Depression Counselling in Forest Lawn, AB.

I help clients with depression using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a research-based form of therapy in which I am certified. Behavioural strategies include helping clients to schedule more mood-enhancing activities in their daily lives. Cognitive strategies help clients change thinking patterns which have a negative effect on their moods.

Depression can feel heavy and isolating, making even the simplest tasks seem impossible. In our work together, I provide a safe, compassionate space grounded in trauma-informed care, where you can share openly without fear of judgment. We’ll explore the emotional, physical, and life experiences—including past or unresolved trauma—that may be contributing to how you feel. At your pace, I integrate practical coping tools with somatic and evidence-based methods to help lift the weight of depression. Together, we’ll work toward rebuilding hope, reconnecting you with meaning and joy, and strengthening your sense of self-worth so you can move forward feeling more empowered and at ease in your life

Keystone Child and Family Therapy offers counseling for those struggling with depression and anxiety. Both depression and anxiety can make daily activities quite difficult to complete, or even initiate. Clients will benefit from learning about these debilitating experiences, whether they struggle with it or their children. Clients will learn effective coping techniques to deal with their depression and anxiety and to regain a sense of control over their lives. Keystone also offers counseling to parents who have children struggling with anxiety and depression and provides practical strategies to both children and parents to regain control over their lives.

Depression can be deeply painful, robbing you of energy, motivation, and hope. It creates a negative view of life, your self, and your future. It typically disrupts sleep patterns, appetite, emotions, and your thinking ability. I use the clinical practice of cognitive behavioural therapy to help people regain healthy control over their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and reclaim a sense of influence over their life style and life situation's. Coaching you to refocus, set small daily goals, celebrate your successes, and learn new behavioral and thinking skills can take time but the good news is that once you have acquired these skills you have them for life.

In our sessions, we will explore the factors that contribute to feelings of depression and low mood and practice skill-building. We can learn to identify and shift the thinking patterns, accept and process our emotions, and detach ourselves from any expectations that may be keeping us stuck. We can also learn new ways to relate to ourselves and support ourselves through depression.

Depression can impact motivation, energy, relationships, and a person’s overall sense of meaning. In our work together, I provide a supportive and structured space where we explore both the emotional experience of depression and the patterns that may be maintaining it. Using evidence-based approaches such as CBT, ACT, and Solution-Focused Therapy, we focus on building small, achievable steps toward change while also addressing deeper thoughts and beliefs that contribute to low mood. Clients often benefit by experiencing increased clarity, improved daily functioning, and a gradual reconnection with purpose, hope, and self-compassion.

Having depression enter one's life is shocking, debilitating and saddening. Depression throws one into states of dulled emotion and distorted thinking. Central to feeling depressed is a seemingly inescapable loss of vitality and energy. Entering into counselling with me as a means of exiting depression from your life will entail reframing your thinking, engaging adaptive emotions and creating a healthier lifestyle centered around mindfulness practices, daily exercise and good nutrition. We will create a strong therapeutic alliance that is focused on restoring the vitality, positive mind sets and hopefulness needed to bring your life, back to life.

Depression can feel heavy, isolating, and exhausting, impacting your thoughts, energy, relationships, and sense of self. Renee provides empathetic, evidence-based depression counselling in a supportive and non-judgmental space where you don’t have to carry that weight alone. She understands that depression is not a weakness, but a complex and very human response to stress, trauma, loss, burnout, or life transitions. Renee works collaboratively with clients to gently explore the underlying patterns contributing to low mood, hopelessness, or disconnection.

Although I no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for it, I have suffered from major depressive disorder in the past. When all the colours are dull and faded, I can sit with you in the dark and give you the tools to want to get out. The tools and methods that help you may not be the same as the ones that helped me - my role is to determine what will work for you as a person and guide you through the darkness the easiest possible way for you.

Tons of people struggle with depression. It can come from different sources; I take the time to help my clients understand the nature of *their* particular depression as it fits into their entire life: mind, body, and soul, better helping them fight for hope and joy. My treatment approach gives clients the strategies, resources and support that can strengthen their abilities to fight this stubborn darkness, leading to greater fulfillment and flourishing in life and relationships.You can feel better again!

That dark suffocating grey fog... When the drugs just mask it and the thinking strategies just delay it, we can walk with you on a very different path of spiritual and emotional healing. Real Christian Counselling for depression is about healing the heart of it, addressing the lies that fuel it and journeying out of the pain that caused it. You can breath free again!!!

Are you struggling to get out of bed, losing interest in once-loved activities or feeling helpless and hopeless? The lethargic and foggy shutdown of depression can make everything in life feel just a few inches out of reach. The good news is that depression is readily treatable. I would be glad to help you explore what is keeping your body stuck in numb disconnection. Next, we form a plan to help you back to your best self. Together we tackle here-and-now symptoms with strategies of mindfulness and CBT, while also untying old knots from the past with emotion-focused and inner-child work. The heaviness of depression is your body asking for care. Are you ready to answer its call?

Gerard has diverse experience as a psychologist and leader in social services, schools, university, workplaces, and his private practice. Using a theoretical foundation of social learning and cognitive-behavioural training, he is well-versed in various kinds of formal and informal assessment and solution-focussed approaches. He listens carefully to understand your needs and relies on his extensive experience to help you find solutions.