It’s normal to feel sad, but when those feelings persist, they become debilitating and interfere with our ability to cope or engage in daily life. The fear that this dark hole of hopelessness will never change can be exhausting, and with some people, can lead to thoughts of suicide.

More than 16 million people in the U.S. and more than 264 million people worldwide, of all ages, suffer from depression, and yet many people never seek the necessary treatment because they ignore or overlook the symptoms.

Maybe you’ve experience them. Reduced energy leading to diminished interest in activity for at least two weeks? Or maybe you’ve had feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt? Continuous indecisiveness or diminished ability to concentrate, or obsessive rumination, can also play a part. With depression, you can suffer from anxiety symptoms, including disturbed sleep and appetite, restlessness, and fatigue.

More than just experiencing sadness, depression can rob you of vitality and sense of aliveness. It can make getting out of bed or going to work feel like an enormous task. Clouding all of life is this sense that nothing matters.

There Is Hope

No matter what your specific experience with depression, I want you to know there is a way through — you can feel better. Depression is treatable, and one-on-one counseling is one effective means of treatment. Calling me will be your first courageous step toward healing.

Depression is a sign that something is off. The pain you have experienced, manifesting as depression, is something to express. Depression is not a disease to be eradicated, but rather an opportunity to awaken the heart, mind, and body and deeply reconnect with yourself and what is hurting.

When depression sets in, a part of you has been cut off from yourself and the world at large. Your lived experience, which has the potential to be wide and vast, has been shrunken down, pressed into a dissatisfied version of yourself.

As a Contemplative Psychotherapist, I view depression as a loss of heart — a loss of a part of us that is most tender and open to the world. Together, we get familiar with how your experience of depression feels. We can give it space to be accepted and honored for the message it has to offer. Together, with mindfulness and compassion, we bring warmth and attention to the parts of you that need to be grieved or let go, and then we begin to connect with and unearth the parts of you that want to be seen again, understood, or lived out.

I want you to know you have the ability to meet the emotional aspects of your depression, allow it, and be able to feel safe in your body as you transform your suffering to live a more fulfilling life. Take the next step and call me. The sooner you do, the sooner you can access relief and joy, and explore your desire to reclaim your well-being.