Insight and help for depression starts with understanding that depression is experienced in different ways by different people. It may go unrecognized because it doesn’t look like what you might expect it to. You may not even realize you’re depressed.

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First understand that depression is a normal reaction to many events in life: the death of someone you love, a financial crisis, learning the truth about something you thought you understood, facing life with a chronic medical situation, or not knowing what you want to do next in life. Depression is a natural result, and feeling depressed for a time does not necessarily mean you need psychotherapy.

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If depression increasingly distorts how you see your life, impacts people and domains in your life, and drains your energy, then it’s time to explore what’s happening for you. If you are questioning the value of your life, and are having thoughts about ending your life, it’s vital that you reach out.

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Getting past depression may look like us identifying assumptions about yourself or about life that you hadn’t previously noticed. Sometimes bringing those assumptions into the light allows us to see that they’re not true, and can be let go.

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Getting past depression may look like us focusing on where you’d rather be in life, and then building new skills you can use for getting there. That can include new skills for managing disappointment or setbacks. Nobody is immune from disappointment or setbacks, but not everybody knows skillful ways of handling them.

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Getting past depression may look like us working with underlying trauma, and how it manifests in the body. Sometimes depression is not about how our thoughts can trigger our emotions. Sometimes depression is about how old, unspoken memories can release emotions that trigger depressive thoughts.

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Whatever the situation, we focus on how depression is occurring for you. I’ll help you to understand depression, to understand your depression, and how we can move through it.