Profile
Sabine Fabach
Birth:
1966
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Vienna (1993)
Cert., Association for Person-Centered Psychotherapy (1997)
Cert., Trauma psychotherapy and EMDR certification (2009)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Lesbian and gay counseling center Rosa-Lila-Villa
Women's Counseling Center of the Viennese Women's Shelters
Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Center Vienna (BBRZ)
Psychotherapist and supervisor in independent practice (since 1995).
Co-founder of Institut Frauensache - Institute for Women-Specific Psychotherapy (1997-2012)
Lecturer at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna (since 2018)
Lecturing on burnout, mindfulness, communication, and compassion in psychotherapy
Co-founder of Queer Business Women - Network of Lesbian Women in the Workplace (2005-2006)
Career Focus:
Person-centered psychotherapy with a gender-sensitive approach, mindfulness and compassion in therapy, female burnout, women in the workforce, psychotraumatology and trauma therapy, critical gender studies and female homosexuality, feminist, buddhist and contemplative Psychology
Biography
Sabine Fabach is a Psychologist, person-centered
psychotherapist with a gender-sensitive approach, and mindfulness and
compassion trainer in Vienna. She is co-founder of the Institut Frauensache for women-specific psychotherapy and one of the founding women of the association Queer Business Women.
She has been working in independent practice as a psychotherapist and
supervisor since 1995 and was also a lecturer at Sigmund Freud
University Vienna.
Fabach grew up together with her brother in a working-class family in Styria, where she "did not at all appreciate nor accept"
the traditionally gendered distribution of household and educational
tasks in the family. Fabach is therefore particularly proud of her
educational trajectory, because due to her gender, the family intended
for her to "become a secretary at most." As early as puberty,
Fabach developed a strong interest in Psychology and politics and had
one of her favorite topics - Karl Marx - as a final exam subject.
Besides her reading of Alice Miller (Polish-Swiss author and
Psychologist) or Erich Fromm (German-US-American psychoanalyst and
social Psychologist), during her adolescence Fabach dealt increasingly
with the role of women and the accompanying social attributions of "what is allowed to be, what is not allowed to be, how one has to be".
With the desire to become a psychoanalyst, Fabach sought advice from
the Public Employment Service (AMS) after school, where she was advised
to study either Psychology or medicine. Fabach opted for the former,
opened a savings account to finance her education and moved to Vienna to
enroll in Psychology.
If the study of Psychology was originally only a "means to an end"
on her way to become a psychotherapist, Fabach was positively surprised
by the contents. In addition, her feminist interest is further
strengthened in her studies and by her new environment, even though the
guest professorship of feminist psychotherapist Sabine Scheffler at the
Psychology Institute "unfortunately came a bit too late for me"
- as Fabach is already about to complete her studies. But Scheffler
becomes the second examiner of her diploma exam and provides more
literature than the actual first examiner, which additionally feeds
Fabach's interest in feminist critique of science. For Sabine Fabach,
after completing her studies, it is clear "that if so, I [will] need to try to establish myself professionally in a women's project."
In her search for a suitable psychotherapy orientation, the
person-centered and humanistic approach according to Carl Rogers
ultimately resonates most with her view of humanity. Fabach is admitted
to training at the age of 24 and takes her time to graduate. While still
a student, Fabach began to work in the lesbian and gay counseling
center of the Rosa-Lila-Villa, and after graduation she got a job in the counseling center of the Viennese Women's Shelters
through the Academic Training Program. Fabach describes her work with
Rosa Logar, Sylvia Löw, Renate Egger and Elfriede Fröschl as a very
formative and valuable time.
After a brief stopover at the BBRZ (Vocational Training and
Rehabilitation Center Vienna), Fabach and a colleague (Andrea Scheutz)
set up their own business, founding the Institut Frauensache for women-specific psychotherapy, health, career and the joy of life in 1997: "Neither of us had any money, but we were somehow incredibly confident and then marched to banks and simply raised money there." The services offered range from women-specific psychotherapy and bodywork, the publication of the institute's own magazine Frauensache
with a seminar program and calendar of events, and support for
self-help groups on its own premises. Fabach and her colleague also
invested specifically in media work to generate visibility and public
interest for the institute. For the many interviews, Fabach "as someone who is rather shy"
surpasses herself; her own empowerment shall be passed on as a signal
to the women and clients to show that it is okay to demand space. Fabach
also shifts the institute's activities online very early on, and by
1999 it already has its own website on which articles relevant to women
get published.
Fabach's work is characterized by a strong "mix of methods"
through further training in women-specific psychotherapy, eating
disorders, body awareness and Focusing, as well as her several years of
training as a psychotherapist working in the area of trauma. Through
dealing with the stress symptoms of burn-out and trauma through her
clients, Fabach came to the topic of mindfulness. She also began to deal
privately with meditation and completed a two-year Karuna training
(professional training in contemplative Psychology). For Fabach, the
approach of contemplative Psychology is inseparable from feminist
psychotherapy: "Every therapy is an empowerment, to say 'ok who am
I, I accept myself and accept myself in my power and to ask: what do I
want and how do I want to stand in life, where do I set my limits'."
