Depression Counsellor - James Pearson working in Bradford and Halifax

Depression Counselling

What is Depression Counselling?

A staggering number of people, at some point in their lives, suffer from Depression, or depressive episodes. It is a very common mental health condition which is not terribly well understood, but can be effectively managed with specific approaches to Counselling, or talking therapy, known to help with Depression.

One of the key elements of Depression Counselling is empathy, understanding, as much as is possible, what you’re going through. I’m here to offer space, to let you express how you feel, or just sit quietly. A kind of acceptance that allows you to feel how you feel, without judgement of criticism. An opportunity to finally breathe and put down the weight of what you’re carrying.

As a Humanistic Counsellor who offers Depression Counselling, you’ll find me promoting the importance of your own experience, and that is what we’ll work with. I’m here to listen with purpose, giving you my full attention at all times, to feel how it feels for, and with you, to be someone who walks alongside you as you explore what the Depression means, and perhaps what it is trying to tell you.

I’m happy to share that there are answers, there are brighter tomorrows and together we can seek them out at a pace that you’re comfortable with. I can also share that there are evidence based approaches to Depression Counselling, with which I am well versed, that are proven to help in many to most cases. They can work for you too. Let’s dig into some of the details here…

How can Counselling help with Depression?

In my experience, Depression comes at a time when something we want so badly, a need, a desire, a hope, is out of reach, or slips from our grasp. It can be a loss, a feeling of despair, of hopelessness. A personal depth so hollow that the world can feel empty, grey and meaningless. It is a truly miserable place that steals our hope and places it so far over the horizon, that we begin to question whether it was ever real in the first place.

Depression Counselling helps first by acknowledging this, or part of it, is how you feel. We’re not trying to mask over how you really feel, we’re meeting those feelings head on. Rather than deny how you really feel, we accept it, and together we discuss and explore what your Depression means, ever seeking cracks of light through which we can move. It takes time and the answers are not always immediately available. But they are there and they can be found.

One of the hidden benefits of Depression Counselling is having a fixed point in your week where you feel safe, welcomed, supported and acknowledged. Many people struggle to understand Depression and those closest to us and around us are not necessarily in the best position to offer the support you need. They may struggle to understand exactly how you feel. As an experienced Depression Counsellor, I am able to offer you a level of support that perhaps you can’t find elsewhere, and receiving that warmth from a trustworthy, impartial “third party” often feels like a safer position to work through your challenges.

Typical results of Depression Counselling

Depression means something different to each and every single person. It’s not for me to tell you how your Depression feels or even what it means. Together we can explore this by remaining curious. At first it might feel difficult to talk about, but for the overwhelming majority of clients I have worked with in Depression Counselling, the talking gets easier with each meeting. As you find solace in the process, the acceptance, the trust, the empathy and the warmth, so too will your feelings towards expressing how you feel more openly. As the discussion opens up, those cracks of light begin to appear - the light in your life, past, present or future, and I gently bring those back to your attention. Slowly, over time, or suddenly in a sudden burst, the light in your life pushes back against the darkness, and the Depression shifts, either a little, or a lot.

Does the Depression ever come back? Sometimes! And for those times, we can keep going, ever refining and adjusting our understanding of your experience until we can make sense of it in a way that satisfies you. Many of my clients who work with Depression Counselling find their answers and continue to explore other parts of their lives, seeking to use their new found self awareness in all aspects of their relationships with others and themselves. It can feel amazing when you get there.

Will it work for you? I’d like to say yes, and I believe wholly in your ability to achieve it. Whilst I cannot guarantee 100% that Depression Counselling will work for you, giving it time, not rushing things and making space to celebrate each victory, however minor, will go a long way to making the process successful and rewarding. As your Counsellor, I am 100% committed to getting you to where you want to be and I believe in you with every fibre of my being.

Signs you might need Depression Counselling

Depression can look like an “off day” or it can look like not being able to get out of bed, not being able to stand up after collapsing to the floor, not eating, not drinking, not speaking or feeling like you’re outside of your own body. There are no fixed descriptions of what Depression looks like. I think it’s safe to say that if you feel like your life is compromised by low mood, you have some form of Depression and Depression Counselling could help.

How we define our lived experience is a deeply personal thing and no two lives are the same. We all have our own incredibly personal world view, that’s what makes us human, that’s what makes us unique, and that is beautiful in its own kind of way. At the same time, that separates us, makes it hard to fully understand each other, to make sense of how other people act and react around us.

