Karl Ludwig Holtz (* March 11, 1941 in Dortmund) is a psychologist and psychological psychotherapist specializing in cognitive, systemic and hypnosystemic therapies. As a professor of psychology in special educational fields of action at the Heidelberg University of Education, his main areas of work were learning and development support, resource orientation, systemic solution-oriented approaches in counseling, supervision, and therapy.

Career
Karl L. Holtz studied psychology and philosophy in Münster, Hamburg and Heidelberg. In 1968, he went to the Dortmund University of Education (later the University of Dortmund), where he first helped establish the Special Education Counseling Center and then moved to the Chair of Pedagogy in Behavioral Disorders as an assistant professor. In 1972 he was at the University of Madison (focus on Mental Retardation and Behavior Disorders: R.Heber, W.Gardner) and Temple University in Philadelphia, where he continued his training in cognitive behavioral therapy with Wolpe, Lazarus and Beck. In 1973 he was appointed to the professorship of Psychology of the Learning Disabled (later Psychology in Special Education). During that time, he also held teaching positions at the University of Heidelberg, and from 1989 to 1991 he took on a substitute professorship for psychology at the University of Dortmund.

In 1997, he founded the Institute for Solution-Oriented Counseling and Supervision (ILBS), an affiliated institute of the Heidelberg University of Education, which offers continuing education courses in systemic solution-oriented counseling, supervision, and coaching, with a focus on educational fields of action. The institute is a teaching institute of the Systemic Society, a member of the Scientific Association for Counseling (wAB) and the European Association for Counseling (EAC). In addition to his psychotherapeutic work, he has been a teaching supervisor and teaching therapist for the German Society for Behavior Therapy, the Systemic Society, and the Milton-Erickson Society in Germany and in Austria.

Since 1999, he has been a visiting professor at Boris Grinchenko University in Kiev (Ukraine), and in 2012 he was awarded a doctorate (Dr. hc) there for his contributions to the further development of training in psychotherapy and counseling. In 2013, he received the Daniel Kohen Award for his lifetime achievements in the field of psychotherapy with children and adolescents.