Depression Counselling in Penticton, BC.

There are many reasons people experience depression. Depression is a pervasive sadness often accompanied by a sense of powerlessness and is often related to past or current life experiences. Sadness is a normal, healthy response to loss, including a loss of power, but if it goes on too long, it becomes problematic. There are many approaches to treatment, including medication, which some people find helpful in addressing symptoms. However, it does not address root causes. Naming it, looking at underlying causes and exploring new ways of coping with its debilitating thought patterns and feelings can help you move on to reclaim your personal power and rediscover enjoyment in life.

Depression can pull you into the darkest places in your mind, to the place where you believe the illusion of total disconnection and loneliness. This is a response that your brain creates. Identifying the processes that triggered that response, we can climb our way up to our true selves and reach the long-lost stability we maybe once had. I can guide you through that darkness for you to reach it.

As someone who has a history of depression personally and intergenerationally, I am well aware of the great challenges and opportunities for growth that this experience can bring. For those struggling with depression, healing can feel elusive, as if nothing will ever work. It often requires a wider lens, an eye for patterns and a deeply supportive and holistic orientation to shift this dynamic. My approach comes from my years of experience moving through and finally out of my own depression and integrating the ancestral patterns that laid the foundation for it in my life. I now come to you with a wide-reaching tool kit to support you in your journey.

In depression counseling, I work collaboratively with you to understand what's contributing to your depression—whether life circumstances, relationship patterns, past experiences, or feeling disconnected from what matters. Depression often involves losing touch with meaning and purpose, so together we'll explore what gives your life significance and how to reconnect with those things. We develop a practical, step-by-step plan tailored to your situation. This might involve challenging thoughts that keep you stuck, processing difficult emotions, or rediscovering activities that once brought satisfaction. Our therapeutic relationship provides steady support as you navigate this. Clients report gradually regaining energy, hope, and a sense that life feels worthwhile again

Depression can be experienced in a magnitude of ways and is often experienced differently by each individual. Symptoms may range from feeling increasingly irritable, experiencing a sense of emptiness and hopelessness, and an individual often will feel completely overwhelmed, losing interest in activities they once enjoyed. Depression may also be experienced physically. Physical symptoms may include, but are not limited to a lack of energy, problems sleeping, pronounced weight changes, and eventually, even serious illness. In cases of mild to moderate depression, there is an increasing amount of research supporting counselling as effective as medication in improving a person’s mood. Many clients have been referred to counselling by their family doctor when...(view profile to read more)

Olivia is passionate about supporting individuals struggling with depression and the deep isolation it often brings. Using a cognitive behavioral therapy approach, she helps clients identify and understand the underlying causes of their depression, challenge negative thought patterns, and develop healthier perspectives. Olivia also provides practical, actionable steps to help clients re-engage with life, rebuild connections, and rediscover joy. With empathy and expertise, she creates a supportive space for clients to navigate their emotions, regain hope, and work toward meaningful change. Olivia’s goal is to empower her clients to move forward with resilience and a renewed sense of purpose.

Depression can be experienced in a multitude of ways and often differently by each person. Depression can leave an individual feeling overwhelmed, a loss interested in activities that they used to enjoy, feel a lack of energy, have difficulty sleeping, experienced pronounced weight changes, and even serious illness. You do not have to suffer or feel alone. We will work with you to uncover the elements to your depression and help you to regain enjoyment and satisfaction in your life.

Whether you experience situational or chronic depression counselling and/or therapy can reduce symptoms. Sometimes medication is warrented and Sheila will work with your doctor if required to reduce symptoms of depression. Counselling can help you become aware of unconscious thoughts, feelings and habits and will increase your ability to create lasting change and experience reduction in all depressive symptoms.