Profile
Katharina Werner
Birth:
1984
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Vienna (2012)
Cert., Society of Critical Psychologists (GkPP) (2013)
Cert., Society of Critical Psychologists (GkPP) (2013)
Cert., Austrian Working Group for Group Therapy and Group Dynamics (ÖAGG) (2016)
Cert., Family Relations Institute (2022)
Cert., Danube University Krems (2023)
Cert., GkPP/ ÖAGG/ ZAP-Vienna (2023)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Internship at Rat auf Draht (2011)
Internship at Klinik Landstraße (2022)
Specialist training at Psychiatric Department Clinic Favoriten (2012-2013)
Specialist training at Österreichische Autistenhilfe (2012)
Psychosocial health center Mödling (2013)
Co-leading psychotherapeutic annual group at Frauen beraten Frauen (2018-2019)
Family and juvenile court assistance (2013-2020)
Independent practice for psychotherapy and psychological counseling (since 2018)
Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling for sexually abused girls and women (since 2020)
Career Focus:
Clinical and health psychologist, (queer-feminist) psychotherapy (psychodrama) and psychological counseling, counseling for girls* and FLINTA, counseling for victims of sexualized violence, trial support, child protection
Biography
Katharina Werner is a clinical and health Psychologist, queer-feminist psychotherapist (psychodrama), and trained in emergency Psychology. She has further training primarily in the areas of child and youth work, parent-child interactions, family law, and related psychological issues, as well as psychotraumatology. Werner also works at the Mädchenberatung - Vienna Girls' Counseling Center for sexually abused girls and women. Furthermore, Werner has (co-)founded an autonomous practice collective for (queer-feminist) psychotherapy and supervision in Vienna, where she offers psychotherapy and psychological counseling.
Werner, who grew up in Vienna, was closely connected to feminism from an early age. Her upbringing with a single mother and several siblings was formative, as the family lived precariously due to financial difficulties. Werner began to take responsibility at an early age and reflected on the unequal situation of her parents. As a child, she thought intensively about how the distribution of money and work could be made fairer: "And I remember thinking a lot as a child about how it could be organized differently, the whole money issue."
In addition to her mother, other women in Werner's family, including an actress and a theater director, played an important feminist role. During her youth, Werner became particularly aware of this when she realized how feminist parts of her family were and how much "feminist groundwork" the women in her family had already done. During her school years, she began to grapple with the issue of gendered language and resisted the generic masculine. Werner emphasizes the lasting significance of experiences of exclusion due to her family situation and her queer identity in "being perceived as somehow different" during her school years. At the same time, however, these experiences helped to raise her awareness of social inequalities and to question group dynamics.
Her path eventually led her to study Psychology. The decision to pursue professional training was "very, very important" for Werner to gain financial independence and emancipate herself. Although she felt alienated from mainstream psychology during her studies in Vienna and a semester abroad in Berlin, she continued to stand up for her principles and to not shy away from discussions with her fellow students about the importance of gender-equitable language. A particularly formative experience for Werner was the teaching of evolutionary psychological approaches during a seminar in Berlin, in which the unspoken and unreflected "one-sided heteronormative view of the world" shocked Werner.
After her return to Vienna, she immersed herself intensively in qualitative social research and reflected on her position as a researcher. These experiences led her to begin to "feel very comfortable" during her studies. During her thesis, Werner focused on masculinity research and conducted group discussions on masculinity and boundary violations with left-wing groups. To Werner's regret, feminist psychology hardly played a role in her studies, instead, she found corresponding points of contact in the field of qualitative social research at the University of Vienna. Previously, Werner had only been able to realize her interest in feminism as a "feminist private interest", but with time Werner recognized that she also wanted to pursue feminist principles and convictions in her professional future.
After studying psychology, Werner trained as a clinical and health psychologist. She was critical of the professional regulations in Austria, which meant that psychologists "didn't have the feeling that they had anything in their hands" even after completing their studies. To be able to act professionally, Werner nevertheless completed them, even if this meant "working de facto unpaid for a long time and even having to pay for this training."
The choice of the Gesellschaft kritischer Psychologen und Psychologinnen (GkPP) for her training resulted from her interest in a critical view of mainstream psychology discourses. The postgraduate training at the GkPP from 2012 onwards contributed significantly to her identity development as a Psychologist, as Werner was able to connect well with her principles and started working practically. At the same time, she was also training as an emergency Psychologist. After training as a clinical and health Psychologist, Werner worked in an assisted living community in Mödling, Lower Austria, where adults, mainly with diagnoses of schizophrenia, lived. She later devoted many years to working in family and juvenile court assistance, where the personal significance of her involvement in child protection became clear to her and her desire for therapeutic work and for the start of psychotherapy training grew.
