What depression is and what we can do about it
If you’ve been enjoying things less than usual, having trouble sleeping, with low energy or difficulty motivating yourself, or feeling in a persistently bad mood, it’s possible that you’re depressed. Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, and can overlap with other struggles that therapy can help with. It is one of the things I can diagnose, treat and help you work through.
How I treat it
The treatment I do for depression focuses on simplicity. We’re all wired to be more ready to see negative things about the world than positive ones (1). A result is that most of us likely receive far less positive input from others around us than would be optimal for helping us to feel good and stay motivated. Pioneering therapist Carl Rogers noticed that regardless of any more complicated theory or structure put around the therapeutic process, people he worked with seemed to both feel better and make more positive changes when he reflected their positive qualities back to them. This and the few other principles he added into “person-centered” or “client-centered” therapy have since been found to have a basis in neuroscience (2). It turns out that sitting down and having an ongoing series of conversations with someone dedicated to understanding you and helping you lift yourself up can be deeply helpful.
There are other approaches, techniques and strategies we can add in as needed. Many therapists talk about tailoring therapy to individual needs but few do it in any systematic or evidence-based way (3). If, for example, you want your process to feel more challenging, or confrontational, or therapist-directed than how that sounds, those are valid and important preferences. After scheduling a consultation, if you and I find each other to be a good fit and proceed with therapy, we can spend some of the first few sessions working out the details of what therapy needs to look like for you, given your history, personality and preferences.
Hope versus despair
Even though depression by its nature feels hopeless, there can be reasons for hope for treatment to at least make it feel not as bad, and possibly to get you to a place of not feeling depressed at all. Many people get better from depression, even after years of struggling with it and many life experiences contributing to it. Therapy often helps, and often with an initial boost in mood in the first few sessions (4). While it doesn’t work like that for every single person and I’m here for conversations about alternatives in the rare case that therapy isn’t helping, there’s a lot we can do. If you choose to work with me, I’m looking forward to getting to know more about who you are, what you’ve struggled with, what hasn’t been recognized yet, and how we can turn that towards a better path for you.
How to start
If that sounds like work you’re interested in doing with me, please click the button at the top of the page to schedule a consultation. Also, check back for blog posts as I’m planning on writing at more length soon about what else besides therapy can help.
Selected references on depression and therapy
- Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: the negativity bias in social-emotional development. Psychological bulletin, 134(3), 383.
- Silani, G., Zucconi, A., & Lamm, C. (2013). Carl Rogers meets the neurosciences: Insights from social neuroscience for client-centered therapy. In Interdisciplinary handbook of the person-centered approach: Research and theory (pp. 63-78). New York, NY: Springer New York.
- Cooper, M., Norcross, J. C., Raymond-Barker, B., & Hogan, T. P. (2019). Psychotherapy preferences of laypersons and mental health professionals: Whose therapy is it?. Psychotherapy, 56(2), 205.
- Rubel, J., Lutz, W., & Schulte, D. (2015). Patterns of change in different phases of outpatient psychotherapy: A stage‐sequential pattern analysis of change in session reports. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 22(1), 1-14.