Depression Counselling in Hamilton Central
“The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.”
~ Joseph Campbell
There’s sadness, and then there’s depression. More than just a mood that floats through your day, depression is persistent monster – stealing your energy and draining you of joy even when there are no obvious reasons for it. It is brutal, it is relentless, and it hits a huge percentage of people at some point in their lives.
The good news is that there are scientifically valid and very effective ways to lessen the severity, shorten the duration, and sometimes even completely end a depressive episode. Even though there are often biological foundations that are impossible to discern, it is possible (just like dealing with chronic illness and pain) to have the dark weight of depression simply drag you down less.
Depression is different for every person that experiences it. It has common manifestations, such as the clinical symptoms of chronic low mood, apathetic attitude, reduced energy, and inability to feel joy – but the roots of it lie deep in not just the obvious layers of behaviours, but the subtle and hard to find levels of our unconscious beliefs, unhelpful ideas of self, and perceptions of the world.
In therapy, we will track down the sources of your depression and use the best clinical therapies suited for your situation and character. Often, this will mean a mix of cognitive-behavioural strategies, mindfulness-based skills, and ACT exercises in the first stages of our work, and then this may lead to deeper, more historic work using EMDR. When depression is targeted with this process, huge changes are possible.
My clients are very successful in shifting their depression in ways that are not just band-aids on their life, but in ways that create significant, long-term improvements in their whole being.
Seeing people brighten, and their lives fill with greater ease and peace as we work together, is a gift and a passion for me. If you have the courage to look deeply, the door is open!
