veritas: the counselling centre for people affected by conspiracy narratives

Veritas is the counselling centre for those affected by conspiracy narratives in the state of Berlin, since January 2023 under the auspices of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Radicalisation Prevention and Democracy Promotion (IZRD e.V.). Veritas primarily supports the personal and professional surroundings of people who believe in conspiracies. The experienced counsellors offer their counselling services by telephone, email, online and on site in Berlin.

The aim of our counselling centre is to help people deal with others who believe in conspiracies, to reduce the suffering of those affected and, where possible, to maintain channels of communication between those who believe in conspiracies and their social contacts. We know from our experience that the environment in particular can have a positive influence on people who believe in conspiracy narratives. The IZRD believes that counselling the affected environment can significantly contribute to distancing processes of conspiracist and extremist milieus, and thereby intervene radicalisation processes.

The veritas team provides individual, solution- and resource-oriented counselling. As changes in relationships and actions often cannit be achieved by one counselling session alone, our team usually assists clients throughout several sessions in the medium and long term. The basis of our work is systemic counselling, which is supplemented by approaches from client-centered counselling and gestalt therapy as well as by expertise in mediation, depending on the needs of the clients and the expertise of our employees. Counselling is always confidential and free of cost.