Although she initially hesitated, Werner finally decided to study psychotherapy at the Danube University Krems and the Austrian Working Group for Group Therapy and Group Dynamics (ÖAGG) in Lower Austria and Vienna in 2016. She was interested in a deeper understanding of the client-therapist relationship, group dynamics, and self-awareness elements beyond the theoretical limitations of Psychology studies. In 2021, Werner also co-founded an autonomous practice for queer feminist psychotherapy, counseling, and supervision together with professional friends. Werner appreciates having her own space and opening it up to people and groups who also want to work in a queer feminist way to create synergies.
The desire for a career change finally led her to the Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Service for Sexually Abused Girls and Women in Vienna in 2020. This multi-professional specialist center offers process support, counseling, and psychotherapy for victims of sexualized violence and their support systems. Werner always wanted to be able to incorporate her queer-feminist values into her work as a psychologist and psychotherapist. During her time in family and juvenile court support, she found it difficult to openly label herself as "queer-feminist". The concern that this could be used as a target by highly contentious parents and fathers' rights activists shaped her reticence. Her thoughts on an online presence for her practice highlighted the balancing act between a 'neutral' professional stance and the desire to actively pursue feminist psychology and psychotherapy. In girls' counseling, Werner found more freedom and reassurance in working as a feminist and acting in a deliberately partisan manner with her clients.
According to Werner, practical work in the field of child protection is difficult to detach from socio-political attitudes. In addition, her work takes into account both the individual needs and the current life situation of the people concerned. Werner describes her role in girls' counseling with a midwife analogy, emphasizing that she primarily works in an assisting and accompanying manner, but also takes some steps together with the client in a more directive way if necessary. However, the direction should always lie with the person affected, and Werner's focus is on supporting the person affected by sexualized violence and offering positive relationship experiences so that they can (re)take control of their own lives in the long term.
Werner had carefully considered joining the Mädchenberatung service beforehand. She describes it as essential for her work to pay attention to mental hygiene and emphasizes the need for a functioning team, supportive networks, and the occasional shared anger. Although the work has changed her view of the world, she has also noticed that "this movement of looking and engaging with the topic and working with the clients" also holds healing and beneficial elements for her in the role of a professional. Because: "Before I dealt intensively with the topic, it was very heavy and speechless for me. In terms of the image, it was such a dark and scary room. And now it's just a room, and there are things in it that are unpleasant. But there are also other things in there and that eases me."
For Werner, her paid work is feminist activism at the same time, which not only starts with direct counseling but is also realized through cooperation meetings and networking. The importance of alliances for Werner is reflected in her attempts to combine feminist activism with parenthood, which is why she organized a feminist parent-child café for a while.
For the future of Psychology, Werner hopes that the discipline will fundamentally engage with feminism and society and that feminist discourse will become louder and emerge from its previous niche existence. She found her role models for her path in psychology in Helga Pankratz, the co-founder of the HOSI - Homosexual Initiative and thus the first lesbian and gay association in Vienna, as well as in Dr. Julia Riegler, who supervised her thesis at the Department of Psychology at the University of Vienna. Werner is also aware of her responsibility to have a great influence on young people in her counseling sessions.
Werner emphasizes the importance of belonging and authenticity to be able to open new paths: "When I started my professional biography, I gradually created a sense of belonging." Wage labor has therefore always had a positive connotation for Werner; she considers it a privilege to have studied and to work in a field that fills her with meaning, and which holds many opportunities for self-empowerment.
For Werner, her professional identity is a whole, her identity as a clinical and health psychologist has been enriched with her psychotherapist identity and vice versa: "As critical as I am of the fact that I did so many training courses in a row - because this was also characterized by pressure to do so - I am also proud that I did it, despite having a busy life on the side. I'm also proud of my work, I think that the work here [in the Mädchenberatung] simply makes a lot of sense and also changes and advances things. And also of the practice, that there is now this space and that something can take place there that doesn't have to be predefined, but that it can also develop and change over time."
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Katharina Werner
Werner, K. (2011). „Obwohl dich Sexismus nicht als Betroffener betrifft.“ Zur Konstruktion von Männlichkeit(en) vor dem Hintergrund eines antisexistischen Imperativs [Diploma thesis]. University of Vienna.
Weidinger, B., & Werner, K. (2017). „Finger weg von unseren Frauen!“ Männlichkeit, extreme Rechte und sexualisierte Gewalt. Journal für Psychologie, 25(2), 153–178.
By and about
Werner, K. (May 03, 2023). Interview with E. Rack [Video Recording].
