Johannes Faupel
Systemic Therapist · Frankfurt am Main
Johannes Faupel is a systemic therapist and counselor certified by the IGST (Institute for Systemic Therapy) and the Systemische Gesellschaft (SG), based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
He works with individuals and organizations on attention, thought management, and the navigation of complex inner states. His approach is non-pathologizing: most of what people call problems, he sees as patterns that can be understood and worked with.
Where Mind Rooms came from
Let me describe the scene in my head like this: an estimated thirty-seven thoughts crowded into my inner space of attention, all of which urgently wanted something from me. There was talk of things to be done, old bills, reproaches, long-past opportunities, tasks that would only become concrete in a month's time — very specific and also general risks, the dangers of the future, of projects that had not been completed, of past times in which I perhaps had to fear many things.
The thoughts seemed like children, like impatient children. Some of them made additional noise with rattles and little bells. There was absolute simultaneity, without rhythm, harmony and beat. Every thought wanted something else from me. No one was willing to wait a moment.
As soon as I tried to push the crowd back, it pushed itself towards me again with all the greater vehemence. With every attempt to push thoughts out, even more thoughts squeezed themselves into my experience space. The thoughts were strangely dressed and made stained faces. Some took each other's hands in pairs and danced in a circle at high speed, going back and forth.
Then I gained a key insight. This key insight seems to be obvious in a physical dimension. But who cares about the circumstances in the head? You cannot enter a full room. You cannot go to the center when many are already gathered in the center. Before that, you must make sure that space is created in the center. In the center. You never concentrate with an overwhelmed head.
The concept that grew from it
I started developing Mind Rooms from that experience — not as a theoretical model, but as something I actually needed. When I present the model of Mind Rooms in a therapy session, it is usually already present in the clients while I am telling about it. I have already been asked at the very beginning whether it is allowed to set up this or that room.
The rooms emerged organically, over years of practice. I started using them with clients. The clients started inventing their own rooms, their own names, their own modifications. The apartment expanded. The book is the documentation of what we found.
I wish you surprises in setting up your Mind Rooms, in that first tour and in the changes you may soon notice.
What I do
My private practice in Frankfurt focuses on systemic therapy and counseling — working with individuals on attention, burnout prevention, intrusive thoughts, and decision-making under complexity. I also work with organizations on the same themes in a consulting context.
I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist. Systemic therapy is a distinct professional field, regulated in Germany and recognized by major therapeutic associations. My work is non-medical and non-diagnostic.
A note on the method
Mind Rooms is a practice-based approach, not a clinical protocol. I developed it in practice and tested it in practice. This is not a book meant to describe how something is. This book is supposed to provide ideas and thought-provoking impulses for how something could be different.
When professional clinical help is needed — for OCD, for severe anxiety, for depression, for anything that requires a diagnosis — I say so clearly. Mind Rooms is a complement to professional work, not a replacement for it.