In doing so, Fabach aims to support her clients in both taking up space
in the world, allowing healthy aggression and taking their own feelings
seriously, as well as strengthening self-confidence and cultivating
caring and compassion as a healing practice for themselves.
In order to do this, Fabach describes it as important to
continuously illuminate one's own thought patterns and perspectives and
to ask how psychotherapy can become more trans*inclusive and critical of
racism. In 2004, she therefore held a workshop on the abolition of the
gender binarity in Innsbruck and a few years ago changed the title of
her psychotherapeutic practice from "women-specific" to "gender-sensitive"
in order to give more space to the gender diversity of her clients.
Fabach, who herself has been affected by discrimination with regard to
her gender, her educational advancement, and her being openly lesbian,
and has experienced threats up to violence on the street, therefore
emphasizes the importance of supportive networks and circles of friends "who have shouldered this along, comforted [and] fought along," such as her experience of "being so visible at the first rainbow parade [...] being so strong and so protected in the crowd." At the same time Fabach notes that being self-employed was also a good way to "avoid possible discrimination at work" in "being our own bosses."
Fabach's open appearance as a lesbian woman at the
university and in the educational context was marked by both challenges
and beautiful experiences. For example, her depth-hermeneutic thesis on
the "Myth of the Lesbian" at the Psychology department was a first, which required Fabach to ensure that the work had "hand and feet"
[note ER: German saying to emphasize something is sound, well thought
through and makes sense]. Fabach also experiences pathologizations
during her psychotherapy training and is turned into a "non-stop ambassador" who has to give theory inputs on homosexual orientation in seminars and lectures - experiences that move her to co-found the Queer Business Women initiative.
However, Fabach also receives a great deal of support at
the university, and over the years is in turn interviewed and credited
in other studies as an expert on female homosexuality. Also her thesis
continues to be cited to this day. Besides the feminist Psychotherapist
Prof. Dr. Sabine Scheffler, the Psychologist Dr. Agnes Büchele, and the
Sociologist Prof. Dr. Christa Rhode-Dachser, she counts especially the
Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Luise Reddemann among her
role models for combining mindfulness and compassion with trauma
therapy. Her book publication on “Female Burn-Out” has been available on Spotify in German since 2018 (among other places).
Fabach considers curiosity and openness to herself and
others to be particularly central, as is being embedded in the
psychological-feminist scene in Vienna: "I think I've always been
proud to be a feminist. I've always said that since I was 18 or even
earlier, I said 'I'm a feminist' and when everyone laughed and said 'Ew,
you're a women's libber' I said 'Yes, exactly!”
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Sabine Fabach
Fabach, S. (1993). Die Kommunikation des Un-Sagbaren. Ein Modell der tiefenhermeneutischen Filmanalyse. Filmkunst No. 140, 45 (4).
Fabach, S. (1997). Homophobie und Identität II: Psychologische Perspektiven. In: B. Hey, R. Pallier, R. Roth (Eds). Que(e)rdenken: Weibliche/ männliche Homosexualität und Wissenschaft. Studien Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2001). Sexuelle und sexualisierte Gewalt zwischen Lesben. In: B. Wochner, C. Goutrie, K. Schönpflug, K. Pewny, L. Steininger, M. Newald & M. Ebner (Eds.), Entscheidend einschneidend. Mit Gewalt unter Frauen in lesbischen und feministischen Zusammenhängen umgehen. Milena Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2004). Frauen und feministische Einflüsse in der Psychologie. In: G. Mehta (Ed.), Die Praxis der Psychologie. Ein Karriereplaner (p. 451-456). Springer Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2004). Über das Ende der Zweidimensionalität und Verlässlichkeit. Herausforderungen an psychosoziale Beratung und Therapie. In: J. Hartmann (Ed.), Grenzverwischungen. Vielfältige Lebensweisen im Gender-, Sexualitäts- und Generationendiskurs. Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaftliche Studientexte, Volume 9. Universitätsverlag.
Fabach, S. (2007). Burn-Out. Wenn Frauen über ihre Grenzen gehen. Orell- Füssli Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2017). Achtsamkeit in der Praxis der Traumatherapie. Potential, Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Grenzen von achtsamkeitsbasierten Interventionen. Psychotherapie Forum, 22, 24–30. Doi: 10.1007/s00729-017-0098-7
By and about Sabine Fabach
Fabach, S. (2022, June 28). Interview with E. Rack [Video Recording].
