Depression Counseling in Piedmont, CA.

When you are waking up sad or feeling heaviness, or irritable much of the time you might benefit from some help with this. Therapy or counseling can make a difference. It may take you out of being by yourself and thinking blue thoughts or feeling less power than you really have to allow interest in feeling good again. I want to be present for you to give you ways to lighten the leaden or deeply sad feelings and restore a sense of hope. Your mind/body can respond to ways to clear what is stuck and gain a sense of strength and caring for yourself, which is what I am right here to provide guidance through. With some solid professional assistance, brightening can happen for you: really!

Depression is the result of loss, powerlessness and trauma. The negative experiences we have, when not processes, the experiences that have become frozen in the form of despair, rage, powerlessness, grief and disconnection from ourselves and others leads to depression. These experiences can be made active, can be processed through and healing can take place. I draw from EMDR and somatic approaches to resolve depressive symptoms and the underlying reasons for the depressive state that formed.

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.

I use a blend of cutting-edge therapeutic techniques such as sensorimotor psychotherapy, internal family systems, and object-relations psychotherapy to create a personalized healing journey. Focused on working with individuals who desire more permanent solutions to their emotional pain, my approach to depression therapy is as compassionate as it is transformative. By engaging with these specifically tailored methods, clients find themselves nurtured, understood, and empowered, unlocking new pathways to well-being and joy. This personalized care provides clients with a value-driven and life-enhancing experience that goes beyond traditional therapy.

Working with the experience of depression is much more than changing our thoughts to change our behavior. Our brains are wired to notice the negative; it's part of our survival. I support my clients in expanding what they notice, and help them discover what works for them by creating a tool kit through experiential relational interventions in session. When I see children, I utilize play therapy as the modality, including Child Centered Play Therapy, Filial Therapy, and Prescriptive Play Therapy. When working with adolescents and adults, I utilize expressive arts, DBT, CBT and Narrative Therapy.

Our understanding of depression and its origins has deepened in recent years, especially with the much more nuanced knowledge we now have about the influences of both our early lives and neurobiology in shaping how we experience and respond to stress and adversity. If you are depresses, it is important to understand whether it is a response to situational, and possibly temporary circumstances, a biological tendency, a response to long-term trauma or a combination of triggers. If you wish to explore how I could help with your particular situation, please call me at 415-533-9724.

My approach with treating depression is to assess for negative thought patterns as well as unresolved grief or trauma. Once I determine the source, I have a Holistic approach for depression that involves a program of self care and inner work. I offer somatic techniques such as breath work, guided visualizations, EFT (the tapping technique that releases anxiety or trauma). I also teach cutting edge Law of Attraction techniques that help you stay out of depression and build up your self esteem as well as create more love, happiness, and financial abundance in your life.

Grey Matters International, Inc. and the work of Kevin J. Fleming, Ph.D. handles depression and other emotional disorders in a very unique way. Most of therapy or counseling processes utilize validation, unconditional positive regard, and reframing as common techniques to get someone to heal from their depression. Though this can be helpful, it rarely fixes the core problem behind it and for tough cases we then refer them usually to a psychiatrist for medication which can have tons of side effects. Instead, why not try a natural and arguably more effective way to not just change your mind, but change the brain--where the depression is rooted. Contact us at kevin@kevinflemingphd.com.

I am of the opinion that feelings of depression are most offten associated with unexpressed or unacknowledged deep-seated feelings of anger that we hold on to for one reason or other. Because every human behavior has a purpose, holding on to one's anger in the form of depression has some "secondary" gain for the individual, perhaps putting one in the victim's role and otherwise allowing us to feel a sense of control in situtions where we may feel out of control. However, there is a great price to pay for this in terms of a loss of aliveness and joy in one's life. I help people who are stuck in their depression to get to the other side.

Depression rarely lives only in the mind. It can settle into the body as heaviness, fatigue, pain, and physical symptoms that make an already hard season feel impossible to climb out of. If you've struggled to feel better despite trying therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, your nervous system may be part of the story. I help people understand the brain-body connection underlying depression and use evidence-based approaches to process the emotions keeping you stuck, calm your nervous system, and reconnect with your life.

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.

Grey Matters International, Inc. and the work of Kevin J. Fleming, Ph.D. handles depression and other emotional disorders in a very unique way. Most of therapy or counseling processes utilize validation, unconditional positive regard, and reframing as common techniques to get someone to heal from their depression. Though this can be helpful, it rarely fixes the core problem behind it and for tough cases we then refer them usually to a psychiatrist for medication which can have tons of side effects. Instead, why not try a natural and arguably more effective way to not just change your mind, but change the brain--where the depression is rooted. Contact us at kevin@kevinflemingphd.com

When depression hits, it's like a ton of bricks weighing on you. It feels like there is no way out of the fog. It can be helpful to have a place to explore this and validate how difficult it can be to experience depression. Therapy is a safe place for you to understand what underlying issues might be making the depression more difficult to manage. I will provide that safe place for you to gain understanding about yourself and the depression you experience. I will also work with you to find tools that can help you move through it with more ease and confidence. I look forward to supporting you through this process.