Depression Counseling in Lucas Valley Marinwood, CA.

Depression is a mood disorder that can cause a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest that can interfere with daily functioning. Reaching out for help is a step towards wellness. Symptoms of depression can vary from person to person, but it is a very treatable condition. Therapy for depression helps you overcome the feelings of hopelessness and despair and to gain control of your life.

Clients usually experience a progressive decline in mood, which can impact their emotions, the quality of their sleep, relationships (they may even begin to withdraw from others), and have persistent negative thoughts. Many clients prefer to explore viable holistic and integrative strategies before trying medication. In our collaboration, we will design a plan to explore possible options, strategies to strengthen effective coping mechanisms, and identify a plan to enhance the opportunity for recovery.

Depression can have many different sources: isolation, unresolved loss, unconscious anger turned against the self, feelings of shame, inadequacy and low self-esteem. It is sometimes experienced as a kind of deadness or emptiness, an absence of feeling. Therapy offers you the opportunity to get to the bottom of what is troubling you, to find your way to solutions. By talking through your issues and feelings you know what you need to do to change and you have support for taking the steps to make the change happen. Everyone needs to feel heard and understood, to feel empathy for their suffering, in order to do this. I offer this empathy, support and guidance to you.

Depression means feeling down or blue for at least two weeks and/or not finding pleasure in activities or relationships that typically make you happy. Nobody chooses to feel depressed, but those who suffer from it may blame themselves. The first step in recovering from depression is cultivating an attitude of patience and empathy towards oneself for feeling depressed. I offer therapy models this attitude and equips clients with the tools to help them cope. We also address the underlying beliefs that may be contributing to the depressive symptoms.

Maybe you're depressed and nobody even knows your feeling that way; or everyone thinks they know, and they're telling you how to get over it, and to hurry. That advice usually backfires, and makes you feel worse. Recovery from depression is possible, but takes its own time. I am not afraid of sitting with you and those bleak, empty, hopeless feelings, whether you can talk about them or not. While I can certainly give advice if that's useful, I'd rather help you understand what's causing your depression and help you feel through it in your own way - the way it actually works. Gradually, with some ups and downs, you can get a better grip on your life and relationships, and feel better.

Depression can set in when our emotions or negative thought patterns become overwhelming and too much to hold. Pain or hardship often is too much to hold alone. With my help, we can start to open to emotion, bring a wise awareness to thought patterns, and to find aliveness again. If we can make friends with our emotions, stop fighting them, and to recognize their purpose in regulating the nervous system or showing us what matters to us, tremendous resilience can be found on the other side.

At My True Temperament Christian Counseling, LLC, our approach to relieving the symptoms of depression, such as fatigue, hopelessness, trouble concentrating, is to share with the client the healing power of the Holy Spirit and to administer a temperament report. We use cognitive behavioral therapy to help the client change his/her negative thought patterns.

Depression is a serious issue. I know it is difficult to seek help when you are depressed and you probably feel hopeless that there is any help at all. It is the nature of the illness that keeps you from getting the help you deserve. Psychotherapy can help! Depression is treatable and you can live a happier and more productive life. I provide a safe place to help you understand and deal with the depression and together we will create a plan to help you feel better.

Depression originates and presents in subtle ways that are unique to each individual person. Yet it is common to feel taken over with hopelessness and indifference. You may feel as though any other way of experiencing the world is inaccessible, if not impossible. While in it, it can be helpful and less isolating to have a therapist enter into this world with you, come to understand it's origins, it's nuances, how it gets perpetuated and together potentially feel something new.

Be accepted for the way you feel. Allow yourself to grieve. Locate the problem(s) and brainstorm solutions in an environment of safety and encouragement. Learn drug-free ways to counteract negative thoughts. Find out how to notice opportunities to think positive thoughts. Learn to accept disappointment as a normal part of life and how to build the support system you deserve.

It can often seem like society expects us to be happy and positive at all times, that any admission of sadness or a loss of motivation, energy, or engagement with life is a personal failure. But Depression isn't a personal failure, and it is also more than just "feeling sad". If you find yourself down in the hole of disconnection, surrounded by a fog that is interfering with your life and relationships, you need a hand to help you climb out. A trained therapist understands the mechanics of depression and can help you understand it and find strategies to make your way up and out of it, and back into the light. Please contact me so we can begin to work on this process together.

Frequently, the things we want or need to change serve a purpose for us. They become a part of our identity and while they can cause us distress, their removal from our lives threatens us at a deep level. We are constantly creating an identity for ourselves and the very idea of change represents a threat to that identity. I can help you work through your depression by getting you to focus more concretely on the issues and symptoms you face in a safe and supportive environment. Together we will process some of the various things contributing to your depression, and creatively collaborate on how you can use your internal strengths to change.

I believe depression is caused when we shut down our emotional expression. As in if we shut down one part of ourselves, such as our anger, or our desire, or our fear, or any other one part, we can't just shut down the one channel and we end up shutting them all down, leading to depression. The solution is to create the safety and trust needed for the person to finally be able to express and feel what they have been blocking and thus move past the depression into more aliveness.