Depression Counselling in Bowen Island, BC.

If you come to me suffering with depression, I can support you step-by-step as you move into a healthier and happier place by: • Learning about you and your life, which can include any or all of the following: personal/gender identity, family, culture, relationship, social life, work, medical issues • Freeing up healthy grief and anger to help restore your energy and joy in life • Selecting the modalities we both feel will be most helpful for you and practicing them in session together • Modalities I work with include: attachment healing, self-regulation, body sensing inquiry, setting healthy boundaries, disarming the inner critic, self-esteem, hypnosis, family constellations

I will listen to the stories of your experience with depression. Together we will find ways of coping with depression, while working on acceptance of living skillfully with depression. I will teach you how to be more compassionate with yourself, using techniques from Mindful Self-Compassion. I will help you build capacity to cope with depression and capitalize on your strengths.

Depression is a state of mind that effects most people at some point in our lives. Often, symptoms of depression include a loss of interest in things that once made us happy, sleep disturbance or abundance, change in appetite, and dark thoughts. People can experience depression for many many reasons including postpartum depression, situational, relationship loss or difficulties, loneliness, seasonal affective disorder, teen depression,isolation and many more reasons. There are many treatments for depression, beginning with talking to someone about your experience. In some cases, talking to your doctor about medication helps combined with therapy to help deal with the sadness.

In the treatment of depression, we explore the factors that contributed to depression. This process includes helping my clients to identify the unhelpful and painful emotions and transform them in to helpful ones which relatively results in change in healthy behaviours. Most of us are unaware of the suffering and painful underlying emotions . By creating an empathic and safe space, I ease the difficulty of exploration. In addition, I help the clients work to access deep down unmet needs and to bring resilient responses in face of difficult situations.

Depression counseling offers a supportive environment for individuals to explore and address the complex factors contributing to their depression. Evidence-based approaches like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal therapy, and mindfulness techniques help clients challenge negative thought patterns, process difficult emotions, and develop coping strategies. By fostering self-awareness, building resilience, and providing validation, counselling assists clients to navigate the challenges of depression, empowering them to reclaim a sense of hope, purpose, and well-being in their lives.

Depression affects the mind and the body. It can lead to isolation, health problems and difficulties maintaining all of your relationships. You may have lost sight of your personal resources and feel like your brain is spinning out of control. I can help you find your way back by: supporting you with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) where we examine and challenge your thinking and acting; using Neurofeedback (NFB) to retrain your brain to self regulate, staying out of depression; or with EMDR where I help you to resolve trauma or past hurts, allowing you to get to a place of emotional well being by lessening the emotional charge.

I work with clients to manage symptoms of depression, which can be accompanied with a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that can create a negative valence around an individual’s daily functioning. A persistent feeling of sadness and doom can be accompanied with a loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyable. While the causes of depression can be related to brain chemistry, genetics, stressful life events, and medical conditions, CBT can be effective in identifying the interactions between one’s thoughts, behaviours, emotions, and their environment. Healthy coping mechanisms such as eating healthy, exercise, adequate sleep, and managing stress levels can help combat depression

I view depression as an internal system of parts in conflict, with exiled parts holding painful emotions and protective parts trying to manage or avoid the pain. When this happens, it's normal to feel disconnected from yourself and others, unable to make progress or find relief because these parts are all working at cross-purposes. Therapy helps you to foster compassion for these parts, heal the underlying trauma, and unburden the emotional weight, leading to more internal harmony and relief from depression.

Do you find yourself waking up in the morning unmotivated, low energy and just blah? Is it hard to remember feeling happy and excited? Depression may creep up on you or it may be feel like you are at the bottom of dark hole that you can't find your way out of. Together we will work to discover the source of your sadness and re-build your life. There is hope and things can feel better.

In depression counseling, I work collaboratively with you to understand what's contributing to your depression—whether life circumstances, relationship patterns, past experiences, or feeling disconnected from what matters. Depression often involves losing touch with meaning and purpose, so together we'll explore what gives your life significance and how to reconnect with those things. We develop a practical, step-by-step plan tailored to your situation. This might involve challenging thoughts that keep you stuck, processing difficult emotions, or rediscovering activities that once brought satisfaction. Our therapeutic relationship provides steady support as you navigate this. Clients report gradually regaining energy, hope, and a sense that life feels worthwhile again

Our practice incorporates the compassionate inquiry approach to delve deeper into the underlying factors contributing to depression. Additionally, we utilize approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and other approaches to assist clients in developing awareness of the thoughts that lead to feelings of depression. Furthermore, we integrate positive psychology techniques to promote well-being and resilience.

No two people experience depression in exactly the same way and so dealing with it also needs an individual approach. Rather than viewing depression as something wrong with the person experiencing it, the client and I listen to what it might have to say to them. Though understandably, nobody likes depression, and it can be managed with tools such as Cognitive Behavioural therapy and mindfulness, etc., it can also be engaged through other approaches that allow its importance and meaning (and what it is calling for) is revealed. This can bring greater richness, wisdom, and appreciation for life.

Being able to talk about our experiences and allow our feelings to surface is a first step toward unlocking ourselves from the weight of depression. The therapeutic approaches I draw on to support your shift out of a state of depression to a happier, more hopeful perspective will depend on your unique circumstances. f safety and trust feel confident to start sharing your experience with me, knowing that you are seen and understood. Often we have not had a place to share our struggles where we felt heard and accepted. Even the small shift in perspective that can be the result is enough to begin change.