Katharina Werner
Birth:
1984
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Vienna (2012)
Cert., Society of Critical Psychologists (GkPP) (2013)
Cert., Society of Critical Psychologists (GkPP) (2013)
Cert., Austrian Working Group for Group Therapy and Group Dynamics (ÖAGG) (2016)
Cert., Family Relations Institute (2022)
Cert., Danube University Krems (2023)
Cert., GkPP/ ÖAGG/ ZAP-Vienna (2023)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Internship at Rat auf Draht (2011)
Internship at Klinik Landstraße (2022)
Specialist training at Psychiatric Department Clinic Favoriten (2012-2013)
Specialist training at Österreichische Autistenhilfe (2012)
Psychosocial health center Mödling (2013)
Co-leading psychotherapeutic annual group at Frauen beraten Frauen (2018-2019)
Family and juvenile court assistance (2013-2020)
Independent practice for psychotherapy and psychological counseling (since 2018)
Mädchenberatung - Girls' counseling for sexually abused girls and women (since 2020)
Career Focus:
Clinical and health psychologist, (queer-feminist) psychotherapy (psychodrama) and psychological counseling, counseling for girls* and FLINTA, counseling for victims of sexualized violence, trial support, child protection
Biography
Katharina Werner is a clinical and health Psychologist, queer-feminist psychotherapist (psychodrama), and trained in emergency Psychology. She has further training primarily in the areas of child and youth work, parent-child interactions, family law, and related psychological issues, as well as psychotraumatology. Werner also works at the Mädchenberatung - Vienna Girls' Counseling Center for sexually abused girls and women. Furthermore, Werner has (co-)founded an autonomous practice collective for (queer-feminist) psychotherapy and supervision in Vienna, where she offers psychotherapy and psychological counseling.
Werner, who grew up in Vienna, was closely connected to feminism from an early age. Her upbringing with a single mother and several siblings was formative, as the family lived precariously due to financial difficulties. Werner began to take responsibility at an early age and reflected on the unequal situation of her parents. As a child, she thought intensively about how the distribution of money and work could be made fairer: "And I remember thinking a lot as a child about how it could be organized differently, the whole money issue."
In addition to her mother, other women in Werner's family, including an actress and a theater director, played an important feminist role. During her youth, Werner became particularly aware of this when she realized how feminist parts of her family were and how much "feminist groundwork" the women in her family had already done. During her school years, she began to grapple with the issue of gendered language and resisted the generic masculine. Werner emphasizes the lasting significance of experiences of exclusion due to her family situation and her queer identity in "being perceived as somehow different" during her school years. At the same time, however, these experiences helped to raise her awareness of social inequalities and to question group dynamics.
Her path eventually led her to study Psychology. The decision to pursue professional training was "very, very important" for Werner to gain financial independence and emancipate herself. Although she felt alienated from mainstream psychology during her studies in Vienna and a semester abroad in Berlin, she continued to stand up for her principles and to not shy away from discussions with her fellow students about the importance of gender-equitable language. A particularly formative experience for Werner was the teaching of evolutionary psychological approaches during a seminar in Berlin, in which the unspoken and unreflected "one-sided heteronormative view of the world" shocked Werner.
After her return to Vienna, she immersed herself intensively in qualitative social research and reflected on her position as a researcher. These experiences led her to begin to "feel very comfortable" during her studies. During her thesis, Werner focused on masculinity research and conducted group discussions on masculinity and boundary violations with left-wing groups. To Werner's regret, feminist psychology hardly played a role in her studies, instead, she found corresponding points of contact in the field of qualitative social research at the University of Vienna. Previously, Werner had only been able to realize her interest in feminism as a "feminist private interest", but with time Werner recognized that she also wanted to pursue feminist principles and convictions in her professional future.
After studying psychology, Werner trained as a clinical and health psychologist. She was critical of the professional regulations in Austria, which meant that psychologists "didn't have the feeling that they had anything in their hands" even after completing their studies. To be able to act professionally, Werner nevertheless completed them, even if this meant "working de facto unpaid for a long time and even having to pay for this training."
The choice of the Gesellschaft kritischer Psychologen und Psychologinnen (GkPP) for her training resulted from her interest in a critical view of mainstream psychology discourses. The postgraduate training at the GkPP from 2012 onwards contributed significantly to her identity development as a Psychologist, as Werner was able to connect well with her principles and started working practically. At the same time, she was also training as an emergency Psychologist. After training as a clinical and health Psychologist, Werner worked in an assisted living community in Mödling, Lower Austria, where adults, mainly with diagnoses of schizophrenia, lived. She later devoted many years to working in family and juvenile court assistance, where the personal significance of her involvement in child protection became clear to her and her desire for therapeutic work and for the start of psychotherapy training grew.
