Therapy for feeling empty Copenhagen
Help when you feel hollow, numb and cut off from yourself
I help you find what went quiet inside and bring it back to life
- Last updated October 23, 2026
What I want you to know about the emptiness inside
In this short video, I explain why emptiness is rarely a sign that there is nothing inside you, and how we start to reach the feelings that went missing.
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At a glance
Therapy for feeling empty Copenhagen gives you a place to explore the hollow, numb feeling that sits where your emotions, wishes and sense of self used to be. It is individual work with me, booked as 1-hour appointments that hold 50 minutes of therapy, in Danish or English, at my practice in central Copenhagen or online.
I help you understand how the emptiness began, what it protects you from and how to reconnect, gently, with what you feel and want. I do not diagnose or prescribe. This page is a sub-branch of depression therapy, part of my psychotherapy.
You are welcome to start with a free discovery call or go ahead and book. You can read my client policy first, or ask me a question.
Is this the right page for you?
This is for you if…
Therapy for feeling empty Copenhagen is for adults who feel hollow or numb inside, as if their feelings have been switched off or never fully arrived. You are not necessarily sad, and you may even seem fine. What you miss is the sense of being alive and connected to yourself, and you want to understand where it went.
- You watch a film everyone finds moving, or hear sad news, and notice that nothing inside you responds at all.
- When someone asks what you want for dinner, for the weekend or for your life, your honest answer is “I do not know”.
- You fill the evening with scrolling, series or snacks, not because you enjoy them but to cover a blank feeling.
- You sometimes feel you are watching your own life through glass, present in body but not really taking part.
- Hugging someone you love feels like going through the motions, and you feel guilty that you cannot feel more.
- You cry suddenly over something small, then go blank again, and you cannot explain either reaction to yourself.
- You have tried new hobbies, travel or relationships hoping something would fill the hole, and the effect never lasts.
- You quietly wonder whether there is a real you underneath, and you are afraid of what you might find, or not find.
This is probably not for you if…
Emptiness can overlap with other struggles, and some of them are better met elsewhere. If one of these lines fits you more closely, its link will suit you better.
- You feel heavy, sad and exhausted, and daily tasks have become hard to manage. → depression therapy
- You function well and look successful, and the main problem is that none of it brings you joy. → high-functioning depression therapy
- The emptiness is mostly about missing people, and you long for real company and connection. → loneliness therapy
- The numbness began after something frightening or overwhelming happened to you. → trauma therapy
- You would prefer to explore your life broadly, without one theme at the centre. → psychotherapy
- You use alcohol, drugs or gambling to fill the hollow feeling and want help with that first. → addiction therapy
- You feel you have lost track of who you are after a big change in work, relationships or country. → identity crisis therapy
- You are in immediate danger, or you are thinking about ending your life. Please call 112, or 1813 for urgent mental health help in the Capital Region.
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Client reviews
The reviews shown here are shared by clients who have worked with me in therapy and chosen to reflect on their experience. They are collected via Google and displayed through an independent verification service, offering an open and transparent picture of how my work is experienced.
Mark’s view
“In more than two decades of sitting with people, I have rarely met anyone who was truly empty. What I meet are people who learned, very early, that their feelings were too much for the people around them, and so they turned the volume down until they could no longer hear it themselves. The emptiness is a silence that once kept them safe. When we listen to it, I hear quiet questions such as ‘If I start to feel, will anyone be there to catch me?’ and, next to it, ‘Better to keep it all switched off than to need anybody.’ My strong view is that you cannot think your way out of emptiness. You have to feel your way back in, slowly, with someone beside you.”
Mark Colclough, MA, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
Meet Mark, psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist
I am Mark Colclough, MA, a psychotherapist and EFT couples therapist specialising in expats and international couples. I work in English and Danish, from my practice in central Copenhagen and online.
Practising since 2004, I bring a bicultural perspective to work with individuals and couples across languages and cultural contexts. My work integrates depth-oriented psychotherapy with approaches such as integral psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, Jungian psychoanalysis, and object relations theory. I also have specialist training in attachment theory, narcissism, and borderline personality disorder.
