Depression Counselling in Vancouver, BC.

Feelings of sadness and depression are one of the most common reasons people seek therapy. While common, everyone's experience of depression is unique, including how it began, how it feels and how it affects present day functioning. Heather always uses a collaborative approach with clients and a blend of therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, interpersonal therapy, and an exploration of the relational, situational and social contexts and patterns that may be contributing.

Sometimes feeling sad, stuck, and hopeless is something that can be shifted with support and some fairly straightforward strategies. At other times, depressed feelings can be signs of complex processes that take time to unravel and sometimes lead to profound transformations. Still at other times, stuck emotions and energies can be moved through experiential processes. Ultimately, feelings of depression and their resolution are unique to your life. Even though ways out can be challenging to see when we’ve been feeling stuck for some time, there are many ways through. I'll help you find the one that works for you.

Depression is a shut down of our connection to ourselves. It was so important at one time for depression to help protect you from other feelings that were too painful to bear. But then it came seem to overtake everything else in your life. If you would like to start to understand why your depression came in and who you are underneath the depression, please reach out. A combination of approaches tailored to you can help you connect to yourself and release the layers of depression.

If you're up against depression, we'd collaborate and become a team of sorts. Through thoughtful questioning and listening, we'd begin to identify alternative narratives that challenge your depressive story. By attending to your strengths, resilience and prior successes, you can begin to foster a sense of hope and feel empowered to envision a future where you can live beyond the limitations of depression.

Depression is more than just feeling temporarily down or blue. It's a painful state of body, mind, and soul that can leave you despairing and feeling like you’re in quicksand. Through therapy you can examine what’s going on and what has led you here. Maybe you’re playing a role that you don’t want to play but don’t know how to stop. You feel like you’re not living your own life, that you’re living someone else’s idea of who they want you to be. Or you may feel like you’re nailed down somewhere in the past because of painful experiences that haven’t been addressed. In therapy, you can discover where you’re pinned, risk speaking the unspeakable, and we can pull the nail out together.

Are you struggling to get out of bed, losing interest in once-loved activities or feeling helpless and hopeless? The lethargic and foggy shutdown of depression can make everything in life feel just a few inches out of reach. The good news is that depression is readily treatable. I would be glad to help you explore what is keeping your body stuck in numb disconnection. Next, we form a plan to help you back to your best self. Together we tackle here-and-now symptoms with strategies of mindfulness and CBT, while also untying old knots from the past with emotion-focused and inner-child work. The heaviness of depression is your body asking for care. Are you ready to answer its call?

Depression can be deeply painful, robbing you of energy, motivation, and hope. It creates a negative view of life, your self, and your future. It typically disrupts sleep patterns, appetite, emotions, and your thinking ability. I use the clinical practice of cognitive behavioural therapy to help people regain healthy control over their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and reclaim a sense of influence over their life style and life situation's. Coaching you to refocus, set small daily goals, celebrate your successes, and learn new behavioral and thinking skills can take time but the good news is that once you have acquired these skills you have them for life.

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 is not only a mental problem, it is also a physical one - often leaving you with fatigue and lack of motivation to do anything. The first step to healing depression is building inner and outer resources for immediate symptom relief. This includes self- care, especially physical exercise along with mindful awareness of your internal experience . The next step is challenging those distorted beliefs and perceptions of yourself and the world. You can get better soon.

Depression is a mood disorder that can cause a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest that can interfere with daily functioning. Reaching out for help is a step towards wellness. Symptoms of depression can vary from person to person, but it is a very treatable condition. Therapy for depression helps you overcome the feelings of hopelessness and despair and to gain control of your life.

Life presents us with difficult challenges that can lead to feelings of depression and despair. I will work with you to understand your story and the depression you're experiencing. From there, we can make a plan to re-engage you in your life by incorporating people, activities, and practices to help you reconnect to joy and fulfilment. I'm passionate about mental health and helping people to design a meaningful life that they are excited to wake up to.

Feeling depressed is a horrible way to live your life. I work with clients to help them overcome their depression for good. We spend time on creating awareness and insight while developing healthy coping strategies, repairing/strengthening relationships, addressing ineffective habits, and altering thinking, feeling, and behavioural patterns. Whether it be situational depression or an ongoing pattern of depression, we can find ways to improve your mood and thus your quality of life.

Among other things, depression is a stagnation, a lack of forward motion. I side with the cognitive behaviour therapists, who say that behavioural activation is a valuable treatment. Learn about what activities bring you joy or peace or relief. Then, give those activities a larger role in your life. I could just say "activity" over and over here, because that is what will help most. Activity, activity, activity...

