Hi! I am

Jess(i)

Dr. Jessi Komes

Therapist, Psychologist & Neuroscientist

Jessica by birth name, really, I am more of a Jessi and then became a Jess in the UK. You find a summary of my key qualifications for the services I offer below. What I’d really like to offer here though, is a felt sense, or a taste or experience of my who I am, and what it would be like to work with me. This is very much guided by core principles and values which apply to the services I offer.

My life has always meant constant change. Up to the age of 35, I moved around the globe more than twenty times, including within Germany, where I am from. I identify as a seeker, with all the gifts and pitfalls. For as long as I am in charge, my personal as well as professional life have been characterised by openness and courage for growth through change. I know what it feels like to be tossed around in choppy waters with a boat that appears too small to withstand the storm, and I do know what it feels like to rein in the crew, put the hands back on the wheel and steer the ship.

Fallen for yoga

For a long time, intellectual challenges served me well and helped me feel safe and secure in the world. Originally, I have studied psychology in Germany, obtained a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, then pursued postdoctoral work in this area for a few years both in Germany as well as the UK.

During my PhD and as an ex-dancer, I fell in love with Yoga. It granted me with an experience of being in my body free of judgement. Since 2015 I have been working as a fully qualified and accredited Yoga and Meditation teacher and worked in clinical settings with body-oriented therapy to help people with chronic pain, cancer, Parkinson's, and all kinds of mental health including eating disorders, anxiety, depression both in Germany as well as the UK. I also founded and directed the first yoga and meditation cancer support groups in the Northeast of England.

INTRIGUIED BY PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE

Building on these experiences, I was fascinated by how ‘being in the body’ supports wellbeing. By that I mean being and feeling well for people who are at the same time suffering from life threating physical and mental illness or were otherwise facing personal hardship. I was drawn back into psychology and neuroscience as part of a quest to develop my own framework and to advance my work on uniting body-mind experience soulfully. Through academic research I knew I could ask questions, seek answers, and develop treatments in a systematic way. Through teaching students and collaborating with other clinicians and scientists, I can inspire curiosity and interest, co-create and innovate. I consider myself lucky that the university world welcomed me and my endeavours with open arms. Since 2019, I have been working as a treatment developer, Assistant Professor and co-program director in clinical psychology at the University of Newcastle, UK and I am now continuing my work at the University Hospital Bonn.

Inspired by Psychosynthesis

In 2018, just a year before re-entering academia and following my hunch of a missing link, I had started my training in Psychosynthesis - a seemingly gentle, yet profound and powerful approach to counselling, coaching and psychotherapy. Before my acquaintance with Psychosynthesis, indeed since the age of 15 years, I had been trying out different approaches to therapy or life coaching including cognitive-behavioural therapy, psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches as well as systemic therapy. None of them did the trick. Psychosynthesis came to offer me the framework through which I now approach my work – and my entire life really. With its transpersonal take on people and systems, Psychosynthesis honours the status quo yet perpetually looks towards the emergent, towards what could be possible. Problems or symptoms are respected in the sense that they are expressive of how the status quo no longer serves. Thus, a new order of things or new ways of being are facilitated by helping the person/team/system to enter the yet unknown. The unknown is the realm where creativity and potentiality reside.

I hold diplomas in counselling (2021) and psychotherapeutic treatment (2024) as well as a Master of Arts (2023) based on my specialisation on embodiment in psychological treatment. I accompany people in individual therapy and coaching and have been applying Psychosynthesis in my leadership roles in clinical and organisational settings. You can read more about how I use this approach in respect to the various services I offer.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

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Now & since 2016

Consultant for research, training and innovation in businesses and services, treatment developer in clinical and intervention designer in non-clinical and organisational settings, Body-integrative therapist & psychologist in private practice

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Now & since 2025

Body-oriented Psychotherapist & Psychological Treatment Developer in Gerontopsychiatry, Centre for Neurology Psychiatry and Psychosomatics (NPP), University Hospital of Bonn, Germany

Lecturer & Researcher in Medical Psychology, Centre for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Bonn, Germany

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Now & since 2024

Faculty Member, Studies Advisor & Trainer at the Institute of Psychosynthesis, London

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2019- 2024

Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Psychology, Newcastle University

Deputy Programme Director MSc Foundations in Clinical Psychology

Psychological Therapies Treatment Developer, Newcastle University

Practitioner/Therapist (UK Council for Psychotherapists, UKCP)

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2018-2019

Senior Research Associate body-integrative interventions, Durham University, UK

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2016-2019

Lead of Yoga and Meditation Cancer Support Groups, Body-oriented therapeutic group and individual sessions for clients of all ages affected by a wide range of physical and mental conditions (e.g. eating disorders, anxiety & PTSD, depression, Parkinson’s)

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2011-2016

Pre – and Post-doctoral Research Fellow (funded by the Research Council)

DFG Person Perception Research Unit & Department of General Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena University, Germany

Education

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2018-2024

Post Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapy

Post-Graduate Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling accredited by UKCP (450 supervised client hours/71 written case studies and presentations) Institute of Psychosynthesis, London, UK

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2018-2023

Master or Arts (M.A.) Psychosynthesis Psychology & Psychotherapy, Distinction and Award for best thesis Title: Disembodiment as Expression of a homeless Self , Institute of Psychosynthesis & Middlesex University, London, UK

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2018-2021

Post-Graduate Diploma in Counselling, British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, BACP (100 supervised client hours/17 written case studies and presentations), Institute of Psychosynthesis, London, UK

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2011-2015

Yoga and Meditation Teacher (880 training hours over four-year programme) accredited by the German and European Yoga Union (EYU) meeting the standards to design and provide health- insurance covered yoga programmes in preventive and therapeutic care. Qualification in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), Jena, Germany

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2011-2014

PhD: Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of General Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena University, Germany