For support with life between cultures, explore expat psychotherapy or expat couples therapy. My practice is supported by ongoing training and supervision. To read more about my background, training, and approach, visit About me.
The importance of supervision
Good therapy begins with good supervision
I regularly meet with experienced senior psychotherapists in Denmark and abroad to reflect on my work, challenge my thinking, and continue developing my skills. This ongoing process supports the quality of my individual and couples therapy, helping me offer thoughtful, ethical, and effective care.
My focus is simple: excellence, integrity, and impact.
Connect with me:
If you want me to call you ASAP, or if you want to book me, use the buttons below.
You are welcome to get in touch. We can clarify what’s the right therapy for you.
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A typical situation
Felix is 29, a Danish software developer living alone in Nørrebro. He has a decent job, a few old friends and a girlfriend he sees at weekends. Nothing is wrong, he tells her, and he means it. He just feels nothing much about anything. He plays online games until 2 at night, eats the same pasta most evenings and agrees to plans without minding either way. When his grandmother died last year, he did not cry, and that frightened him more than anything else.
With Felix, I would begin with that moment at the funeral and with what his body did when he did not cry. In our first session he would probably notice how early he learned to keep a calm surface in a family where strong feelings were not welcome, and that the emptiness has a history he can explore.
I have presented this clinical example as a compound of 22 years of clinical practice.
This is when you need therapy for feeling empty with me
You have tried to fill the hollow feeling in every way you know, and it is still there underneath.
Emptiness can be hard to take seriously, because there is no obvious pain to point to. You may tell yourself it is just how you are. Yet the sense that you are disconnected from your own life is reason enough to look at it, whatever its cause. You do not need a label, a crisis or the right words before you come to see me. In 22 years of practice, I have seen emptiness in many forms, and I know when it has become a pattern that needs proper attention rather than more distraction.
In sessions, I usually begin by helping you notice where the emptiness is strongest, what it replaced and what keeps it in place. I will share what I see. These 6 questions can help you decide whether this is the moment to start.
Do you fill every quiet moment to avoid feeling the blank inside?
If you do, notice it. Emptiness often shows itself through what you do to avoid it. Headphones go in the moment you step outside. A podcast plays while you shower. The phone comes out in the queue, on the toilet, in bed. Food, shopping, work or sex can play the same role. You are not necessarily enjoying any of it. You are keeping away from a silence that feels bleak and endless.
I would look at when you reach for distraction, what you feel in the few seconds before you do, and whether the blank feeling changes with situations or stays the same. That tells us whether you are going through a flat spell or living with a long-standing disconnection. If you recognise this habit, book a session with me.
Do you long to feel more and fear what would happen if you did?
Both can be true at once. Part of you is tired of numbness and wants to laugh, cry and care again. Another part treats feelings as dangerous, perhaps because the last time you let them in they were overwhelming, or because nobody helped you with them as a child. So you edge towards feeling, a sad song or an honest conversation, and then something closes again.
I take both parts seriously. The part that keeps you numb is not your enemy. It once did a protective job. The part that wants to feel is pointing to what you need. I help you find out what each one is afraid of and wants, so that feelings can come back at a pace you can manage, without flooding you.
Do you look to other people to make you feel real?
When you feel empty, other people can become your source of aliveness. A new relationship, a busy social life or a lot of attention online can make you feel briefly present. When it fades, or someone pulls back, the hollowness returns, sometimes worse than before. You may find yourself checking messages, seeking the next contact or worrying that without others you will disappear altogether.
Your need for contact is real and healthy, and I will not shame it. What I help you notice is how much you have handed your sense of being alive over to other people. We work on calming the urgency and on building a steadier connection with yourself, so contact can nourish you instead of rescuing you. My article on feeling empty describes this pattern from the inside.
Do you seek closeness and then feel nothing when it comes?
