Depression

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1. Hope. Depression is treatable! Many people have healed from the hurts and frustrations that have fueled their depression and we believe you can too. Research shows that when a person participates in either therapy, a prescription for medication, or a combination of the two they can successfully treat their depression.
2. Get to know you and assess your current situation. We greatly value your perspectives and hopes for your life, so you will notice that we ask lots of questions to better understand your situation and how we can be the best help to you and those you care about the most. 
3. We create a plan together. Because we trust your understanding of yourself, and also trust our knowledge about depression, we like to work with you as a team to create a plan that will successfully treat your depression.
4. Treatment: We use specialized approaches to treating your depression. We have found clients notice marked improvements when they actively participate in a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), bibliotherapy, and EMDR (along with other treatments). We also use scored inventories to track your progress. 
5. Follow up. After you have successfully completed a course of treatment, it is very normal to schedule some booster sessions to help you maintain the gains you experienced during therapy.

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10 common symptoms of depression:

1. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. A bleak outlook—nothing will ever get better and there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation.
2. Loss of interest in daily activities. You don’t care anymore about former hobbies, pastimes, social activities, or sex. You’ve lost your ability to feel joy and pleasure.
3. Appetite or weight changes. Significant weight loss or weight gain—a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month.
4. Sleep changes. Either insomnia, especially waking in the early hours of the morning, or oversleeping.
5. Anger or irritability.  Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent. Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerves.
6. Loss of energy.  Feeling fatigued, sluggish, and physically drained. Your whole body may feel heavy, and even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete.
7. Self-loathing. Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes.
8. Reckless behavior. You engage in escapist behavior such as substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports.
9. Concentration problems. Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things.
10. Unexplained aches and pains. An increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain.

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A Few Tips to Manage Your Depressive Symptoms:

1. Choose to treat or manage depression. One of the first questions I ask people when they say: "I just want to be happy again..." is "When?" "When do you choose to start working to change your circumstances?" Depression is real, and treating your depression is also real and requires a choice to manage and treat it.
2. Journal at least 3 - 5 things you are grateful for each day.
3. Journal one positive experience you have had in the last 24 hours.
4. Exercise. Take time each day to do some form of physical activity even if it is just for one minute.
5. Meditation. Often our thoughts drive our depressive symptoms. When we meditate it reminds us we are not our thoughts and that we do not have to attach ourselves to our thoughts.
6. Random acts of kindness each day. Sometimes people view themselves as kind people who end up doing kind things most days. We invite you to take the next step and to meditate each day on the idea: "Who can I do something nice for today and what can I do for them?" and then go out and intentionally do the revealed action that same day.
7. Read from spiritual texts. If my work as a therapist has taught me anything, it has taught me there is a spiritual essence to people, and when we nurture that part of us we tend to enjoy just a little more happiness, peace, and rest in our lives. So pull out the Bible, the Torah, Quran, Tao Te Ching, or Buddhist Sutras and take time to read from them each day. Some poetry also contains images and concepts that connect us to a greater sense of wellbeing. 

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