Depression Therapy
Is Depression Robbing You Of An Embodied And Joyful Life?
Life is already complicated, but when you add in a loss of hope, joy, and vitality, it can upend everything. Some days, you may be in so much emotional pain that every moment is a challenge. On other days, you may feel completely numb—as if you’re just going through the motions, walking through life as a shell of a person.
Perhaps friends and loved ones struggle to understand what you’re going through, so they can’t provide meaningful support. Or maybe you’ve gotten so good at hiding your emotions that no one even knows you’re in pain despite how you feel on the inside.
It isn’t always obvious at the onset that what you are experiencing is depression, as this is an invisible ailment, but it affects millions, and therapy is incredibly effective at treating it.
Depression Can Make You Feel Incomplete
On top of persistent sadness and despair, you may feel like you...
Have no energy, drive, purpose, or meaning in life.
Are missing a sense of joy, anticipation, or excitement.
Lack of true connection to yourself, other people, or the world.
Are missing out on life, unable to engage and have fun.
Constantly battle negative, self-defeating thoughts.
You may not even remember what life was like before depression. You probably want to feel alive again and to feel connected to yourself and your relationships with others. You want to experience the sweetness and goodness of life and to be able to enjoy nature, music, and good food.
Luckily, depression therapy can help you feel alive and three-dimensional again—allowing you to live, work, and play without this ailment holding you back.
Depression Is More Common Than Most People Realize
According to current statistics and research studies, one in ten people in the United States experience depression. (1) It is both a biological and emotional phenomenon that go hand in hand. Our biology can play a part in whether we develop depression, as people can inherit a disposition for it, as well as develop medical issues that are linked to it like thyroid disorders.
However, circumstances in life often factor into the development of depression, including chronic stress, lack of rest or sleep, or the loss of a loved one. Issues in our relationships that go unresolved over time can lead to depression.
It can also develop if we purposefully isolate ourselves and regularly avoid interactions with others. Furthermore, experiencing traumatic events or big life changes can take time for us to process, and if we don’t acknowledge the emotions involved or ignore them outright, our minds can spiral into a depressed state.
Modern Life Can Keep Us Isolated
Humans are wired for connection and relationships, and to deprive ourselves of contact with others can lead to or worsen depression. As a society, we have substituted technological convenience for human interaction. This isolation can bring a chronic experience of stress to our nervous systems over time, even though it may at first seem beneficial.
Depression can develop due to other major stressful circumstances, such as financial issues, and poor work-life balance. The ripple effect of these situations also includes poor eating choices, feeling burned out, and detaching from or ignoring your body’s signs for taking a break or recharging.
Whatever the source of depression, all reasons are valid and deserve the same compassion and care. Counseling provides an opportunity to observe your life from a wide view, to see the factors that may have led to your depression. You may have felt like depression has robbed you of joy and feeling from your life, but treatment can help bring them back.
The Many Benefits Of The Therapeutic Process
The presence of a therapist and the relationship you develop with them, as well as the work done in sessions, can assist your nervous system and body in repairing, rebuilding, and healing from depression. Understanding depression and how the body works can help enhance the treatment process as well.
Current studies in neuroscience show that when we have an understanding of depression and how the therapeutic methods work, it can enhance the outcome of therapy. (2) That’s why our therapists use the body's natural intelligence to soothe, heal, and skillfully work with depression.
At Healing Connections, we will help you gain experiential knowledge based on real-life situations, which will help you find different ways to relate to your depression and handle your current symptoms and struggles. Then, your counselor will practice skills for healing and growing compassion for yourself while investigating the underlying root contributions to your depression through a variety of modalities.
Depression Therapy Modalities
In somatic therapy for depression, you learn to listen to feedback from your body and skillfully interrupt and activate new patterns of behavior. This helps foster relief and process the experiences you’ve had related to your depression. You can do this with your therapist by working with physical postures, bodily awareness exercises, mindful movement, and much more.
With attachment work, we’ll teach you how to lean into your mammalian need to navigate challenges relationally— your need to be seen, heard, soothed, and cared for by another human being amidst your suffering. You will learn to securely and skillfully relate to your own experience and draw upon relationships for support, activating the body’s natural capacity to heal.
Parts work shows you how to build acceptance, skillfulness, and friendliness with the various emotions you experience, including hopelessness and despair, and how to meet the needs of these parts.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for depression enables the body to identify the underlying causes. It activates the brain and body's adaptive information processing system that allows for processing and organizing overwhelmed states into a more adaptive and integrative emotional experience.
Your body has a natural intelligence and capacity for healing, growth, and moving through intense challenges and experiences. Psychotherapy that integrates modern research in neuroscience can be more helpful for working through your depression resiliently. Despite all that may seem lost in your life to the aftermath of depression, there is still time to live with joy, hope, and vitality.
You Might Still Have Questions About Depression Therapy…
I’ve tried depression therapy and it didn’t work, what would you do differently?
This is a question many people with pervasive, chronic depression have. We bring in methods that draw from leading research in neuroscience to activate security in your body and mind, facilitating healing on both a bodily and cellular level. Our methods, like somatic work and skills building, involve bottom-up regulation you may not have experienced in your previous therapy practices.
We find that a bottom-up approach that starts with how your body is reacting to depression, rather than simply focusing on the cognitive and emotional aspects, more effectively aids in treatment.
How will talking to someone help my depression?
The reason talk therapy works is because it fulfills the need for human contact in this process that might otherwise not be there. We end up getting clients who have been in therapy for many years but haven’t found relief. A lot of therapy is geared toward Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) because it’s so researched, but it is not a holistic approach.
So, you may have addressed your thoughts in previous therapy efforts, but on a bodily level, you may still suffer. You can’t skillfully work with your thoughts in counseling until you address your body’s reaction to depression as well.
Why should I invest in psychotherapy for my depression? How will I know if it works?
Our psychotherapists bring in approaches that activate the body's natural capacities for healing so that you can have a sense of relief, wellness, and okayness in your daily experience.
Think of this as weighing the cost of your current suffering versus investing in support to experience relief, skillful symptom management, healing, and a new level of wellness in your daily life.
Let Healing Connections Bring Joy Back Into Your Life
Depression is a pervasive and profound experience in our modern culture. We are not meant to go through it alone. Call Healing Connections at (720) 739-8786 for a free, 15-minute consultation to learn how we can help. Let us be your guide toward learning the skills to heal and fill your life with vitality and joy.
(1) https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(22)00333-6/fulltext
(2 ) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4253641/