This is a painful and common experience. You long for intimacy, you arrange the date, the trip or the long talk, and when the moment comes you feel flat or absent. Sometimes you start to pick at the other person or find reasons to leave. Afterwards you feel confused and ashamed, because you really did want the closeness you could not feel.
In the room we take this moment frame by frame, until the point where closeness tips into blankness becomes visible. Often there is a flicker of something first, fear, sadness or longing, that gets switched off before you notice it. I am gentle with that switch. I will also invite you to consider its price for those who try to love you. Together we find ways to stay present a little longer.
Do you go blank when someone wants something emotional from you?
When a partner cries, a friend confides in you or a parent tells you they are hurt, you may feel your mind go white. You answer with facts, try to fix the problem or change the subject. Inside there is nothing to reach for. Other people may call you cold or distant, which hurts, because you are not choosing it. The blankness simply arrives.
My view is that this blankness is protecting you from something that once felt too much, and I will not try to force it away. I help you notice it as it happens and understand what it shields you from. Gradually you learn to say “I am going blank, give me a moment” instead of disappearing, so that the people close to you are not left alone with the silence.
Have you lost the sense of who you are and what you want?
Emptiness often goes hand in hand with not knowing yourself. If you grew up adapting to others, being easy, being good, keeping the peace, there may have been little room to find out what you liked or felt. As an adult, you can be capable and kind and still feel there is no one at the centre. That is not a defect in you. It is a self that has not yet had the chance to grow.
I help you look for the traces of the person you are: what sparks curiosity, irritation, tenderness or longing, however faintly. We also look at what your family needed you to be, and what they could not offer. I will offer direction and challenge you when you dismiss yourself, but I will not hand you an identity. The aim is to discover, from the inside, who you are and what kind of life feels like yours. If you also find tears arriving without warning, my article on crying for no reason may make sense of it.
If you are unsure whether therapy can reach something this hard to describe, a free call lets us talk first. If you already know, book a session.
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What therapy for feeling empty with me will help you do
Understanding the emptiness is valuable, and then the work needs to bring feeling back into your body, your choices and your relationships.
Working with me will help you see how the emptiness formed, recognise the habits that keep you cut off and gradually live with more feeling and direction. Many people who feel empty are thoughtful and articulate. They can describe their numbness very precisely. But describing it, without anything thawing, tends to leave them more frustrated than before.
In 22 years of experience, I have learned that emptiness responds to presence more than to analysis. I will not sit back and wait for you to fill the silence. I will guide you, ask about your body, name what I notice in the room and challenge you, kindly, when you go blank. These 6 questions describe what we work towards.
How will I help you understand where the emptiness comes from?
I help you tell the emptiness apart from what lies beneath it. The flatness, the boredom and the sense of unreality are real, but they are usually a cover. Underneath there are often specific feelings that were never safe: anger at not being seen, sadness at being left alone with things, longing for closeness that was not available. Sometimes there is a sense that your real self had to go into hiding.
I offer you my clinical reading and suggest where to start. I will question explanations that close the door, such as “I am just not an emotional person”. I work with what you know and with what is not yet conscious, including dreams, images and the parts of you that speak in different voices. If this sounds like a place you want to explore, book a session with me.
How can you notice the moment you switch off?
You can learn to catch it, and that is where things begin to change. Switching off usually has a sequence: a tightening in the chest or stomach, a small rise of feeling, then a fog, a yawn, a sudden urge to look at your phone. Most people only notice the fog. Once you can sense the first stirring before it, you have a chance to stay with what is arriving.
We study that chain together, asking what starts it, what the fog keeps out and what it costs you. Seeing it is the first step. Then we practise staying a few seconds longer with the stirring, in the room and in daily life, until it becomes something you can do on your own.
How can you let feelings in without being overwhelmed?
Letting feelings in does not mean opening the floodgates. It means allowing small amounts of emotion, enough to know what is happening inside you, while staying grounded. People who have been numb for a long time often fear that one feeling will lead to a collapse. In my experience, feelings that are welcomed slowly tend to settle rather than overwhelm.