If Depression is a feeling of difference, of distance from our sense of OK self, it can be very hard to exist in that separation. Almost like there’s a war being fought between different parts of our mind and there’s no solution to hand. The desperation of wanting answers when there are none to be had, the perpetual intrusive thoughts ever circling in our heads, driving us to despair.

If any of the above feels familiar, the chances are that Depression Counselling could help. If something is bringing you away from where you want to be, who you feel you want to be or how you would like to feel, placing barriers in your life or creating friction in your day to day, you might be suffering with Depression and please know there are ways I can help.

What to expect in a Depression Counselling Session

My approach to Depression Counselling is talking therapy with or without the use of tools and models. As an integrative therapist, we can create an approach to your Depression Counselling that you feel will be effective for you. At any time you a free to ask me to adapt our approach, bring in more of something you liked, or less or what you didn't. Working with me in Counselling for Depression is more like a partnership where we set out on a journey of discovery as two people, walking alongside each other, agreeing how best to proceed at each fork in the road. It is not so much a fixed or “off the shelf” approach whereby you get served a package solution. In my view, no such solution for long lasting change exists and I would like for you to experience the benefits of our work together for the rest of your life, even after our work together comes to a end.

If you commit to bringing yourself, as you are, you are 99% of the way towards a successful therapeutic outcome. No pressure discussion between us is how we find our answers and at the start of each session, you are free to bring in whatever you feel is important for us to look at or discuss. Over time, I build an ever more accurate understanding of your experience and can offer ever more accurate reflections and revelations from which you can build new understanding of yourself. There are no demands of you here, only helpful, compassionate acceptance, and this is true from our very first meeting.

Who can benefit from Depression Counselling

Anyone can benefit from Depression Counselling. You might feel like it’s difficult to talk right now, or you don’t know what to say, or how to express how you feel. The beauty of my approach to talking therapy is that you get to go at your pace. We can speak as much or as little as you like in a session. If the going gets tough, we can slow it down, or if you’re ready to go, we can meet that expectation.

You might feel like you’re beyond hope, and this is very common with feelings of despair and hopelessness. It is an accurate reflection of the feelings you are experiencing but perhaps a cognitive distortion of the whole truth. A Depression Counsellor such as myself will always be on the look out for the inconsistencies or half truths that your Depression is trying to overpower you with. It is our task to peel off those layers, even if only one at a time, to rebuild your sense of who you are, your value, your worth and the opportunities that life still has to offer you.

I don’t believe that anyone is beyond hope, or hopeless. I do believe 100% that it can feel that way. There is a difference, and with Depression Counselling, I can bring hope for a brighter tomorrow.

The benefits and challenges of Depression Counselling

The benefits of Depression Counselling extend beyond getting by again. In our darkest hours, it is impossible to imagine or feel how a brighter tomorrow could look or be experienced. The very nature of Depression is such that it robs us of our capacity to feel. Depression can be more of a numbing, emptiness, a void into which boundless despair is poured. The truth is that yes, perhaps some of our experiences are so hard to bear, the pain so difficult to manage, that there will be days in our lives that are impossible to navigate. Another truth is that not all days will or have to be like this. There are an infinite number of possibilities in our lives and empowering ourselves to experience the full spectrum of the human condition is what provides us with lives well lived. Depression Counselling can be about finding the balance between the bad and the good, the easy and the hard, and as our capacity to cope increases, so does our capacity to explore and push our own boundaries. Imagine pushing back on the walls of a small box, slowly the box gets bigger and bigger and we feel more freedom to move around, until finally, the walls fall down and the world opens up again. We are then free to move in any direction we choose.

Depression will try to keep you in your box. Somehow, together, we find the strength to keep pushing.

Next steps

If you’re struggling with Depression right now, maybe it’s time to explore Depression Counselling. Together we can have a friendly chat about your personal experience with Depression, the effects it is having on your daily life and instil some hope for a better tomorrow.

Depression Counselling could be hard at the start, but please know that your commitment to making a change is an enormous leap forward and deserving of such respect and commendation. Reading this is a sign of courage and please do recognise it as such. Every little opportunity to acknowledge your bravery, resilience and achievement is worthwhile. We often believe that it is not. I am here to champion that it is.

Hope is a phone call away, perhaps today is the day you make that positive step forward? I’d be delighted to speak with you if it is.