Depression Counseling in Leonia, NJ.

I believe that depression is nature’s way of shutting us down when there is some element in our life or our past that overwhelms and burdens us. It is often something experienced that our usual ways of coping cannot remedy. A client experiencing depression is often ‘turning off’, ‘shutting down’ and going inward in response to something in their life or in their relationships that is just too much to bear. I help depressed clients discover what it is in their life that is overwhelming them and help them find the strength and power to directly face the matter that is causing the turn inward and the shutting down.

Depression is exhausting and isolating, but it’s also highly treatable with effective psychotherapy. My approach is collaborative and gentle, and I believe that healing happens when we feel connected and supported. I integrate a variety of therapeutic techniques including CBT, mindfulness and insight oriented interventions. I help my clients alter thoughts and behaviors that exacerbate depression, improve their relationships, and address underlying and unresolved feelings that lead to depressed mood. Together, we can help you through and out of your depression to live a balanced and happy life.

In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for depression, we address negative thought patterns and behaviors contributing to your feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Together, we identify distorted thinking and replace it with more realistic, balanced thoughts. Through structured exercises and homework assignments, you'll learn coping skills to manage symptoms and challenge depressive beliefs. We also focus on behavior activation, gradually reintroducing enjoyable activities and routines into your life. With CBT, you'll gain tools to break free from the cycle of depression, cultivate self-awareness, and develop healthier ways of thinking and behaving, leading to long-lasting relief.

I leverage a solution-based approach to clearly outline your primary challenge, work through an exercise to meditate on and define your future state and then work over 8 sessions to achieve it via homework and 1:1 sessions. Clients have experienced great success with this approach, my goal is to empower you - YOU have the answers and I want to help you find them.

I address depression by exploring its roots in childhood. What were the negative influences that made you believe things would never get better? What made you feel it was pointless to try? Where does your low self-esteem come from? Together, we can identify these factors and how they affected you, and then question their validity in your present circumstances, as an adult with adult capabilities. In addition, I will teach you coping strategies, including mindfulness practices, self-compassion and self-care, that will help you reduce depressive symptoms on a day-to-day basis.

My approach attacks depression by quickly focusing in on the primary cause of depression. I show people how their current beliefs about their adversities, past and present, are the primary cause of depression. I teach people how it is well within their power to adopt, without delay, alternative beliefs that help them cope with and prevail over these adversities. I also show my patient how to feel worthwhile and adequate even if she is depressed and performing poorly in life. Often self-downing goes with feelings of depression and makes for depression over being depressed. REBT tackles the rut of depression by attacking both the original and the secondary feelings of depression.

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.

I have compassion for couples who come in when one or both are struggling with an overall lack of satisfaction and motivation. I help couples identify those “triggers” that affect their relationship and cause low mood, and to develop coping skills to self-regulate. My couples' clients report that they are able to sense and identify relationship mood fluctuations as a result of our therapy sessions. I also refer them to individual therapy providers so they can get support outside of our couples' sessions. I treat the couple, not individuals.If you are currently feeling suicidal, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.

If you have a pulse and a heart, you have been sad. Using the science of happiness rather than standard interventions for depression we focus on increasing positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms. In using these interventions with clients I have noted the effects of these interventions in a variety of settings. In informal and clinical settings these interventions have commonly been reported to me and referred to as “life-changing.”

Sometimes depression is a chronic feeling of loss of energy, sadness, and inability to take action. At times, it can be triggered by certain situations in life. Depending on the specifics for an individual, help may consist of working with internal beliefs or may consist of working to improve a life situation, or a combination of these. I get to know the client, finding out how they experience the depression, what is going on in their life, what may have first started the depression, and what thoughts they experience. I can also work in conjunction with a psychiatrist where needed. Therapy interactions help the client see and embrace more positive and effective thoughts and energies.

You can find a way to eliminate depression, get depression help with depression counseling, and jump start your life. Depression is not just emotional it is physical as well. The exhaustion and fatigue can be the hardest part. We will work on becoming more connected to your life and your loved ones. When this happens you will get a renewed sense of energy and begin to feel good once more.

Clients struggling from feeling emotionally hurt, isolated, selfish, helpless, or hopeless can gain insight into symptoms and treatment of depression. Clients can learn emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal relationship skills and heal from past painful experiences that may influence current thoughts and belief systems in an unhealthy way.

Someone once said that depression "can't hit a moving target". Unfortunately, it also makes you so tired you can't move! Your experience of depression, and the solution is likely as unique as you are. Often treatment includes exploring patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that may be holding you back. There is life after depression. Together we will gently explore the cause of your experience, and discover the best approach for you. I am trained and certified in several evidence based practices to treat depression.