I help you notice sensations in your body, name them and stay with them in doses you can tolerate. We find practical ways of grounding yourself, such as your feet on the floor, your breath, or an object in your hand, so you are not swept away. This asks for small daily practice outside my room, not only inside it.
How can you tell people what is going on when you do not know yourself?
Clear communication starts with knowing at least a little of what you feel and need, and emptiness makes that genuinely hard. You may answer every question with “fine” or “I do not mind”, not because you are hiding something, but because nothing comes. Over time, people stop asking, and you feel even more alone inside your blankness.
I help you find honest words for uncertain states, such as “I feel far away today” or “I can tell something is wrong, but I cannot name it yet”. That is real communication. I will challenge you when you shrug yourself off, and also when you wait for others to work out what you need. We practise small, true sentences you can use with a partner, a friend or your family.
How can you make choices when nothing feels like it matters?
Choices become possible when you separate the flatness from faint signals of preference that are still there. Emptiness often makes every option feel equal, so you defer to others, stay where you are or choose whatever is easiest. Over months and years, your life can drift into a shape you never really chose.
I help you look for the small pulls and pushes in you: a slight relief at one option, a slight dread at another. We take those seriously and look at what each choice would ask of you. You will hear what I think, and I will gently name it when a choice is being dodged. The deciding stays with you. Often the first real choices are small ones, and they matter.
What does a life that feels lived from the inside look like?
Lasting change shows up in ordinary moments: tasting your food, feeling irritation and saying so, missing someone and telling them, enjoying an evening without a screen. You may need fewer distractions, different relationships, more creative or physical activity, or simply more time alone that is not spent escaping.
Together we work out which parts of your life need to shift and which are fine as they are. Your thoughtfulness, your calm and your self-reliance are not the problem, and I will not try to remove them. The goal is to bring feeling and desire back into the centre of your life, so that your choices grow from what matters to you rather than from the absence of anything mattering.
You can also send me an email
What happens when you begin therapy for feeling empty with me
You do not need to explain the emptiness well, or know where it came from. I start with how it is for you today.
When you begin, I listen for what is said and for what is missing, help you describe the emptiness in your own way and give our work a clear direction. You do not need a diagnosis or a well-formed story. “I feel nothing and I do not know why” is a perfectly good place to start.
This work is part of my psychotherapy, structured individual sessions focused on your inner life and relationships, and a sub-branch of depression therapy. Should we find that the hollowness sits mostly in your partnership, and your partner would like to join, couples therapy gives you long-term relational development and healing. If you expect the work to need time, therapy discounts and bundles offer savings and the steadiness of an agreed plan.
What happens in our first session?
In our first session, I ask what made you look for help now, when you first noticed the emptiness, where it is strongest and what you have tried to fill it with. I am also curious about moments when something does reach you, however briefly. You do not need to tell me your whole life story for useful work to start.
Near the end, I share my first understanding and suggest a direction for the work. You can then sense whether my approach feels right for you. If you would like to talk first, arrange a free 30-minute discovery call.
When is individual therapy right for feeling empty?
Individual therapy fits when the emptiness lives mostly in your relationship with yourself: your feelings, your history, your sense of identity and the way you keep people at a safe distance. That is the case for most people who feel hollow. We can look closely at your relationships without anyone else needing to attend.
One to one, I hold the thread between sessions, keep us pointed somewhere and say honestly what I see. If you want to look at your life more widely, Psychotherapy Copenhagen explains my structured individual work in general.
When would couples therapy suit me better?
Couples therapy suits you better when the relationship itself needs ongoing attention. If you and your partner have drifted into a polite, empty routine, if one of you is reaching for warmth that the other cannot seem to find, or if trust has been damaged, working on it together can reach things that individual work cannot.
With both of you in the room, I help each of you notice the loop you keep falling into, take your share of it and build something warmer and safer. That is more than solving one disagreement. Couples therapy Copenhagen describes that long-term relational development and healing. Some people begin alone and bring their partner in later.
