Depression Counseling

Depression is often an opportunity to take a look at the areas in your life which may not be working for you anymore. An opportunity to re-evaluate your relationships, the job you have or the meaning of your life. Depression can also result in carrying family issues or burdens that are not yours to carry. Part of the work I can do with you, is to help you get to the root of the depression so that you can move forward in your life.

Are you finding yourself having a harder time getting out of bed in the morning or being excited about life? Do you find yourself feeling discouraged and hopeless about your life? Are you isolating yourself or drinking more just to make it through the day? If you are, you may be experiencing signs of depression. It is nothing to be ashamed of. It may feel like melancholy or deep sadness.

Rather than label it as a disorder, what if you could look at it in a different light. What if the sadness you are experiencing is your psyche or soul’s call to you to stop and look within? Instead of automatically taking a pill, what if you took a breath and journeyed inside? If you are quick to relieve the discomfort of depression with pharmaceuticals, you will lose the opportunity for self-discovery, the opportunity to get to the heart of the matter.

I recognize that depression is a serious condition and that it can lead to suicide. The invitation I am offering you is to look within the feelings of melancholy and see what is causing it. Rather than pushing it away, what if you became friends with it and found out what its intention is?

The work I do around depression I refer to as “shadow work” which means we’ll go to those places in your life that you want to push away.

Depression can often be dealt with via Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This type of work enables you to look at distortions in your thinking where you may have been putting yourself down for small things, and not giving yourself credit for other things.

For example, if you lose your job, you might label yourself a loser and feel depressed. Everything you feel relates to that job loss. Cognitive Therapy will help you recognize that the loss of a job doesn’t make you a bad person or a failure. You still have many other excellent qualities that should not be discounted or ignored when you experience a setback, like a job loss. You may have loving relationships at home that mean a lot to you, still have friends that care about you, who don’t see you as a loser, just because you lost your job. Cognitive Therapy will put that job loss into the correct perspective so that you can move forward to do what you want, (get another job, retire, start your own business, etc.) rather than get enmeshed in the loss.

I can help you deal with and lift your depression in a natural and integrative manner providing you with insight into the origins of your depression which will lead to a more joyful, healthy and happy life.

Depression Counseling is one of many Healing Services that can be used in Individual Counseling, often using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.