Life and career crises
A job change or a job lost, a birthday that lands hard, the sense that the path you chose is no longer yours. We look at what actually changed, which supports are still standing, and what the next step is built from.
Cognitive behavioural therapy · in practice since 2006
A crisis isn’t the end — it’s the point where the old stops working and the new isn’t here yet.
I help people get through that point with a method you can actually follow: we work out what exactly stopped working, and rebuild something you can stand on next. No vague talk, and no promises that can’t be kept.
I reply personally, usually within one working day. A first session commits you to nothing.
19 years in practice
CBT and schema therapy
Regular supervision
In person and online
55 minutes
A first session is a conversation about what’s going on. No obligation to continue.
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When it’s worth reaching out
People rarely come for “therapy”. They come with a precise point where they got stuck.
None of the lines below is a diagnosis, and none of them means that everything’s falling apart. They are simply the situations where an outside professional view saves months of going in circles.
01
You’re used to solving problems and coping on your own — but this one won’t give way to the old methods.
02
You made an important decision and still aren’t sure it was the right one — and it won’t let go.
03
At home the same conversations keep circling, and you both already know how each one ends.
04
Work has stopped making sense and rest has stopped restoring — and you can’t see where the energy goes.
05
Anxiety has become the background: you wake up with it, live with it, and no longer remember life without it.
06
Something has felt wrong for a long time, but it won’t go into words. That’s a fine place to begin.
You don’t need to know where to start, and you don’t need to arrive with a formulated request. Coming to a first session is enough — the wording is something we put together.
Areas of work
What I work with in private practice.
Anxiety and tension
Constant alertness, sleepless nights, tension held in the body, panic attacks. In CBT this has a clear mechanism behind it — and a clear order of work to take it apart.
Couples and relationships
Arguments that repeat, quiet distance, the feeling of not being heard. We work with the couple together: we find the script that switches on every time, and learn to step out of it earlier.
Burnout
When ordinary tasks demand impossible effort and a holiday no longer helps. We look at where the resource goes, what keeps draining it, and which demands you make of yourself are long overdue for review.
Self-worth and the inner critic
Constant comparison with others, the sense of never being quite enough, the habit of discounting your own results. We trace where that inner voice came from and how to stop taking it for the truth.
Hard decisions and choices
A separation, a move abroad, a change of profession, a conversation postponed for years. I don’t make the decision for you — I help you see it without the distortions that fear and exhaustion add.
The walk to the consulting room is already part of the work: fifteen minutes in which you switch from “hold it together” to “here I can think out loud”.
Method
Cognitive behavioural therapy: why it works, and not simply “because you talked”.
CBT starts from something simple: between an event and your reaction there is always a thought — fast, automatic, almost always unnoticed. That thought sets the emotion and the behaviour. We make the chain visible and start testing it for strength — on real situations from your own week, not on abstractions.
01
Situation
One specific episode: a call, an email, a conversation in the kitchen. Not “everything is bad”, but a point on a timeline.
02
Automatic thought
What flashed through your mind in a split second. It usually goes unnoticed — yet it’s what switches on all the rest.
03
Emotion and body
Irritation, anxiety, a weight in the chest. We learn to name them precisely — a blurred feeling has nothing to be matched against.
04
Response
What you did: went quiet, snapped, put it off. This is where it becomes visible what actually closes the circle.
05
Testing it
We look for facts for and against the thought and try another move — first in the room, then in life. That is how the whole chain shifts.
The scheme looks simple. The difficulty isn’t in understanding it, but in spotting it inside your own life — in the moment when it has already washed over you. That’s what the work is for.
Alongside CBT I draw on elements of schema therapy — when reactions rest on beliefs held since childhood — and on the EFT approach in work with couples.How the work goes
A clear order of work: at any moment you know where we are.
About me
Mikael Ahlberg, psychologist and cognitive behavioural therapist.
“I don’t hand out ready answers and I don’t decide for you. My work is to make sure you see the situation without distortion, and can choose with your eyes open.”
In practice since 2006, licensed by Valvira. For years I worked at a municipal crisis centre in Helsinki; since 2013 I have kept a private practice only — on my own, with no clinic and no assistants: people come to me, not to a centre. A large share of my clients are men between 30 and 55, and couples who want to understand the logic of what is happening, not only to be supported through it.
I am in regular supervision and in personal therapy. This is not a formality: a therapist without an outside professional view inevitably starts working from his own blind spots. Confidentiality and professional ethics hold at every stage of the work.
- Education
- MSc in Psychology, University of Helsinki, 2004 — licensed psychologist, registered with Valvira
- Specialisation
- Professional training in cognitive behavioural therapy, institute accredited by the EABCT, 2010
- Further training
- Certification in schema therapy (2016); EFT programme for couples: Externship and Core Skills (2019)
- Supervision
- Individual and group, no fewer than 40 hours a year
- Sessions
- Helsinki, Punavuori — in person; online — across Finland and Europe
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Therapy isn’t about ceasing to care. It’s about seeing clearly what exactly hurts, and what can be done about it.