How often should I come?
The pace depends on how long the emptiness has been there, how much capacity you have and how much continuity the work needs. Because emptiness tends to reseal itself between sessions, regular meetings help keep a thread of feeling alive. Long gaps often mean starting again from the surface each time.
I recommend beginning weekly. Should the spacing become too wide for anything to take root, I will say so, just as I will say when we can step it down. Where a weekly rhythm is hard to fit in, a few back-to-back sessions across 2 days can be another way in.
When does a bundle make sense?
A bundle makes sense when you know the work will take a number of sessions and you prefer continuity over deciding each time. Emptiness can make it easy to drift away from therapy, because nothing feels urgent. A planned course gives you a reason to keep coming while something slowly thaws.
A bundle means significant savings and the safety of a structured plan. I am glad to help you weigh up which size suits what lies ahead. Details are on therapy discounts and bundles, and the cards further down this page show them too.
How will we know the emptiness has eased enough to stop?
You will notice that feelings reach you more often, that you know more of what you want and that you can stay present with the people you love. Flat days may still come, but they pass, and you no longer fear that nothing is there. You have more ownership and freedom of choice in your own life.
I review progress with you openly and do not encourage unnecessary dependency. Sessions can become less frequent, pause or end when the work has served its purpose. If you come back in a later chapter of life, that is not a sign of failure. It is a sign that you take your inner life seriously.
How it works with me
- Get in touch through a free 30-minute call, or book a first session online. A sentence about how the emptiness feels is enough for me to see if this is the right place to begin.
- We meet alone together for 50 minutes of therapy in a 1-hour booking, either in my room at Møntergade 4 or over video. Danish and English both work, with slots from 08:00 to 21:00 Copenhagen time on any day of the week, subject to availability.
- We usually meet weekly to begin with, so a thread of feeling can carry from one session to the next. Between sessions, you try small practices of noticing and staying with what you feel.
- After a few sessions, we look honestly at what has begun to change. We then agree whether to continue at the same pace, meet less often, turn to a specific theme or finish.
- Expecting a series? Choose a therapy bundle and take 10 per cent off, with the plan agreed before we begin. Bundles appear right underneath.
Save with a prepaid session bundle
How the bundle works
- Current bundle savings are shown on the Pricing page.
- Your bundle is valid for 180 days from the date of purchase.
- The bundle can only be used for the type of session stated on your invoice.
- If you request a refund, sessions already used are recalculated at the standard single-session price.
- The administration fee applied to a bundle refund is shown on the Pricing page.
- VAT follows the type of therapy included in the bundle: VAT-exempt sessions remain VAT exempt, while VAT-liable sessions include applicable VAT.
Compare with nearby options
Not certain this is the right page for you? Here is how it compares with the options closest to it.
| Option | Choose it when | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| Therapy for feeling empty (this page) | You feel hollow, numb or cut off from your own feelings. | Weekly 1-hour sessions to start |
| Depression therapy | You feel heavy and sad, and daily life takes all your energy. | Weekly 1-hour sessions at first |
| Loneliness therapy | The hollow feeling is mostly about missing real connection with others. | Regular 1-hour sessions |
| Trauma therapy | The numbness started after an overwhelming experience. | A paced course of sessions |
Frequently asked questions
What is therapy for feeling empty with you?
Therapy for feeling empty is individual psychotherapy for people who feel hollow, numb or disconnected from their own feelings and desires. Rather than trying to fill the gap from the outside, it helps you understand how the emptiness formed and reconnect with what lies beneath it. I offer it in Danish or English, in central Copenhagen or online.
I work in depth with the whole person, including the body, dreams, inner parts and family history. I do not diagnose or prescribe. This page is a sub-branch of my depression therapy, for when numbness rather than sadness is at the centre.
When should I come to you about feeling empty?
