Depression Counseling in Cedar Grove, NJ.

Social anxiety and shyness can easily lead to feelings of depression. If you feel depressed because you feel alone, isolated and have trouble making friends, you might be glad to know that there is a way to learn and practice the social skills you missed learning as a child. You can learn and practice new skills, meet new people, learn how to start conversations and create your own social circle. Life can change and it takes just one step to start the process rolling in the right drection.

Depression comes in differant forms, sometimes people become depressed because of situations in thier lives, be that losses or traumatic life events. Situational depression is real and can be treated very effectively through psychotherapy. Chronic depression is a more organic condition that can be a long term condition, however, good psychodynamic psychotherapy can be extremely helpful. With either situational or chronic depression, psychotherapy is an important part of part of the path to recovery.

Clients struggling from feeling emotionally hurt, isolated, selfish, helpless, or hopeless can gain insight into symptoms and treatment of depression. Clients can learn emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal relationship skills and heal from past painful experiences that may influence current thoughts and belief systems in an unhealthy way.

While implementing a cognitive behavioral approach, I have extensive experience in helping clients improve their mood and quality of their life. I utilize evidence-based methods that can relieve emotional pain and aid clients’ recovery from debilitating symptoms. Treatment can bring back positive feelings, allowing you to improve your connection with yourself and others, achieve fulfillment and help you to function at your best.

Our work starts by acknowledging the social, cultural, and environmental conditions that may contribute to the problems that affect your quality of life and capacity to receive or engage in mental health care. Therapy is tailored to your preferences to minimize stressors and build skills for interacting more effectively with the outside world. The behaviors, emotions, relationship patterns, or self-beliefs that no longer work for you can be transformed, rather than pathologized by identifying external power imbalances that impede quality of life and highlighting the good intentions behind difficult interactions.

I work with many people with depression whether as individuals, or in the context of couples therapy. I help people to become aware of their thoughts, feelings, and the experience they have in their bodies around their depression. I work cognitively and behaviorally to help them understand distorted thinking. I also work to "externalize" the feeling of depression, and help people understand that, "you are not your thoughts." Depression may be visiting you, but you are not depression. Mindfulness is a tool I use with depression to help people understand what is happening to them in the moment, and to begin to open to emotions that may be blocked.

Depression can be a challenge in the day to day functions of our lives but together we will bring your strengths to the surface and use evidenced based therapies to assist with improving your mood, increase motivation, increase energy, and find a sense of fulfillment in your life. Therapy will include both CBT and DBT techniques as well as others.

Depression often occurs when when we are only able to imagine a future governed by our past. The depression is held in place by memories, and beliefs acquired in the past that have been misfiled in projections of our future. Therapy, properly conducted, helps us place the past where it belongs leaving plenty of empty space and freedom in which to imagine invigorating possibilities for the future. Medication may or may not be needed to get the process started. When one gains the ability to imagine engagement in that which beckoned but seemed impossible, depression dissipates.

Our credentialed music therapists tailor sessions to each individual, utilizing personalized music exercises and interventions to address each person's unique symptoms of depression. Our music therapists work with each client using musical elements like songwriting, processing, and guided imagery to help clients find their own voice and learn new coping skills to help manage depression of any severity.

Some of our staff here at the Mars & Venus Counseling Center are experts in the treatment of depression. These experienced counselors, through the techniques and philosophies of leaders in the field of counseling, will provide compassionate, comprehensive treatment of depression for adults, adolescents, and children. Counseling is provided on an individual basis for adults. Family involvement is necessary for the treatment of children and adolescents. Some of the typical symptoms of depression are low energy, low self-esteem, insomnia, over-eating or poor appetite, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and feelings of hopelessness. These symptoms can be from mild to severe with different periods of time. The counselor will help the client...(view profile to read more)

Are you struggling with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, having trouble sleeping or feeling as if all you want to do is sleep? Well chances are you may be suffering from depression. Our therapist use a variation of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and meditation, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and interpersonal therapy techniques to help relieve your depressive symptoms. If you think you may be depressed you don't have to suffer in silence, contact us for a free consultation.

You did not choose depression, and it is not something that can simply be “shaken off.” Depression is real, life-altering, and can convince you that happiness or peace will never return. Yet depression does not define you. Together, we can acknowledge its weight while also challenging the painful story it tells. My role is to walk with you through the heaviness, to hold space for the difficulty, and to help you discover that hope and healing are possible. You do not have to face this alone.

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.