Depression Therapy
Has Depression Left You Feeling Stuck?
Have feelings of hopelessness and helplessness overwhelmed your life? Do you find yourself stuck in your head, and can’t figure out how to dig yourself out? Perhaps stress or commitments in your work or your personal life have become all-encompassing, leaving you little time to care for your own needs.
Maybe, over time, you’ve started losing faith in yourself, confidence in your abilities, or interest in the activities you once enjoyed. Or it could be that you’ve struggled with depression for so long that you’re doubtful anything can change—even with therapy.
The Identifiable Signs Of Depression
If you are wondering if what you’re experiencing is depression, learning the symptoms and presenting behaviors is a great first step. Depression can bring about many telltale signs, such as:
Feelings of low self-worth, powerlessness, and self-criticism.
Fatigue, insomnia, and in some cases hypersomnia (feeling excessively tired during the day or sleeping longer at night).
Negative behaviors (especially toward others) that promote social isolation.
Rumination over perceived failures, and fear of rejection.
Body aches, joint aches, and muscle tension.
Day to day, these symptoms can lead to difficulties enduring even mild work or relational tasks. As a result, you may be self-medicating by overindulging with food, alcohol, or other substances to cope.
At the end of the day, you probably wish you could shut down the sadness, negative thoughts, and self-criticism—and just be happy. Fortunately, therapy can help you manage powerful emotions and heal whatever is at the core of your depression so you can finally get back to a sense of normalcy and happiness in your life.
You Probably Know Someone Who Is Also Suffering From Depression
It is estimated that in the United States, 21 million adults have experienced a significant depressive episode. So, it is very likely that we all know someone who is struggling with depression. In 2020 alone, an estimated 14.8 million US adults had a substantial depressive episode in the past year. (1)
There isn’t one universal cause for depression, but self-criticism is a habit that can become a slippery slope for our mental health, making it easier to spiral into a depressive state. (2) Another common cause is burnout, usually from fatigue and the persistent stress inherent in work, relationships, financial issues, etc.
Sometimes depression has biological, genetic, or medical roots. Other times, it develops due to the loss of a loved one, a job, or a relationship. To survive, people often ignore these losses and focus on work or day-to-day responsibilities, which only adds to the emotional weight they carry.
How The Modern World Contributes To Depression
With the influx of social media, it is easy to observe and compare ourselves to people around the world. Often, we see idealized personas in the form of pictures and short clips that only represent successes, which can make us feel like we’re somehow failing or missing out on our lives.
With the increasing number of remote jobs, technological distractions, and sources of entertainment, it's easier than ever to become disconnected from others, which perpetuates feelings of isolation and loneliness.
No matter the cause of your pain, if you are struggling, you deserve and are worthy of the compassion, support, and joy that is possible through depression treatment.
Therapy Can Help Lighten The Load Of Depression
Depression is a complicated experience that attacks our thinking, feelings, and bodily sensations in overwhelming ways that often require specific skills for treatment not openly accessible to the general public.
Therapy can teach you adaptive ways to process your depression and handle difficult experiences with attention and compassion as they arise in the future with attention and compassion. Depression can feel like a weight bearing down on you, so let's start lightening the load, using new, healthier coping strategies that will work for you and not against you and your goals.
What Do Depression Counseling Sessions Look Like?
I provide a safe, compassionate environment where you can bring your thoughts and feelings and express yourself without fear of judgment. In the beginning, we will look at surface issues, including any current thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are maintaining depressive symptoms. We will also explore ways to treat these symptoms in the short term so that you can go back to your life with some new survival tools.
As therapy progresses, we’ll focus on getting to the root of these issues while developing core values to get a sense of what you want for your future.
Therapeutic Methods For Empowerment And Healing
I incorporate the following modalities in counseling sessions:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for depression involves identifying negative patterns among your thoughts, beliefs, and actions. It also utilizes mindfulness-based practices for staying present, which further assists in recognizing problematic thinking.
Mindfulness self-compassion – This helps to balance emotional regulation systems and process negative thoughts with kindness. The basic practice of mindfulness self-compassion is to be kind to yourself. Quite often people speak to themselves more harshly than they would ever speak to a friend.
Cognitive restructuring – Reframing disempowering, negative, and unwieldy perspectives into positive, actionable approaches can lead to a greater sense of ease and control.
Reauthoring problematic dominant stories – Narrative therapy will give you the chance to see strengths and values missed in moments of perceived failure and loss while building on those qualities to develop a more empowered sense of self.
Developing core values – We will explore what is most important to you and categorize this into three or four values. Then, we will use these values to guide your life decisions, which slowly builds a sense of worth and meaning.
I have also developed a unique and effective modality of my own that allows uncomfortable emotions to pass through you in a way that engenders compassion, kindness, and strength rather than criticism and future worry. I utilize all of these methods for depression treatment in a manner that is most effective for you.
Most people find themselves depressed because there is a social myth that whatever happens to us, no matter how much harm we endure, we should always be able to prevail on our own. Without anyone to contradict this, many of us become overwhelmed, self-critical, and hopeless, which is why working with a depression therapist can be so helpful.
My plan is to help identify the support you need, and offer collaborative skill-building practice and resources to put you back in the driver's seat of your life. With therapy, it is possible to find the energy and joy you once experienced, and no longer allow your depression to dictate your satisfaction.
You May Still Have Questions About Depression Therapy…
I have been depressed for a long time. What are the real chances that therapy can help me?
Therapy can help no matter how long you have been depressed. In counseling, the most important part is making sure that we are moving at a speed that makes you feel like you are achieving small successes in combating your depression. That will build confidence in yourself and in the therapy process, which will make it effective whether it takes a little time or a little more.
How can you make me comfortable to open up enough to share my thoughts?
My job is to help you stop your negative self-talk, which is totally common with depression. Being nervous about the way you talk about yourself or treat yourself is also to be expected, as this is not something you are used to sharing. You can work up to sharing these details by addressing other things first.
It may also help you to know that as therapists, there’s very little we haven’t heard, so you’re not going to surprise us.
I have gone to therapy before and it wasn't very helpful. Why would your practice be any different?
The two most important parts of therapy are timing and fit. In terms of timing, therapy needs to feel like something you truly want to commit to right now, and exploring your options is a good sign that you are probably ready. By fit, I mean that as your counselor, my job is to create a space where you feel at ease, thus facilitating your healing from depression.
Consider This Your Invitation To Reach Out
Depression will not last forever, and with help, you can learn the tools to move through this challenging time in your life with self-compassion, keeping your goals at the forefront. Reach out to my practice, Cambridge Compassion and Mindfulness Psychology, by email or with a phone call at (617) 714-4058 for a free, 15-minute consultation to learn more about how life could feel without depression weighing you down.
1-https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
2-https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/202005/research-finds-self-compassion-can-relieve-depression
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