Depression Counselling in Wellington, AB.

Sometimes depression feels so dark it is hard to get out of bed. Other times it is more like a "heavy cloud" that burdens you with constant negative thoughts and feelings. Sometimes people are haunted by a barrage of critical thoughts like "what's wrong with you", " you always screw up", " if only you were like other people". Counselling helps you change the way you think and feel about yourself so you can approach life with a more hopeful and positive outlook.

I provide help for individuals experiencing depression and how it may be affecting multiple aspects of everyday life such as work, family, friendships, other relationships and day-to-day responsibilities. In counselling I help clients better understand multiple aspects of depression, develop the tools needed to cope more effectively, and restore feelings of hope.

I help clients to challenge problematic thoughts, capitalize on positive coping skills, and teach new ways of coping in order to help them manage feelings of despair, hopelessness, and helplessness. Together, we develop a plan for how to combat fatigue, problems with appetite and sleep, low motivation, a negative focus, and suicidal ideations. I support my clients in implementing, evaluating, and adjusting these plans as they work their way through depressive episodes. Additionally, creating a plan for relapse is essential for long-term success.

Has Depression Left You Feeling Stuck In Your Life? Is it difficult to live your life due to a depressed mood, a lack of energy, and a general apathy toward everything? Have you wondered why you simply can’t “snap out of it”? When you try to stay positive, do feelings of hopelessness keep cropping up? Whether you have felt this way for a long time or a short while, functioning with depression is exhausting, and you may be wondering if therapy could provide relief to help make life more manageable.

I view depression as a protective response that often develops when the nervous system has been overwhelmed by trauma or prolonged stress. Rather than seeing it as weakness, I help clients understand depression as the body’s way of conserving energy and guarding against pain. Through a trauma-informed and attachment-based approach, we explore the emotions and experiences beneath the shutdown, using somatic awareness, mindfulness, and gentle reconnection to restore safety and vitality. Over time, clients begin to experience relief, self-compassion, and renewed connection with themselves and their lives.

The way you think greatly impacts how you feel, and navigating this on your own can be confusing. If you are one of the 1in 5 Canadians that experience depression at sometime in your life, there is help. Together we can take a closer look at how you think and appraise circumstances and events and explore how that impacts your overall outlook and feelings. When you change the way you think you can change how you feel and I am here to help with that.

Depression can feel like overwhelming sadness, or maybe like you are in a "funk" that you can not get out of. People often start to isolate themselves, and focus on negative thoughts. I offer a warm, safe place to share your feelings, examine your relationships and perceptions that may be contributing to your depression. I introduce concrete suggestions that will help you get your back on track. People frequently feel a sense of relief after sharing their burdens. In discussing experiences people are often able to view themselves differently and gain insight into how they can more effectively deal with situations and relationships.

Being depressed can often make you feel helpless. You're not -there's a lot you can do to fight back. Most people feel sad or depressed at times and those feelings are a normal reaction to loss or life's struggles...but when intense feelings of being sad, helpless, hopeless, and worthless last for many days to weeks or months, it may be something more than sadness. Be kind to yourself - reach out and I will help you find an approach that will work for you.

Living with depression can make you feel hopeless, and worthless. Sometimes it sneaks up on you, and you may not even remember when you started feeling unlike yourself. Depression can drain your energy and often result in racing thoughts over the past, bringing up feelings of guilt, and shame. It can also be marked by fatigue, even when sleeping a lot. There are many treatment options available for depression, including EMDR.

Many people think depression is about not doing enough or being uncommitted to their goals, however, people who struggle with depression are facing the problem of being over-committed to their goals and failing. When I work with clients dealing with depression the goal is to manage goals and expectations and work on creating small changes that build momentum to larger changes.

Many people believe that in order to be "strong," they need to bury their feelings and keep them hidden from others. Over time, this can backfire, as feelings can build and take over, leaving a person feeling down and depressed, or overwhelmed. I work with clients not only to work through feelings of anger, resentment, hurt, and sadness that have built up, but to develop new habits of self-care, assertiveness, boundaries, healthy expression of feelings, communication, and stress management so that this does not occur again in the future. By doing this, they can become a more well-rounded person, who feels free to express feelings as they arise, and no longer carries them with them.

Depression can feel isolating and lonely but the collaborative process of counselling can help client's to shift from feeling helpless and hopeless to finding enjoyment in life. Client's can also experience an overall improvement in their daily life from including an increase in energy, and an improvement in memory, concentration, and ability to focus.

Depression doesn’t always look like sadness—it often shows up as numbness, burnout, loss of motivation, or disconnection from yourself and others. I help clients explore the root patterns behind their emotional shutdown, understand the roles that stress, identity, and unmet needs play, and create structured steps toward change. Therapy with me is not about endless venting—it’s about restoring movement, building clarity, and helping you reconnect with yourself and your direction in life. You don’t have to stay stuck.

Depression is not feeling bad – it is not feeling. When we become depressed we try to insulate ourselves from our emotions. Treatment for depression requires a willingness to feel what we are avoiding. This requires a process of exploring the buried feelings in a safe, supportive environment. As we become friends with our emotions we can gradually come back to life.

Depression is a symptom that can be debilitating. The suffering is great and we often do not have the energy to handle life the way we feel we need too. Therapy is an evidence based way to treat depression. The work I do focuses on understanding the root cause of the depression, and working with you to begin allowing yourself to transform and live in a way that in congruent with who you really are.

Dealing with the black cloud of depression can be a debilitating challenge for many people at different points in life. Understanding how depression impacts our physiology, identifying the triggers that bring about the cycle of depression and learning effective coping strategies to regain control over the darkness that seems to be in charge makes living with depression manageable again.

Research has clearly demonstrated that mindfulness-based approaches to depression are so powerful that they can reduce the chances of having a relapse by 50%! That's a big deal. A depressed mind is busy creating all kinds of negative thoughts. Mindfulness-based therapy will teach you a new way to relate to your thoughts. You don't have to believe everything you think! Especially the bad stuff, becuse it's often not true.

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?