Depression Counselling in Niagara Falls, ON.

Depression can be mild moderate or severe. It need not be severe in order to ask for help. Wherever your depression is along the continuum of severity, we can work together to develop strategies to help you work toward rediscovering motivation, increase energy levels, let go of the tendency to dwell on negative thoughts and feel more connected in your life and your relationships.

If you’re feeling down, having trouble enjoying things you used to, sleeping changes (sleeping too much or not enough), changes in your appetite (too much or not enough), or just feeling lethargic, you might want to see a psychotherapist and might feel depressed. Through CBT, DBT, and Narrative Therapy, you can see life in a better light, and get back to the life you want to. Book a free 15-minute consultation to start your healing journey.

Experiencing big emotional ups and downs is normal, but there can be times when it feels like the lows are getting longer, more frequent, and harder to deal with. Therapy should be a safe space where you feel comfortable sharing and exploring your thoughts, feelings, and experiences with someone who offers you empathy, authenticity, and acceptance. I work collaboratively with clients to explore how feelings of depression show up in their lives, and to strengthen and develop strategies to minimize the impact they have on living the life you want to live. Book a free consultation to learn more about my approach and explore if we are a good fit.

Getting to the root of one's depression, why it occurs, and how it presents itself is imperative in understanding how one can remedy it. By working with clients to explore and comprehensively understand their depression, we will be able to better manage, mitigate, or eliminate the cognitions, behaviours, and feelings tied to our depression. How we became depressed is only the first step in ones work on depression; figuring out how to create change, support, and maintain change is the bulk of it.

The quagmire of depression can feel impossible to escape. Getting started is the hardest. In counselling we first explore ways you might change the situation. Initially you may not succeed. But even the effort will energize you and may lead to other actions, other arenas where you have more options. You will learn something new. Best of all you will feel more alive, more involved with other people and with daily life. Counselling helps you explore and discover what works for you.

Depression not only affects your mood state, but also your -- *behavior, *the way you look at yourself, *relationship with people around you and *physical and organic function. Gestalt therapy emphasizes your capacity to develop your potential. In therapy with me change will take place through the relational experience, and increased awareness, this process, is what gives meaning to discovery to you. In Gestalt therapy, what is considered is your totality, a combination of your sensorial, affective, intellectual, social, and spiritual dimensions (Brownell, 2010). Studies show that the patients treated with Gestalt demonstrated fewer depressive symptoms following the intervention.

When I work with people who are weighed down with symptoms of depression, I find that it is important to remember two things: go slowly, and go together. Employing a trauma informed, family systems and somatic lens to what you are experiencing can help provide insight into how to move through and manage it. Journeying with clients through their depression is a great honour, and is something I take very seriously. I find that for many people, holding onto hope that things could be different, is something that can seem too much. Part of my commitment to working through depression is that, until you are ready, I will hold onto hope for both us.

Depression hurts and is becoming epidemic in our society. However, depression is a treatable condition and there are effective approaches that can help you break the cycle of chronic unhappiness so you can keep moving forward, learn how to face life’s challenges with greater resilience and regain a sense of well-being. I work from the best evidence- based therapies for depression: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Interpersonal therapy (IPT), Solution Focused Therapy and Art Therapy to help you overcome the mental habits leading to despair, rumination, and self-blame so you can repossess the sense of hope, joy and life balance.