Depression Counseling in Kettering, MD.

Depression affects and is affected by your actions, thoughts, and emotions. We will stop this vicious cycle by starting to acknowledge the factors that contribute to your depression and develop strategies that will provide relief. As you gain ground against your depression, we will target more complicated problems and develop more comprehensive strategies. You will start with simple behavioral changes. You will follow with changes in how you think of yourself, others, and the problems you face. You will continue with changes in how you strategize and solve problems. Finally, you will develop methods to maintain these changes and continue to accomplish your goals with confidence and hope.

Depression is a cloud over one's life. For those afflicted with depression, please understand you are not alone. You are not going out of your mind, and the black cloud can be lifted. As a depressed Christian, don't feel ashamed. A sad truth is that many Christians attach spiritual failure to depression. So, they suffer in silence, hoping, and praying for deliverance. For clients wishing to be treated without habit forming drugs, I can assist in finding a reprieve, through Bibliotherapeutic, and God's earthly grown methods. If it is determined that medication is required, I can provide a referral. With both methodologies in place, the mind, body, and soul can be successfully restored.

I have a great deal of experience helping clients who are going through feelings and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. I use a variety of ways to guide clients to feel more content and happy. I use cognitive therapy with clients who tend to be perfectionists and/or are self-critical. I use gestalt therapy with clients who need to more fully express their feelings. I use hypnosis with clients who need to get in better touch with their inner strengths. Everyone deserves to feel good inside.

A lot of people tend to blame themselves for having depression when they do not get better. They especially feel bad when they do not get enough support from their family members. When you have depression, you can’t just suck it up or ignore it. It’s not that simple. When you have clinical depression, you lose the ability to feel happy. But, through the therapy treatment, you will be able to regain your happiness back!

Through counseling for depression, you can learn to identify and change feelings that have become entrenched in thought patterns and behaviors. Even though depression may feel like a dead end street, there is always a way out and up. Through therapy, I will assist you in making optimal choices to treat your depression. You will learn how to live your life to the fullest.

My approach with clients who suffer from depression is a combination of talk therapy, lifestyle changes (such as diet, exercise, and sleep habits), and coordination of care with other medical professionals who may prescribe medication if appropriate. We work together to process your feelings, we problem solve how depression gets in your way of wholehearted living, and heal relationships that have changed. I believe that feeling joyful again is possible, but my optimism and hope will never negate your experience of sadness.

Simply finding the energy to search out options for a therapist shows your desire to get better. And that is something to hold on to as tightly as you can. In this day and age where we seem to only communicate through text messages and phone apps it becomes more difficult to allow ourselves to feel as well as heal. Working together we can process the challenges that are holding you down as well as work towards goals that can get you past these hurdles.

There are many forms of depression. Some people have a major depression needing both counseling and perhaps medication. Other people come in with low level depression or situational form following a loss or perhaps a trauma. Some people need to process their situation and see it from a different perspective along with exercise, connecting with other people, joining support groups, focusing on moments when they felt strong and competent. I will design, along with you, strategies to help manage the depression and bring hope back into your life.