onlineberatung.digital at a glance

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Key facts

What it is: A platform for online counselling in difficult times. People seeking support find counselling centres and professionals, book a first session or write first. Counselling takes place by message or video in a protected room.
Who it is for: People seeking support in Germany. Counselling centres and professionals in private practice, for example in systemic counselling or coaching.
Counselling fields: Counselling for men, counselling for women, marriage counselling, family counselling, life counselling, couples counselling, separation and divorce, debt counselling and crisis counselling.
Cost for people seeking support: Often free. Depending on the centre or practice, with a sliding-scale fee. The first session is always free.
Cost for centres and practices: 15 euros per counsellor per month, everything included. Try it free for 7 days.
Who runs it: Heiner Fischer, a men’s counsellor and stress prevention trainer from Krefeld, Germany. He built the platform himself and counsels on it himself. All details are in the legal notice.
Name of the software: The software is called Beratungsraum. The app for clients is also called Beratungsraum.
Address: https://onlineberatung.digital/en
Languages: Interface, help and emails in German and English. Counselling takes place in the languages of the counsellors.
Not an emergency service: In an emergency, call 112. Telefonseelsorge (German crisis line), free and day and night: 0800 111 0 111.

Who the platform is for

People seeking support: people looking for advice, for example in the family, in a relationship, during separation, with debt or when everything gets too much. They stay anonymous, a pseudonym is enough.
Counselling centres: teams with a centre lead, counsellors and an office, including church organisations. Each centre has its own public page, and its counsellors have their own counsellor profiles.
Private practice: professionals who work on their own, for example in systemic counselling or as a coach. They register their own practice and are centre lead and counsellor in one.
Who counsels: professionals from social work, education, psychology or a comparable profession. Their qualifications are checked before approval.

How people seeking support use the platform

Find counselling. In the directory and under Find counselling centres they search by town or city, counselling field and language. Many centres serve their own town, some all of Germany. Each counsellor profile shows who counsels, how the person works and what counselling costs.
Book a first session or write first. They choose a free time for a first session by video or send a message first. If all times are taken, they join the waiting list.
Choose a pseudonym and password. A name, phone number or email address is not needed. Afterwards they get a recovery code once, in case they forget the password.
Counselling in their own room. Messages, appointments, the video call and the whiteboards are all there. This works in the browser on any device, also on a phone.
Closing. After counselling ends, they can still read their room and download their messages for 30 days. They can delete their account themselves at any time.

People already seen in person at a counselling centre can continue online with an invitation code. A first session is always booked through the platform, on the counsellor profile of that person.

Prices

For people seeking support

Often free. Each centre or practice decides whether counselling costs anything. This is shown openly on every counsellor profile.
The first session never costs anything. Writing messages is free too.
Sliding-scale fee: after each further session the person chooses 60, 90 or 120 euros themselves. Those who can pay more support those who have less. Cancelling up to 24 hours before costs nothing.
The centre or practice settles the fee with the person directly. Paying through the platform is still being built.

For counselling centres and practices

Item	What applies
Licence	15 euros per person who counsels, per month. Final price, everything included.
Included	Directory, booking, counselling room, video in the room, whiteboard, systemic board, position cards, prompt cards and case notes
Trial	7 days free, with made-up data. The trial ends by itself, no cancellation needed.
Centre lead	no extra cost, as long as they do not counsel themselves
Office	needs no licence
Add-ons	none
Billing	monthly in arrears by invoice. The highest number of booked licences in the month counts.
Term	no minimum term, cancel at the end of any month

One price for everyone: large counselling centre or private practice, free counselling or with a fee. Details are on For counselling centres and in the terms of use.

Features

Directory and booking

Every counsellor has their own counsellor profile with photo, qualifications, counselling fields, languages and a text about how they work. Counsellors edit their profile themselves. A new job title and new qualifications are checked by the platform operator before they appear.
Every centre has its own public page with logo or picture, counselling fields, catchment area and team. It appears as “Counselling centre” or as “Private practice”.
People seeking support book a first session from the free times. A small human check (ALTCHA) works without cookies and without third-party servers. If everything is taken, there is the waiting list.
Alternating weeks: counsellors set their own times for week A and week B, for example when their children stay with them every other week.
Holidays and blocked days, length, break and notice period for each counsellor.

