Depression Counseling in Pinole, CA.

If you are feeling persistently sad, unmotivated and hopeless, I can help you to gain insight into why as well as giving you tools and strategies to improve your sense of well-being and zest for life. This can include identifying the unhelpful thoughts you have that cause you to feel low and affect your behavior and replacing those thoughts with ones that are more conducive to improving your life and well-being.

Research shows that the most effective treatment for depression is psychotherapy. Depression can range from feeling down to major symptoms such as having trouble even getting out of bed or contemplating suicide (if you have suicidal thoughts or plans, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255). Online counseling is effective for depression because it is easy to access: you can start treatment without even leaving the house.

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.

Depression (and anxiety) are normal responses to painful environments. Are finding it difficult to be motivated? Are you lower energy than you should be? Is it hard to get out of bed? Do you get irritable for no reason at times? If so, you may be suffering from depression. I attack depression from two angles. One strategy is using CBT strategies to help you manage some of your symptoms. I also use EMDR, attachment based psychotherapy, and body / nervous system informed strategies to help you transform some of the underlying brain mis-wiring that is there from your past. Don't find somebody that just stares at you and lets you continue to be depressed. Let's do something about this!

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.

I have specialized in treating depression for many years. Rather than viewing this as a 'pathology,' I see depressed moods as a form of dispiritedness- i.e. a loss or breakage of our inner spirit. This condition is a signal that some aspect of our life and/or self needs attention and healing. Often, we can sense the dispirited self through posture, life-stances, behavioral patterns, lack of energy and drive, and an inner sense of resignation or defeatism. When we allow the body freedom to experience, express and move, then its energy comes alive and leads us to discover how the spirit was broken. I show us ways that we can recover the wounded self, restore spirit and rejuvenate life energy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Depression can appear a number of ways to the outside world depending on your age, gender identity and the culture you were brought up in. Sometimes depression looks like repetitive outbursts of anger and other times depression appears as chronic pain in the body or substance abuse and being socially withdrawn. However, you experience your depression I want to understand how you experiences it's impact on your life. By learning more about your type of depression we can create a treatment plan that is right for you and that supports your healing process so you can find relief from suffering.

Struggling to live life with overwhelming sadness and apathy is often miserable. Depression can take over and become all consuming - unless you get help. A safe place to talk can begin easing the emotional pain controlling your life. Through exploring issues and emotions we can begin to identify and work through possible underlying causes. We can then begin to identify strengths and resources to start the process of moving you forward and out of the depths of your darkness. You can attain a more satisfying and productive life - one in which getting out of bed is not the biggest challenge of your day. Make that life saving phone call today and I will walk through this with you.

Depression can be overwhelming and cause people to feel hopeless and helpless. Unfortunately depression may not subside without some kind of intervention. The good news is that once someone is able to develop the understanding of their depression and he/she can learn what coping skills work best for him/her, they will be able to use those in the future should the depression ever return.