Sabine Fabach
Birth:
1966
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Vienna (1993)
Cert., Association for Person-Centered Psychotherapy (1997)
Cert., Trauma psychotherapy and EMDR certification (2009)
Primary Affiliation(s):
Lesbian and gay counseling center Rosa-Lila-Villa
Women's Counseling Center of the Viennese Women's Shelters
Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Center Vienna (BBRZ)
Psychotherapist and supervisor in independent practice (since 1995).
Co-founder of Institut Frauensache - Institute for Women-Specific Psychotherapy (1997-2012)
Lecturer at the Sigmund Freud University Vienna (since 2018)
Lecturing on burnout, mindfulness, communication, and compassion in psychotherapy
Co-founder of Queer Business Women - Network of Lesbian Women in the Workplace (2005-2006)
Career Focus:
Person-centered psychotherapy with a gender-sensitive approach, mindfulness and compassion in therapy, female burnout, women in the workforce, psychotraumatology and trauma therapy, critical gender studies and female homosexuality, feminist, buddhist and contemplative Psychology
Biography
Sabine Fabach is a Psychologist, person-centered
psychotherapist with a gender-sensitive approach, and mindfulness and
compassion trainer in Vienna. She is co-founder of the Institut Frauensache for women-specific psychotherapy and one of the founding women of the association Queer Business Women.
She has been working in independent practice as a psychotherapist and
supervisor since 1995 and was also a lecturer at Sigmund Freud
University Vienna.
Fabach grew up together with her brother in a working-class family in Styria, where she "did not at all appreciate nor accept"
the traditionally gendered distribution of household and educational
tasks in the family. Fabach is therefore particularly proud of her
educational trajectory, because due to her gender, the family intended
for her to "become a secretary at most." As early as puberty,
Fabach developed a strong interest in Psychology and politics and had
one of her favorite topics - Karl Marx - as a final exam subject.
Besides her reading of Alice Miller (Polish-Swiss author and
Psychologist) or Erich Fromm (German-US-American psychoanalyst and
social Psychologist), during her adolescence Fabach dealt increasingly
with the role of women and the accompanying social attributions of "what is allowed to be, what is not allowed to be, how one has to be".
With the desire to become a psychoanalyst, Fabach sought advice from
the Public Employment Service (AMS) after school, where she was advised
to study either Psychology or medicine. Fabach opted for the former,
opened a savings account to finance her education and moved to Vienna to
enroll in Psychology.
If the study of Psychology was originally only a "means to an end"
on her way to become a psychotherapist, Fabach was positively surprised
by the contents. In addition, her feminist interest is further
strengthened in her studies and by her new environment, even though the
guest professorship of feminist psychotherapist Sabine Scheffler at the
Psychology Institute "unfortunately came a bit too late for me"
- as Fabach is already about to complete her studies. But Scheffler
becomes the second examiner of her diploma exam and provides more
literature than the actual first examiner, which additionally feeds
Fabach's interest in feminist critique of science. For Sabine Fabach,
after completing her studies, it is clear "that if so, I [will] need to try to establish myself professionally in a women's project."
In her search for a suitable psychotherapy orientation, the
person-centered and humanistic approach according to Carl Rogers
ultimately resonates most with her view of humanity. Fabach is admitted
to training at the age of 24 and takes her time to graduate. While still
a student, Fabach began to work in the lesbian and gay counseling
center of the Rosa-Lila-Villa, and after graduation she got a job in the counseling center of the Viennese Women's Shelters
through the Academic Training Program. Fabach describes her work with
Rosa Logar, Sylvia Löw, Renate Egger and Elfriede Fröschl as a very
formative and valuable time.
After a brief stopover at the BBRZ (Vocational Training and
Rehabilitation Center Vienna), Fabach and a colleague (Andrea Scheutz)
set up their own business, founding the Institut Frauensache for women-specific psychotherapy, health, career and the joy of life in 1997: "Neither of us had any money, but we were somehow incredibly confident and then marched to banks and simply raised money there." The services offered range from women-specific psychotherapy and bodywork, the publication of the institute's own magazine Frauensache
with a seminar program and calendar of events, and support for
self-help groups on its own premises. Fabach and her colleague also
invested specifically in media work to generate visibility and public
interest for the institute. For the many interviews, Fabach "as someone who is rather shy"
surpasses herself; her own empowerment shall be passed on as a signal
to the women and clients to show that it is okay to demand space. Fabach
also shifts the institute's activities online very early on, and by
1999 it already has its own website on which articles relevant to women
get published.
Fabach's work is characterized by a strong "mix of methods"
through further training in women-specific psychotherapy, eating
disorders, body awareness and Focusing, as well as her several years of
training as a psychotherapist working in the area of trauma. Through
dealing with the stress symptoms of burn-out and trauma through her
clients, Fabach came to the topic of mindfulness. She also began to deal
privately with meditation and completed a two-year Karuna training
(professional training in contemplative Psychology). For Fabach, the
approach of contemplative Psychology is inseparable from feminist
psychotherapy: "Every therapy is an empowerment, to say 'ok who am
I, I accept myself and accept myself in my power and to ask: what do I
want and how do I want to stand in life, where do I set my limits'."