Rooms and messages

Each counselling relationship has its own room with messages, appointments, video and whiteboard. New messages appear by themselves. “read” shows what the other side has already read.
Follow-up sessions in person, by video or by phone. People seeking support cancel appointments themselves in the room.
A second person gets their own access to the room, for example in couples counselling. For a single video appointment there is a guest link without an account.
Co-counselling: a colleague from the same centre counsels too.
Email reminders are optional and never say what the counselling is about.
People seeking support can download their messages as a text file.

Video in the room and whiteboard

The video call runs directly in the room, via Whereby. People seeking support knock and are let in. Picture and sound are not recorded.
On a computer everyone chooses camera and microphone, and depending on the browser also the speaker. On a phone or tablet they switch between front and back camera.
Those who prefer another service use their own link or Centre Zoom.
Whiteboard: notes, pen, cards and templates on an open surface. Both work on it at the same time and see every change at once. People seeking support follow the counsellor’s view, and “Back to centre” takes them back. With “My view” the counsellor shows what they are looking at.
Methods from counselling: a 3D systemic board with figures, animals and coloured cards, position cards (weather map, resource map, map of the male soul), prompt cards with photos about values, the “Inner team” card set and templates such as a confidence scale and the ego states from transactional analysis.
The whiteboard can be prepared before the appointment. Afterwards it can be downloaded as an image or PDF. At the next appointment you continue on a copy.

Case notes

Entries for each room and each case with date, length and type: in person, video, phone or messages.
A draft from key points, or written by hand. A centre can have its own template with sections.
The risk assessment for self-harm and child welfare is always made by the professional.
Every change becomes a new version. Case notes are stored encrypted. Only the counsellor and a co-counsellor can read them.

In-person cases and office

Professionals record sessions at the centre or by phone as a case, with appointments and case notes. The people involved need no account.
If someone wants to continue online, the person gets an invitation code. It stays the same case with the same case notes.
The office creates in-person cases, keeps contact details up to date and adds appointments for the counsellors. It never sees case notes, messages or whiteboards.

Team, centre lead and statistics

The centre lead invites the team, approves counsellors, assigns licences, hands over rooms when someone leaves, chooses the retention period and sees the invoices. The centre lead never sees counselling content.
Centre statistics: cases, contacts, hours, counselling fields, age, gender and place of residence, always without names. The figures for a year can be downloaded as a table, for example for funding reports.

Calendar, Zoom and your own website

Calendar: counsellors connect Outlook, Microsoft 365 or Google Calendar. Times when they are busy there are not offered. Booked appointments only appear as “Counselling” in the calendar, without names and without content. For Apple and other calendars there is a private subscription link.
Centre Zoom: the centre lead connects the centre’s Zoom account. The platform then creates a meeting with waiting room and passcode for every video appointment, without recording. When an appointment is cancelled, the meeting disappears.
Appointments on your own website: a box shows the free times for a first session. For WordPress there is a plugin with a block and shortcode, for Jimdo, Wix, Squarespace and other sites a short piece of HTML. The box sets no cookie, and booking happens on the platform.

App for clients

The Beratungsraum app for iPhone and iPad: messages, appointments, video and whiteboard.
Notifications without content, protection with Face ID, a covered screen when switching to another app.
The app is coming soon. Until then, and on all other devices, everything works in the browser with nothing to install.

Languages

Interface, help and emails are available in German and English.
Counselling takes place in the languages of the counsellors. The directory can be filtered by language.

Coming soon

Signing in with a passkey for professionals, for example with Face ID, Touch ID or Windows Hello.
An AI draft for case notes from key points, which each centre switches on or off itself.
Paying through the platform.

What makes the platform different

Everything in one place: directory, booking, messages, video, whiteboard and case notes in one system.
Online and in person together: in-person cases, the office and online rooms are in one system. Someone who starts in person continues online in the same case.
Methods from practice: systemic board, position cards, prompt cards and “Inner team” are built in and work directly in the video appointment.
Anonymous for people seeking support: a pseudonym and password are enough. No app is needed.
One price, everything included: 15 euros per counsellor per month, video included. No add-ons, the centre lead at no extra cost, the office without a licence.
Careful with data: servers in Germany, video from a European provider, emails without content, no advertising.
Clear roles: the centre lead and the office see no counselling content. Neither does the platform operator.
Works with what you have: calendars, Centre Zoom and your own website can be connected.
Built from practice: developed by a counsellor who counsels on it himself.

