Talk -
What our first conversation is and is not
You have read this page and now you know enough.
You do not need to think any longer.
You now know that this is for you.
Good, so now we can speak.
So this is where you stop reading and where you contact me.
Message me and we will begin our real conversation.
Your yes is already here.
Our First Talk is not where a "maybe" becomes a yes.
It is not there to explain the offer, negotiate the structure, work out the price, or decide whether this work makes sense for you, because you already know that this is for you.
It is our first real conversation after your decision.
We look together at any small tailoring needed inside the frame.
We see whether there is enough trust, clarity, and contact between us to begin our work properly.
And then we decide when we start.
So contact me
You have read this page.
You know what this is.
You know what it asks.
You know what it costs.
You know that this is for you.
So don’t leave this page and take it back into doubt.
Message me and we'll set up our First Talk.
And then we start the real work, Your Real Therapy.