Come when the emptiness has lasted for months, when distraction no longer works, when you notice you do not react to things that matter or when it is affecting your relationships. You do not have to wait for it to turn into despair. Your own sense that something is missing is reason enough.
With 22 years of practice behind me, I look at how long the emptiness has lasted, whether it comes and goes or stays constant, and what you have stopped wanting or noticing. If success has not filled the gap, my article on being successful but unhappy describes that experience well.
Can therapy really help if I feel like there is nothing inside?
Yes, very often it can. In my experience, the feeling that there is nothing inside is almost always a protective numbness rather than a true absence. It can be understood and gradually softened. I cannot promise how quickly feelings will return or exactly what will emerge, and I do not offer quick fixes.
In my clinical experience, people who have felt empty for a long time are often surprised by how much is waiting underneath once it is safe enough. I would focus with you on what had to be switched off, why it made sense at the time and how to let it back in at a pace you can manage.
Is feeling empty the same as being depressed?
Not always. Emptiness can be part of a low mood, but many people who feel empty are not sad or exhausted. They feel flat, unreal or cut off. I do not diagnose, and you do not need a label to work with me. We work with what you actually experience.
If you are wondering whether you are depressed or whether medication might help, talk to your GP, who can assess you and discuss medical options. I do not prescribe. Therapy and medical care can go side by side, and I am happy to work alongside your GP.
Why do I pull close to people and then feel nothing?
Because closeness can stir feelings that once felt unsafe, and the numbness steps in before you notice them. You reach out because you need contact, then the old protection switches you off. It can look like coldness from the outside. From the inside, it feels like absence. It is not a flaw in your character.
Together we learn to spot the switch in real time and see both what it guards against and what it takes from you and those close to you. Then we work on small, steadier ways of staying present, such as naming the blankness out loud or staying in contact for a few more breaths.
What if I have nothing to say in the first session?
Then we start there. Many people who feel empty fear they will sit in silence. In practice, I ask concrete questions about your days, your body, your history and the moments when something stirs. Before we stop, I tell you how I see it so far and where I suggest we go next.
You do not need to prepare or arrive with the right words. The emptiness itself is material we can work with. Whenever you feel able, reserve a first appointment, or try a free discovery call to begin.
How many sessions will I need?
I recommend planning for a course of regular sessions over several months. Emptiness that has been there since adolescence or childhood usually needs time to soften, because the protection behind it runs deep. Some people notice small changes within weeks, while a fuller return of feeling takes longer.
Based on 22 years of practice, my advice is a first agreed stretch of sessions followed by an honest look at what is different. You then decide with me whether to continue, space sessions out or stop.
Is it better to come in person or meet online?
In person is often better for this work, if you can manage it. Feeling empty frequently involves losing touch with your body, and sitting together in the same room makes it easier to notice small shifts in sensation and contact. Online sessions are a good alternative when distance, travel or circumstances make it difficult, and they last just as long.
Both options are part of my psychotherapy practice, in Danish or English. If you cannot tell which would help you feel more present, we can work it out on a free call.
What does it cost?
Every appointment is a 1-hour booking that includes 50 minutes of therapy. My prices page shows what it currently costs. Payment is made by invoice and bank transfer.
If you commit to several sessions, a bundle takes 10 per cent off and fixes a firm plan, as set out on therapy discounts and bundles. Pay the same day from a Danish bank account and 3 per cent more is deducted.
How do I book a session?
You can pick a time online straight away, or arrange a free 30-minute discovery call to get a sense of me first. A short note about what brings you is helpful but not required.
If you cannot find a suitable time, or if things suddenly feel much worse, contact me directly. I hold room for acute cases, usually within days. Book now, and we will begin with whatever is there.
You can also send me an email
My approach and values
My mission
My mission is to help individuals, couples and families rediscover connection, communicate with understanding, and build a stronger, more loving relationship that can thrive through any challenge.
My vision
My vision is to create a world where every person in my therapy room feels supported, connected, and empowered to grow, and to step one step closer to your Self.
Explore other services I offer
Individual psychotherapy
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