Dr Andrea Polzer

Welcome

What if lasting change doesn’t come from “figuring things out”… but from feeling deeply understood?

Pretty much everyone experiences times when life doesn’t go smoothly. When nothing seems to work as we need, hope, plan, or expect it to. When familiar patterns in our life no longer work.

We then may feel stuck, annoyed, frustrated, jealous, clueless, despondent, confused, lost, anxious, put down, rejected, angry, resentful, hopeless…

None of these feelings are “wrong”. But they most certainly tend to be unpleasant and frequently self-perpetuating. If experienced over extended periods of time, they are downright debilitating.

There is no need to stay in those places for long!

About Me

Born and raised in a small town near Frankfurt (Germany), I have lived in the United States, and for a short while in the United Arab Emirates, before moving to New Zealand.

Life is a journey. And like all journeys, for most of us, it comes with ups and downs, twists and turns, with incredible highs and painful lows. Having a space of being heard and feel deeply understood can be a powerful support during difficult times in our lives.

I work relationally and tailor each session to the individual in front of me. Alongside Transactional Analysis—which offers a clear and meaningful way to understand internal patterns and relational dynamics—I integrate a right-brain oriented approach to therapy.

What that means in practice is that I don’t focus only on what clients say, but also on how they feel in the moment—the emotional tone, the body, the subtle shifts in connection between us. We know from neuroscience that these right-brain processes are central to how attachment patterns and emotional regulation are formed and changed.

So therapy becomes more than insight. It’s an experience where new patterns can actually be felt and integrated, not just understood.

I find this combination allows for both clarity and depth, helping clients make sense of their experience, while also supporting change at a level that words alone often don’t reach.

This isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping your nervous system learn that it’s safe to feel, connect, and grow.

None of us comes with a manual on how to navigate our way through life. We were born into a world of stories about reality and about us. Our friends and our parents tell to us. School, work, and media tell them to us. And we start telling them to ourselves, thus creating our own ‘manual’ in response to the fundamental question: “How does someone like me, gets on with someone like you, in a world like this?” (Erskine).

Through our life journey, we typically manage quite well with that early version of our ‘manual’. During puberty and early adulthood, we may fine-tune it, but very few of us actively work on an update of the early versions.
Until we get stuck and the choices we are familiar with just don’t help us anymore. In those situations, counseling and/or psychotherapy can help.

You don’t have to have the “right words.”
You just have to show up as you are.