Formats and fees
Clear terms, with no packages and no paying months in advance.
Easy start
First session
55 minutes · in person or online
$90
Getting acquainted and clarifying the situation. Afterwards we decide together whether to continue, and in what format. Continuing is your choice, not a condition.
Book a session 55 minutes · no obligation to continueIndividual session
55 minutes · in person
$160
Regular work on your request. Usually once a week; we discuss the rhythm and adjust it as we go.
Book a session 55 minutes · you choose the rhythmOnline session
55 minutes · video call
$145
The same work as in the room. It suits you if you are in another city, another time zone, or often travelling.
Book online 55 minutes · a quiet room and a steady connectionWork with a couple
90 minutes · in person or online
$240
A session for the two of you. Separate individual meetings with each partner are possible, by agreement and with the consent of both.
Book for two 90 minutes · come togetherPayment after the session — by bank transfer or card. Cancelling or moving a session is free of charge if you let me know at least 24 hours ahead. I don’t offer packages, prepaid blocks, discounts for a number of sessions, or special offers: therapy isn’t a place where it makes sense to hurry a decision.
Testimonials
What people say once the work has come to an end.
I came in with one question — what to do about my job — and a month later it turned out the question was a different one entirely. What mattered to me was that nobody pitied me or cheered me up; we went through it on the facts. That format I was ready for.
Antti, 41Career crisis, 14 sessions
We came as a couple after a year of identical arguments. There was never a sense that anyone was taking sides. For the first time in a long while we heard each other rather than the accusations. The arguments haven’t vanished, but they’ve stopped being a catastrophe.
Sanna and MikkoWork with a couple, 9 sessions
For a long time I couldn’t make myself book — it seemed my case wasn’t serious enough. In the first session that feeling was taken off me within ten minutes. What I liked was that it was always clear why we were doing what we were doing.
Laura, 34Anxiety and burnout, 21 sessions
Testimonials are published with the written consent of their authors. Names have been changed and the details of requests generalised — confidentiality matters more than persuasiveness.
Common questions
Answers to what people usually ask before booking.
If your question isn’t here, write to me. I answer questions before booking and don’t treat that as a commitment on your side.
Ask a question before you begin — free
I reply personally, usually within one working day.
It depends on the request and on the pace that suits you. For a focused situation — preparing for a particular decision, say — 8 to 12 sessions are often enough. Where long-standing patterns are involved, the work usually runs longer. There are no rigid limits, and I don’t name a timeframe in advance: any “in N sessions” figure would be a promise I can’t make. We discuss this in the first session and return to it as the work goes on.
Yes. Everything that happens in a session stays between us — that is the base rule of professional ethics. I keep notes for myself, without identifying details. A case is discussed with a supervisor in anonymised form. The only exceptions are those set out in law and connected with a direct threat to life; I explain them in the first session.
That happens, and it’s worth naming directly. The fit with a therapist affects the work no less than the method does. If something feels uncomfortable, say so — we will look at whether it is about the contact between us or about the process itself. If it’s the contact, I’ll recommend colleagues I trust. That’s not a failure, and not a reason to drop the idea of therapy.
For most requests, yes — the difference is small. Online asks for one thing: a quiet place where you will not be interrupted, and a stable connection. I more often recommend the room for work with couples and where bodily tension is central. The format can change as we go — many people alternate.
It is. “I don’t know what to call this” is a working starting point, not an obstacle. Putting the request into words is part of the first sessions, not a condition of entry. Begin with what is troubling you right now; the rest we clarify together.
No. I am a psychologist, not a doctor: diagnoses and prescriptions come from a psychiatrist. If in the course of the work I see signs of a condition that needs medical assessment, I’ll say so plainly and recommend seeing a specialist. Psychotherapy and medication, where it’s needed, combine well — one doesn’t replace the other.
None of what people usually fear: nobody will make you bare your soul, nobody will judge you, and nobody will steer you towards childhood memories if you don’t want that. A first session is closer to a structured review: what’s happening, what you’ve already tried, what didn’t work. After that it is equally concrete work on concrete situations.
Booking
You don’t have to know where to start. A first session is enough.
Leave a request and I’ll get back to you within one working day to agree a time. If it’s easier to write in a messenger, or to ask a question before booking, that’s fine too.
Phone and messengers+358 40 123 4567
Emailhello@clearpath.fi
Consulting roomFredrikinkatu 48, 00100 Helsinki (Punavuori). Directions are sent once the booking is confirmed.
Opening hoursMon–Fri 10:00–21:00, Sat 11:00–16:00