Therapy is a place for all matters of the heart, body and soul. Depression can range from mild to completely disabling, and the root causes varied and individual. While medical support can be helpful, therapy can help us get to the root of what we are emotionally 'depressing'. I believe in the mind/body connection which includes both, helping a client to access practical tools for coping day to day as well as exploring the deeper emotions stored in the body that might be contributing to the depression. From a deeply compassionate and client centred approach within the therapeutic connection the client feels less alone offering them hope as they navigate their depression.

As someone who has a history of depression personally and intergenerationally, I am well aware of the great challenges and opportunities for growth that this experience can bring. For those struggling with depression, healing can feel elusive, as if nothing will ever work. It often requires a wider lens, an eye for patterns and a deeply supportive and holistic orientation to shift this dynamic. My approach comes from my years of experience moving through and finally out of my own depression and integrating the ancestral patterns that laid the foundation for it in my life. I now come to you with a wide-reaching tool kit to support you in your journey.

Feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, or constantly tired? Are you struggling with a sadness that won't lift, losing interest in things you once loved, or trapped in a cycle of negative thoughts? I get it. Depression is tough. But with the right support, you can find joy again, rediscover motivation, and build resilience. As a clinical counsellor, I'm here to help you reclaim your life with compassionate, results-oriented therapy using proven techniques. Let’s take this journey together. Book your free 15-minute phone consultation today and start moving towards a brighter, more empowered future.

I know all about the deep darkness of depression and how to climb out of it. Depression can be brutal and isolating. First we need to be witnessed and understood in our pain in a safe comfortable non-judgemental space. Then we can learn tools and strategies to face the things that seem impossible to face. I will support you to take the steps necessary to improve your depression.

In Depression Counselling and Treatment, my approach is rooted in compassion, evidence-based techniques, and a deep understanding of the complex nature of depression. I work collaboratively with clients to create a safe and nonjudgmental space where they can openly explore their feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Through a combination of CBT strategies, mindfulness techniques, and tailored interventions, clients can expect to gain valuable insights into the underlying causes of their depression and develop practical coping skills. Together, we work towards reducing symptoms, increasing resilience, and ultimately helping clients regain a sense of control and well-being.

If depression could speak, it would say "why bother?" Depression leaves us feeling unmotivated, hopeless, and negative about ourselves and our potential. In counselling, I provide a compassion-focused approach to treating depression that will help you to increase your sense self-worth and build motivation to mobilize yourself. I believe that when treating depression, it is essential to explore emotions such as anger, guilt and shame that often perpetuate a defeated and empty state. Doing so can feel uncomfortable, but is ultimately liberating. Many of my depressed - even suicidal - clients report that therapy has helped improve their mood and take meaningful action in their lives.

Depression can color how we see the world, ourselves and other people. Activities that used to be fun are not fun anymore and doing small things can feel like a chore. We might lose our sense of meaning and purpose and struggle to motivate ourselves. I want you know that there is hope, even if you cannot fully feel it right now. When working with depression, I help my clients to develop skills to improve their mood . Sometimes making little changes can help you feel better, which results in hope and lead to more hope and create an upward spiral. I also always help my clients heal the roots of their depression since this is an important part of recovering from depression.

As human beings, we mostly ignore the flashing red engine light warning us that a tune up is in order. We put our heads down and keep going and before we know it we're just not functioning right. My role in helping you through depression is reconnecting you with your needs: emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, relational, and occupational, so that you become your best champion in meeting your needs and feeling more connected to yourself and others.

Depression drains your energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult to do what you need to feel better. But while overcoming depression isn’t quick or easy, it’s far from impossible. You can’t beat it through sheer willpower, but you do have some control—even if your depression is severe and stubbornly persistent. Recovering from depression requires action. But taking action when you’re depressed is hard. In fact, just thinking about the things you should do to feel better, like going for a walk or spending time with friends, can be exhausting. Getting the support you need plays a big role in lifting the fog of depression and keeping it away.

Depression can be experienced in a magnitude of ways and is often experienced differently by each individual. Symptoms may range from feeling increasingly irritable, experiencing a sense of emptiness and hopelessness, and an individual often will feel completely overwhelmed, losing interest in activities they once enjoyed. Depression may also be experienced physically. Physical symptoms may include, but are not limited to a lack of energy, problems sleeping, pronounced weight changes, and eventually, even serious illness. In cases of mild to moderate depression, there is an increasing amount of research supporting counselling as effective as medication in improving a person’s mood. Many clients have been referred to counselling by their family doctor when...(view profile to read more)

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.

Depression is now the number one cause of suffering in the world today (World Health Organization Statistics). Each person's story is different and there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to treating depression, depending upon the severity of symptoms. I assess and offer practical tools as well as create a safe and secure place and environment for people to come and talk to me about things that they may not tell anyone else because of the shame and stigma of depression. I am trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy as well as a number of other therapeutic techniques which have been proven to help with depression.