Privacy and security

Pseudonym instead of real name: people seeking support sign in with a pseudonym and password. An email address is optional and stored encrypted in the database.
Two-factor sign-in: required for all professionals, including the office, with password and a code from an app. The platform checks new passwords of professionals against known data breaches.
Servers in Germany: the connection is encrypted. Messages, case notes and details about the people involved are stored encrypted. An encrypted backup is made every night.
No access for the platform operator: the platform operator sees no counselling content.
Emails and notifications without content: they mention at most a date, a time and a link. Names, pseudonyms and content never appear there.
Video via Whereby: video in the room comes from Whereby, a provider based in Norway within the European Economic Area, with a data processing agreement. Nothing is recorded.
US providers only if you choose: Zoom, Google Calendar and Microsoft calendars come from US providers. A centre or counsellor only connects them if they want to. Everything works without them. Zoom only receives the start, the length and the topic “Appointment”. The calendar only receives “Counselling”, the type of appointment and the link to the room, without names and without content.
No tracking in the room: in the room, in the professionals’ workspace and in the app there are no trackers, no advertising and no visitor statistics. There the platform only sets cookies that are technically necessary. Only on the public pages does Matomo on its own server count visits, and only with consent. Anyone signed in is never counted.
Retention and deletion: each centre chooses after how many months closed cases are deleted: 6, 12, 24 or 36 months. The platform then deletes messages, appointments, whiteboards and case notes. People seeking support can delete their account themselves at any time. Details of guests at a video appointment are removed about a week afterwards. The centre statistics only keep figures without names.
Data processing agreement: each centre stays responsible for its counselling. The platform works on its behalf, with an agreement under Art. 28 GDPR (in German). Catholic organisations follow the KDG, Protestant organisations the DSG-EKD.

All details are in the privacy notice.

Frequently asked questions

What is onlineberatung.digital?

onlineberatung.digital is a platform for online counselling in difficult times. People seeking support find counselling centres and professionals in private practice there, book a first session or write first. Counselling takes place by message or video in a protected room. A pseudonym is enough.

What does counselling cost for people seeking support?

Often nothing. Each centre or practice decides whether counselling costs anything. This is shown openly on every counsellor profile. The first session is always free. If a centre charges a sliding-scale fee, the person chooses 60, 90 or 120 euros themselves after each further session.

What does the platform cost for counselling centres and practices?

15 euros per counsellor per month, everything included, also video in the room. The first 7 days are free. The centre lead manages the centre at no extra cost, and the office needs no licence. Invoices come monthly in arrears.

How anonymous are people seeking support?

On the platform they are only known by their pseudonym. A name, phone number or email address is not needed. An email address for reminders is optional. During a video call, the video service sees technical data such as the IP address.

Is there an app?

The Beratungsraum app for iPhone and iPad is coming soon. It offers messages, appointments, video and whiteboard. Until then, and on all other devices, everything works in the browser with nothing to install.

Do centres need Zoom?

No. Video in the room is part of the licence. Centres that work with Zoom connect the centre’s Zoom account or add their own link. This is optional.

Can I join on my own as a counsellor or coach?

Yes. You register your own practice and are centre lead and counsellor in one. You need a licence for this. You appear in the directory after your qualifications have been checked.

Where are the servers?

In Germany. Video in the room comes from Whereby, a provider based in Norway.

Is the platform an emergency service?

No. In an emergency, call 112. The Telefonseelsorge (German crisis line) is free and available day and night on 0800 111 0 111.

Who runs the platform?

Heiner Fischer, a men’s counsellor and stress prevention trainer from Krefeld, Germany. He built the platform himself and counsels on it himself.

Contact

People seeking support: questions about their own counselling go to their counsellor in the room. A first session is booked on the counsellor profile: Find counselling.
Counselling centres, partnerships and press: by email to hallo@heinerfischer.de or via the contact page.
Trial: register your centre and try it free for 7 days.

For counselling centres: licence, price, trial and frequently asked questions
Help: handbook for clients, counsellors and counselling centres
Terms of use and data processing agreement (in German)
Privacy notice and legal notice
Product page on heinerfischer.de (in German)

Last updated: 29 October 2026