In doing so, Fabach aims to support her clients in both taking up space
in the world, allowing healthy aggression and taking their own feelings
seriously, as well as strengthening self-confidence and cultivating
caring and compassion as a healing practice for themselves.
In order to do this, Fabach describes it as important to
continuously illuminate one's own thought patterns and perspectives and
to ask how psychotherapy can become more trans*inclusive and critical of
racism. In 2004, she therefore held a workshop on the abolition of the
gender binarity in Innsbruck and a few years ago changed the title of
her psychotherapeutic practice from "women-specific" to "gender-sensitive"
in order to give more space to the gender diversity of her clients.
Fabach, who herself has been affected by discrimination with regard to
her gender, her educational advancement, and her being openly lesbian,
and has experienced threats up to violence on the street, therefore
emphasizes the importance of supportive networks and circles of friends "who have shouldered this along, comforted [and] fought along," such as her experience of "being so visible at the first rainbow parade [...] being so strong and so protected in the crowd." At the same time Fabach notes that being self-employed was also a good way to "avoid possible discrimination at work" in "being our own bosses."
Fabach's open appearance as a lesbian woman at the
university and in the educational context was marked by both challenges
and beautiful experiences. For example, her depth-hermeneutic thesis on
the "Myth of the Lesbian" at the Psychology department was a first, which required Fabach to ensure that the work had "hand and feet"
[note ER: German saying to emphasize something is sound, well thought
through and makes sense]. Fabach also experiences pathologizations
during her psychotherapy training and is turned into a "non-stop ambassador" who has to give theory inputs on homosexual orientation in seminars and lectures - experiences that move her to co-found the Queer Business Women initiative.
However, Fabach also receives a great deal of support at
the university, and over the years is in turn interviewed and credited
in other studies as an expert on female homosexuality. Also her thesis
continues to be cited to this day. Besides the feminist Psychotherapist
Prof. Dr. Sabine Scheffler, the Psychologist Dr. Agnes Büchele, and the
Sociologist Prof. Dr. Christa Rhode-Dachser, she counts especially the
Psychotherapist and Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Luise Reddemann among her
role models for combining mindfulness and compassion with trauma
therapy. Her book publication on “Female Burn-Out” has been available on Spotify in German since 2018 (among other places).
Fabach considers curiosity and openness to herself and
others to be particularly central, as is being embedded in the
psychological-feminist scene in Vienna: "I think I've always been
proud to be a feminist. I've always said that since I was 18 or even
earlier, I said 'I'm a feminist' and when everyone laughed and said 'Ew,
you're a women's libber' I said 'Yes, exactly!”
By Emelie Rack (2023)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
Selected Works
By Sabine Fabach
Fabach, S. (1993). Die Kommunikation des Un-Sagbaren. Ein Modell der tiefenhermeneutischen Filmanalyse. Filmkunst No. 140, 45 (4).
Fabach, S. (1997). Homophobie und Identität II: Psychologische Perspektiven. In: B. Hey, R. Pallier, R. Roth (Eds). Que(e)rdenken: Weibliche/ männliche Homosexualität und Wissenschaft. Studien Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2001). Sexuelle und sexualisierte Gewalt zwischen Lesben. In: B. Wochner, C. Goutrie, K. Schönpflug, K. Pewny, L. Steininger, M. Newald & M. Ebner (Eds.), Entscheidend einschneidend. Mit Gewalt unter Frauen in lesbischen und feministischen Zusammenhängen umgehen. Milena Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2004). Frauen und feministische Einflüsse in der Psychologie. In: G. Mehta (Ed.), Die Praxis der Psychologie. Ein Karriereplaner (p. 451-456). Springer Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2004). Über das Ende der Zweidimensionalität und Verlässlichkeit. Herausforderungen an psychosoziale Beratung und Therapie. In: J. Hartmann (Ed.), Grenzverwischungen. Vielfältige Lebensweisen im Gender-, Sexualitäts- und Generationendiskurs. Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaftliche Studientexte, Volume 9. Universitätsverlag.
Fabach, S. (2007). Burn-Out. Wenn Frauen über ihre Grenzen gehen. Orell- Füssli Verlag.
Fabach, S. (2017). Achtsamkeit in der Praxis der Traumatherapie. Potential, Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Grenzen von achtsamkeitsbasierten Interventionen. Psychotherapie Forum, 22, 24–30. Doi: 10.1007/s00729-017-0098-7
By and about Sabine Fabach
Fabach, S. (2022, June 28). Interview with E. Rack [Video Recording].