Although she initially hesitated, Werner finally decided to study psychotherapy at the Danube University Krems and the Austrian Working Group for Group Therapy and Group Dynamics (ÖAGG) in Lower Austria and Vienna in 2016. She was interested in a deeper understanding of the client-therapist relationship, group dynamics, and self-awareness elements beyond the theoretical limitations of Psychology studies. In 2021, Werner also co-founded an autonomous practice for queer feminist psychotherapy, counseling, and supervision together with professional friends. Werner appreciates having her own space and opening it up to people and groups who also want to work in a queer feminist way to create synergies.
The desire for a career change finally led her to the Mädchenberatung - Girls' Counseling Service for Sexually Abused Girls and Women in Vienna in 2020. This multi-professional specialist center offers process support, counseling, and psychotherapy for victims of sexualized violence and their support systems. Werner always wanted to be able to incorporate her queer-feminist values into her work as a psychologist and psychotherapist. During her time in family and juvenile court support, she found it difficult to openly label herself as "queer-feminist". The concern that this could be used as a target by highly contentious parents and fathers' rights activists shaped her reticence. Her thoughts on an online presence for her practice highlighted the balancing act between a 'neutral' professional stance and the desire to actively pursue feminist psychology and psychotherapy. In girls' counseling, Werner found more freedom and reassurance in working as a feminist and acting in a deliberately partisan manner with her clients.
According to Werner, practical work in the field of child protection is difficult to detach from socio-political attitudes. In addition, her work takes into account both the individual needs and the current life situation of the people concerned. Werner describes her role in girls' counseling with a midwife analogy, emphasizing that she primarily works in an assisting and accompanying manner, but also takes some steps together with the client in a more directive way if necessary. However, the direction should always lie with the person affected, and Werner's focus is on supporting the person affected by sexualized violence and offering positive relationship experiences so that they can (re)take control of their own lives in the long term.
Werner had carefully considered joining the Mädchenberatung service beforehand. She describes it as essential for her work to pay attention to mental hygiene and emphasizes the need for a functioning team, supportive networks, and the occasional shared anger. Although the work has changed her view of the world, she has also noticed that "this movement of looking and engaging with the topic and working with the clients" also holds healing and beneficial elements for her in the role of a professional. Because: "Before I dealt intensively with the topic, it was very heavy and speechless for me. In terms of the image, it was such a dark and scary room. And now it's just a room, and there are things in it that are unpleasant. But there are also other things in there and that eases me."
For Werner, her paid work is feminist activism at the same time, which not only starts with direct counseling but is also realized through cooperation meetings and networking. The importance of alliances for Werner is reflected in her attempts to combine feminist activism with parenthood, which is why she organized a feminist parent-child café for a while.
For the future of Psychology, Werner hopes that the discipline will fundamentally engage with feminism and society and that feminist discourse will become louder and emerge from its previous niche existence. She found her role models for her path in psychology in Helga Pankratz, the co-founder of the HOSI - Homosexual Initiative and thus the first lesbian and gay association in Vienna, as well as in Dr. Julia Riegler, who supervised her thesis at the Department of Psychology at the University of Vienna. Werner is also aware of her responsibility to have a great influence on young people in her counseling sessions.
Werner emphasizes the importance of belonging and authenticity to be able to open new paths: "When I started my professional biography, I gradually created a sense of belonging." Wage labor has therefore always had a positive connotation for Werner; she considers it a privilege to have studied and to work in a field that fills her with meaning, and which holds many opportunities for self-empowerment.
For Werner, her professional identity is a whole, her identity as a clinical and health psychologist has been enriched with her psychotherapist identity and vice versa: "As critical as I am of the fact that I did so many training courses in a row - because this was also characterized by pressure to do so - I am also proud that I did it, despite having a busy life on the side. I'm also proud of my work, I think that the work here [in the Mädchenberatung] simply makes a lot of sense and also changes and advances things. And also of the practice, that there is now this space and that something can take place there that doesn't have to be predefined, but that it can also develop and change over time."
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Katharina Werner
Werner, K. (2011). „Obwohl dich Sexismus nicht als Betroffener betrifft.“ Zur Konstruktion von Männlichkeit(en) vor dem Hintergrund eines antisexistischen Imperativs [Diploma thesis]. University of Vienna.
Weidinger, B., & Werner, K. (2017). „Finger weg von unseren Frauen!“ Männlichkeit, extreme Rechte und sexualisierte Gewalt. Journal für Psychologie, 25(2), 153–178.
By and about
Werner, K. (May 03, 2023). Interview with E. Rack [Video Recording].