Brigitte Halenta

I was born in 1937 under the sign of Pisces; however, I'm not your typical dreamy Pisces. With Saturn standing close to my Sun, my intuition and imagination are paired with structure and discipline. Writing has always been important to me. When I wrote my first novel in a notebook at the age of 10, countless more texts followed—poems, short stories, even beginnings of novels. But life—three marriages, three children, and the need to earn a living—kept me from pursuing publication for many years.

After studying German literature in Munich and Göttingen, I worked as a teacher in Bremen. At the age of 40, I decided to start over, and I began studying psychology in Kiel, along with training in psychoanalysis and psychodrama. Since 1984, I worked as a psychotherapist in private practice in Lübeck. Over the years, I developed a deep reservoir of knowledge about people: what drives them, how they talk, what they dream about, and why they sometimes hurt each other. Along with that came an almost inexhaustible pool of stories. At 60, I decided it was finally time to do what I had always wanted: WRITE.

In 2000, I received the MSH (Media Society for the Promotion of Audiovisual Works in Schleswig-Holstein) grant award for my screenplay "Lavendel ist blau" ("Lavender is Blue"). Since no producer picked up the script, I rewrote the story of a gifted girl, much like the ugly duckling born into the wrong family, into a novel. Two plays followed: "Teresa muss sterben" ("Teresa Must Die") and "PAFF – Perspektive alte fröhliche Frauen" ("PAFF – Perspective of Cheerful Older Women"). But between my demanding work as a psychotherapist and the effort needed to get published, there was no energy left.

Only after a cancer surgery in 2005 did I manage to get my novel "Die Breite der Zeit" ("The Breadth of Time") published. When I first envisioned the story, with a seventy-year-old protagonist, I was only 62 myself. By the time the book was published by Orlanda in Berlin in March 2007, I had reached the age of my character. Since then, I have written two other novels that have yet to be published, as well as short prose published in literary magazines like "Der Dreischneuß", "Macondo", "Entwürfe", and, in 2012, the novel "Lavendel ist blau" ("Lavender is Blue") as an eBook.

Since retiring from my psychotherapy practice in 2010, WRITING has become the center of my life. My most recent publications include "Ernste Angelegenheiten – Psychologische Frage-Antwort-Geschichten Band 1" ("Serious Matters" in English, "Temas Serios" in Spanish). This book is far more than a simple collection of psychological questions and answers—it is a journey into the human psyche. The authentic reader questions I answered throughout my years working for newspapers provide genuine, direct insights into the challenges of life. Every answer is based on my decades of experience as a clinical psychologist and is more than just advice—they have been a lifeline for many people in difficult times.

Whether it’s partnership issues, family conflicts, or questions about finding oneself—"Ernste Angelegenheiten" offers revealing, unvarnished insights and helps readers to discover and realize their potential. It is not just a guide for better understanding one's own emotions, but also an inspiration for personal growth and genuine change. I hope that you too can draw as much strength and insight from these stories as many of my readers have already done.