Depression

What It Can Look Like

You often feel empty. It's not quite sadness, or tiredness but something deeper, hollower. Sometimes you can’t sleep and sometimes your bed feels like a place of refuge, and you can’t get up. You feel stuck, unmotivated and numb. Sometimes you can do the things you “should” do, but it does not seem to help. It feels like going through the motions. The worst part is sometimes you don’t even know why you feel this way because everything is “good” or at least OK. The is often no one specific thing you can point to explain your feelings which just makes you feel more hopeless and alone.

How I Can Help

I use Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) to help people learn how to accept their emotions instead of fighting against them and to figure out what their values are and what gives their lives meaning. I combine this with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which addresses unhelpful thought patterns, and elements of Compassion Focused Therapy to help client work through the feelings of shame, hopelessness and worthlessness that can are hallmarks of depression.

What it can look like.

You sometimes feel like a stage production where the house lights never dim and the spotlights keep focusing on the wrong things. You’ve wondered why you can never seem to get organized, finish what you started or concentrate. Your “to do” list is a mile long and so overwhelming you can’t even look at it. Even basic life tasks sometimes seem impossible. Sometimes the stars align and you are filled with energy. However, even this is a double edged sword as it often results in you hyper focusing on one thing or taking on too many tasks and ending up exhausted

How I can help

I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help my clients accept and adapt to the difficult and frustrating parts of navigating the world with ADHD. Anyone who has this diagnosis is probably quite familiar with the feelings of frustration and shame that accompany many ADHD driven behaviors. To address this, I incorporate elements of Compassion Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help my clients develop self- confidence, psychological flexibility and cognitive and behavioral strategies so they can feel more regulated and more in control. 

What It Can Look Like

Do you have problems falling asleep at night? Maybe you can get to sleep ok but you are awake for hours in the middle or the night, or you are groggy throughout the day.

How I can Help

I am trained to help with a variety of sleep conditions and difficulties. I am trained in cognitive behavioral therapy for Insomnia. I can also help you navigate your sleep difficulties using stimulus control, Image rehearsal therapy, which helps with nightmares, and other cognitive behavioral strategies.

I can help with the following sleep problems:

• problems getting to sleep

• problems staying asleep

• chronic pain impacting sleep

• ADHD impacting sleep

• insomnia

• anxious thoughts

• hypersomnia and hyposomnia due to depression

• PTSD nightmares

• Feelings of claustrophobia when wearing a CPAP mask

What It Can Look Like

Everything feels dauting. Your whole system is screaming at you that something will go wrong, that you won’t be able to handle the future, you will make a mistake. That you can’t trust good things. Sometimes it is manageable, a low-level feeling of restlessness that you do your best to ignore. Sometimes panic arises seemingly without cause; your body responds with shallow breathing, a quickened heart rate and a sudden desire to flee. You feel hijacked by the feeling of doom. You tread cautiously in everything you do; you start avoiding more and more situations that cause you to feel anxious in order to try and stop the feelings but they just seem to keep getting worse.

 How I Can Help        

I use a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness and Compassion Focused therapy to address “safety strategies” that reinforce anxious feelings. I work with my clients to help them address unhelpful thoughts, develop psychological flexibility and self- confidence and to experiment to find strategies to help them navigate their emotions with more ease.

What It Can Look Like

You stare at your To-Do list, and you feel exhausted just looking at it. Even when you are “resting” the voice in the back of your head is still reminding you of everything else that needs to be done.  And it is not just the list, it’s all the people you care about and all the things that use to mean a lot to you but now you are just tired. You find yourself feeling irritable, checked out and disconnected. Small disruptions are major inconveniences. You have enough of a load to hold, there’s simply no anything else. Tiredness drags at you even when you do try and rest and your body is starting to feel the exhaustion too. Aches from your head to your feet, disrupted digestion, lack of appetite—and that’s when you’re not sick with illnesses that seem to be increasing in frequency. You feel wrung out, empty- a bone deep exhaustion that goes beyond simply being “tired”.

How I Can Help

I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy to help people figure out how to make life’s responsibilities once again feel sustainable. Some common patterns that drain people’s energy are rumination, feelings of over responsibility, intolerance for uncertainty, feelings of shame and perfectionism. I use a eclectic approach to therapy to help client’s address these unhelpful behaviors, develop psychological flexibility and find meaning in life.  

What It Can Look Like

You feel simultaneously on edge and like you are not always fully present in the moment. Often even when you are exhausted you can’t rest because memories and images intrude on your thoughts and your dreams. Sometimes it is one event, one situation played on a loop; other times it can be snapshots of a lifetime of abuse and difficult situations. You feel irritable and you find yourself withdrawing from your friends and family. You try and numb your feelings because that feels safer than the feelings of fear, panic and anger that sometimes hijack your system. Your physical body hurts and feelings of guilt, shame, and fear, seem to always be hanging in the shadows, making the path forward feel uncertain.

How I Can Help

I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people to face and process the emotions around their circumstances and to find meaning in their lives again. I integrate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into my treatment plans to help address unhelpful thoughts and ruminations and utilize EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help process any traumatic events and address negative beliefs that came about because of those experiences. EMDR can also be used to help address flashback and nightmares.